Sifting through the past...

Over the past few days I've the opportunity to sift through the past at Rob's cousins house.  Lillian passed away about 10 years (it doesn't seem that long ago, but it was.) I'm a sucker for nostalgia, so for the most part I look for heirlooms, letters, pieces of people's lives.  During the tornado cleanup this summer, we found letters from Rob's grandpa to his grandma and dad when he was in the service. We found pictures and mementos that are priceless and we treasure the fact that in that huge mess we were able to pick up those few precious pieces.  So as we went into Lillian's house over the past few days, not much was different.  I picked up Bibles that she had. That most people just tossed to the side. I picked up baptism certificates, grade cards that she had cared enough to save for over 70 years.

When I came home I was surprised to find in her Bible, letters to God tucked away. The letters were written in the 70's and tell so much of what was going on in her life at the time.  I found pieces of her history, like the fact that she was in 1944 training to be a pilot.  We knew this already, but she had a deep love for music and after all the things that we have found, I am left thinking that she just had a deep love for living life to the fullest! Experiencing everything and anything! Reaching for the stars!

She clipped newspapers and had I had the time, I could have found out what it was that she thought so intriguing in them.  But I did this in a small little wooden Bible from England.  A snippet she had clipped from a magazine or paper.

Things We Can't Afford

Regardless of the amount of wealth a self-respecting person possesses, there are things which he cannot afford. 

An unknown poet has enumerated a goodly number of such things in the following poem:

"We can't afford to win the gain

     That means another's loss;

We can't afford to miss the crown

     By stumbling at the cross.

We can't afford the heedless jest

     that robs us of a friend;

We can't afford the laugh that finds

     In bitter tears an end.

We can't afford the feast today

     That brings tomorrow's fast;

We can't afford the farce that comes

     To tragedy at last.

We can't afford to play with fire,

     Or tempt a serpent's bit;

We can't afford to think that sin

     Brings any true delight.

We can't afford with serious heed

     To treat the cynic's sneer;

We can't afford to wise men's words

     To turn a careless ear.

We can't afford to feed the flame

     And make it fiercer burn.

We can't afford for hate to give

     Like hatred in return;

We can't afford to lose the soul

     For this world's fleeting breath;

We can't afford to barter life

     In mad exchange for death.

But blind to good are we apart

     From Thee, all-seeing Lord;

Oh, grant us light that we may know

     The things we can't afford."

We certainly can't afford to be without Jesus Christ as our Savior, Lord, Advocate, Friend, High Priest, and coming Bridegroom.