January 25 – “Mom’s Address Book”

Church was pretty interesting today.  We had a good group there, and today was the kickoff for our big three week discernment meeting.  For three weeks we're going to brainstorm ways we can see God at work around Seaside.  He has begun to trust us with some large amounts of money from out of the blue, so we need to figure out how he best wants us to use it for his glory.  We're hoping this will be a catalyst to get some of our Seasiders who are back in town, back in.   When we got home I went downstairs to clean up some of the storm "souvenirs" we are trying to save.  I finished up the notebook we developed detailing the history of my neck and shoulder surgeries.  Had to get it out of the three ring binder and wrap it in a file folder with some rubber bands.  Guess it'll find its place in one of our future storage boxes of medical records.  Right now it's kind of lonely.   The second thing I cleaned up was Mom's old address book.  It was one of those things that Chris knew Mom would want back when we were emptying out the house.  It managed to stay hidden for several days, though.  It made its way to the front door under a huge pile of stuff that didn't look like it would make it.  Most of it didn't.  Chris saved this book, though.   And what a book it was.  It didn't just have phone numbers in it.  It was a historical record of at least ten years of Mom's relationships.  There were phone numbers and addresses of neighbors, friends, and family.  It had a Christmas card list for each year.  Who she sent a card to.  Who she received one from.  I turned another page and there was a list of everything she gave as a Christmas gift and who she gave it to.  Across the page from it was what she received that year and who from.  It had a page for anniversaries, one for birthdays, and even a place to record when people died.  I felt like I was like reading through one of those old family Bibles with the genealogies in them.  I was going to put in here one of those Old Testament genealogies out of Numbers.  You know, who begat who begat who.  But for some reason I kept going back to these two verses.  Don't know why.   Psalm 1:1 – "Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers."     Jeremiah 17:7-8 - "But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.  It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green.  It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit."   Father, I want to be like one of those trees with green leaves and strong roots and no worries.  Help me to trust you.  Amen.