Thankful!

These past few weeks, my husband and I have been sorting through stuff in our basement. I have truly saved every note, card and letter (and bill and bank statement) I've ever received, which makes for some intense sorting. I have felt the whole gambit of emotions: annoyed (why did I keep all of my bills from my first apartment?), amused (wow, did we pass some stupid notes folded in odd, football shapes in junior high!) disgusted (ewwww...why did I save the foot from my frog dissection in high school?). But most importantly, throwing all of these things away has given me a great chance to see what has happened in my life in the past 20 years. Many people have been born or died, many have married or divorced, many have grown up and many were at one time very prominent in my life but have gone our own ways since. Letters from my in-laws when we lost our baby, notes about our wedding, a newspaper clipping from a great weekend in Washington DC, letters from my aunt with whom I was so close. It's been both happy and sad.

When I saved these memories, I promised myself that I'd go through them and toss them by the time I was 40. And as I approach that milestone next summer, I'm doing as I said. But over the years that I saved them, I knew that I would have these very experiences. In 1994, as I tossed the baby baptism announcement about my niece into a box, I knew that someday I'd look on that and smile. That niece is 16 now, and I did! There is so much that the younger me knew the older me would cherish.

And so I realize today how thankful I am for the chance to see how cheap my bills were in my first apartment, I'm thankful to chuckle at junior high "problems", and even my frog's foot! I am thankful to the me who has persevered in saving, to my husband for moving these momentos 3 times in our time together, and to everyone who wrote to me over the years. The memories have been priceless!

Thank you, Lord, for building my life as you have. You planned me long ago, and I am grateful for the memories I have. Sometimes it's been hard to know where I'm going or why, but it is neat to look back and see it woven together.

"You have searched me, LORD, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain." Psalm 139:1-6