Memories Come Flooding Back

As time flies by you hardly realize that you have changed. Other than a few creaks and groans – I am the same. At least I think I am the same.

Have you found that to be true in your life?

The other day some one sent me this old photo. I am the young guy in the photo with dark hair – kneeling in the front row – right side. My wife is the young lady standing on the left – with the brown hair - yellow shirt.

The kids in the photo with us are members of a Kid’s Club that was part of the small church in Yorkton, Saskatchewan – the First Avenue Pentecostal Church. If my memory serves me right we were having a sleep over at the church and breakfast the next morning.

Today a number of these “kids” are married with children of their own. One younger member of the group is now in Afghanistan as a Canadian soldier. His mom is the young lady standing on the left with the dark hair. The potential of this group was amazing and many have gone on to start new careers and touch other lives. (I only wish that I had kept closer contact with them over these years.)

At a wedding this summer some one took our photo. Yikes! What happened to Alida and me? Our hair turned white – OVER NIGHT! We are so much older in this shot than the photo that arrived this week. There are many more groans now and lots more creaking as we get up and get down. This is now serious. We aged.

But Oh, the Memories that we have. Time has not stood still. We are enjoying this life to the fullest – while we have it.

This next photo taken just one year ago is terribly out of date now. The grandkids are all much taller now. In the photo I am standing in the back with my two daughters, Dana on the right, and Anda on the left in the photo. In front of us are my six grandkids. They are lined up according to age. There is Clifford on the right and back. Then there is Jonathan, Thomas, Emma, Michael and finally Christopher. None of these grandkids existed when the person took our photo at Yorkton’s First Avenue Pentecostal Church. Their moms were not even married yet!

The grandkids are filling our thoughts and lives with new memories. These memories are full and very funny. Christopher, the littlest one in the front of the photo, comes out with the most profound statements at times. He is 5 years old now.

A few weeks back he and his brothers were sitting at our dinning room table eating with us. There is a large photo hanging on the wall. It is of my wife and me with our two daughters. It was taken around the same time that the Yorkton First Avenue Pentecostal Church photo was taken (about 1991 or 1992 – Only 14 or 15 years ago). There was a pause in the conversation around the table for few minutes. Christopher looked at the photo on the wall, and then looked back at grandma, then at the photo again and then back to grandma. In his small voice he said, “Grandma, you are old.”

Thank goodness he was looking at grandma! Maybe he never even recognized me – that is even more sobering.

But with all of that we have wonderful memories. We have collected them over all these years and with them we add more each day.

How about you? How is your memory collection today? Why not dust off a few and enjoy them right now? Maybe someone will shock you back to the past too? Savour while you can.

~ Pastor Murray ~

PS – this last photo is from the dark ages of black and white – long, long ago before digital cameras were ever dreamed about… The two young people in the middle are Murray and Alida Lincoln. The date was September 9, 1967 (last century) and they had been married about 30 minutes at this stage. So many memories… so many.