My Pages in Time~

I have spent the better part of the day looking for something that I wanted to use in this devotional writing, I KNEW this particular item was put carefully away... SOMEWHERE!  I have so many items just like this one filling all the spaces where I keep things. I checked the drawers in my desk, the book case, the boxes I keep my little treasures in. I checked the big envelopes where I file things and put them away in a large plastic box and scoot it under my bed. I looked under the large calendar on my desk. In short, I've looked everywhere and still can't find it.
But while I was looking, I found lots of other “lost” items I've been saving. Things I don't want to lose. Things I just can't throw way.   There was a love-note from my granddaughter I found hidden in one of the envelopes placed there many years ago. She had drawn my picture as a "stick woman" and written, “I love you, Nana" . She was about five or six years old then. Now, she is grown and had her first baby two years ago... I could never throw that note away. I found  my mother’s birthday card  she gave me the year I turned fifty…Nothing of great importance is in it, but looking at her familiar handwriting brought tears to my eyes. I could never throw that away. I found lots of beautiful greeting cards from my family. Birthday cards, Christmas and Thanksgiving cards, Mother's Day cards, and each one has a personal note written inside. Lovely words expressing their love for me. I can't throw those away. Books and magazines are impossible to discard, especially the “Country Living,” with the beautiful snapshots inside its covers…One whole shelf of my bookcase is filled with these.
I found church bulletins I have written over the past seven years, programs of special events, ticket stubs; each one reminders of something special. I found newspaper clippings, handwritten notes someone slipped to me at church. There were several rough drafts of poems I was writing. I found small momentum's from people who have now gone to be with the Lord. Those things really brought tears to my eyes…
I found gift cards that had been attached to a bouquet of Valentine’s Day roses from my husband that said, "I love you." I can't throw those away.
There are dozens of things like these. Every time I start to "clean house" and discard "stuff", I start looking at them and I can't bring myself to throw them away. To anyone else these things are just junk and someday other hands may carelessly toss them in the trash. But not me! They represent people and times and places that were important to me, things that memories are built upon; pages of time!  And those memories are precious. So, I guess I'll just have to buy more storage boxes and envelopes.
Oh, look!  I just found this handmade Mother’s Day card from my little boy, I remember when it was ....May 1967, his first year of school…A page in time...
Does this strike a familiar chord with you? Are you wiping away a small tear now at the familiar reminders I am helping you to recall? Are you opening your memory book and going through your pages in time?

I admit I go overboard but there is some value in keeping these “Snips and Bits” of Yesterday. However, all of the memories are not sweet. I ran across a small envelope of death announcements of family and friends…I could NEVER throw those away.
Sometimes an object will stir up old feelings of pain, disappointment, anger, fear, grief, loneliness, and "baggage." Yet, I kept holding onto them. They reminded me that things were still not settled.  Forgiveness not granted? Nor asked? Attitudes, keeping me with a sore spot on my heart. Why do I continue to keep these? I suppose because they too are a part of my memories even if they do hurt.
I remember an unusual statement about King Saul on his coronation day. The Bible says ,  when they sought him, he could not be found.  They inquired of the Lord further, if the man should come thither. And the Lord answered, “Behold, he hath hid himself among the stuff." (1 Sam. 10:21-22)
 I wonder if I am not sometimes like Saul, hiding among the remains and ashes of my past. Am I afraid that should I say goodbye and lay stuff to rest will there be nothing in my future that will be worth living for? I think not. Memories are just that, memories. And they can continue to build with each passing day. They are here for us to enjoy, and the one thing I know for sure, the God of yesterday is the God of today, and He will be there tomorrow. 
He has wonderful treasures waiting for me in my “Tomorrow.”  Great promises are recorded in a beautiful book and signed, “HOLY BIBLE.” He didn’t hide it away in His stuff of yesterday and He is not saving it back for His tomorrow. It is here in my present and will be in my future; a marvelous gift from my "Father.”
  However, while I am still here on earth, I'll probably keep saving little items of love reminders; sweet tokens of my past, and kisses from my children in the form of paper and paste and signed with the words “From your loving granddaughter/grandson, or son, followed by, "I love you."
I still have not found what I was looking for, but I am sure one day while searching for something else I will find it...
 I thank God for the joys and the memories and eagerly reach for His hand to lead me through each day and into my tomorrow. My greatest treasure is to come. That is the way I see it.

Walk with God;
Mary Frances King