Greetings all and Happy Sabbath!  Just a reminder we will have Sabbath School in three congregations after services tomorrow.

Busy Week

This past week was a rather busy one.  On Sunday, we drove up to Columbus, OH to see my nephew and niece's new home (and watch a little football).  We then went drove down to Cincinnati that night and spent the week with my mom.  

As you know, I have the opportunity to teach the Post-Exilic Module at Ambassador Bible College, which in essence, covers the books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther.  We go at a rather rapid pace, covering all three books in about nine hours time.  While that is a lot of work (and a lot of fun), it was only a small part of the 'busy-ness' of this past week. The real fun began when we began cleaning some things out from my mom's house!

A long trip

The longest journey this week was not the drive up to Ohio and back, but the trip down memory lane.  It's not just the house I grew up in, it's a home where a family was raised.  Memories of family gatherings, old Feast presents, and even dealing with life's traumas were in abundance.

As the transition for this phase of life begins, and the work associated with cleaning out a home starts, it's natural that we spend some time on memory lane.  There were lots of stories, laughs and tears shared in that old house this week.

The profound lesson

Among the more precious memories came when looking through some of my parents old notebooks from church.  Moisture had taken their toll on them and they were no longer salvageable, but still, it was hard to let them go.  As I reluctantly took them to the trash, I came to a sudden realization: the notebooks themselves weren't what was valuable.  It was the lives lived by the people who took the notes that were truly special.  

All physical things are subject to decay - paper, steel and even the human body.  But the learning, growth and overcoming that take place on life's journey, these are truly things of value that will last for eternity.