A little preview of April celebrations.....

I have been thinking about my family a lot during the last couple of weeks.  My birth family.  My mom and dad and my sisters and brothers.   Recently I was telling someone about my relationship with my mom and dad that was very different from my siblings.   And that is why I thought about the above picture of my dad.   This picture was taken in 1980.  It was the 80th birthday of my dad's sisters Agnes and Alice.  My dad, his sister Mable and sister Svea are standing behind the twins.   My dad was the youngest in his family - his siblings were 20, 17, 13, 13 and 8 when he was born.  (If you have read my previous blogs you might remember that my dad had two additional siblings that died the year he was born - brothers who would have been 18 and 6)  His siblings were mostly grown by the time he started school.   And because I was the youngest in my family, that was true for me also.  In many ways I experienced my mom and dad very differently than my siblings.  After we moved to Illinois when I was in 8th grade, my dad's job changed and he stopped traveling as much.  When he did travel, he often took my mom along.  And in the summer, I also got to go along. 

One of my very favorite memories with my mom and dad was a trip that we took in July of 1969.  I am totally sure of the date of this trip because I watched the moon landing in a motel room in Green Bay Wisconsin, with my mom and dad.  On that same trip, we drove into upper Michigan.   It was a really memorable trip for me.  On that trip I got to talk to my parents about their growing up years.  And I remember thinking that this was a very special time and I was blessed.

You know, there are many many things that I never talked to my mom and dad about.  And I regret the many missed opportunities to learn from them.  But I will continue to celebrate the memories and the fun.  I love that my dad continued to be close to his siblings for his entire life.   He made sure that I knew my aunts and uncles.  And he valued and treasured his family.  That is a great gift.

Jesus, thank you for helping me to remember and celebrate all that you have given me in my mom and dad.  Thank you for memories and pictures and connections to the past.   Holy Spirit, remind us all to treasure the little things from our pasts.  Help us to connect the dots from our past generations into the future.  Keep me on the path of celebrating and remembering!   Amen