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To know and be known <3

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I hope you had a good Thanksgiving and are working creatively to use up those leftovers.

We headed to Iowa for the services for Russ’s dad.

People were so kind to us in so many ways and we are deeply thankful for the love and prayers and support we received.

The service was sweet with hymns and prayers and Scripture and tributes from the pastor and Russ and his siblings.

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As we made the drive home on Saturday evening, I was thinking about different things family and friends had shared about this man that I met in the Student Union in late winter or early spring of 1980.

Russ and I were dating and his parents had come to town.

They were taking us for pizza and we were trying to find them in the labyrinth of this large building in the center of campus…

we didn’t have cell phones back then people…

so we did it the old-fashioned way by walking around hallways and stairways leading off of the lobby until we finally ran into one another.

I turned the corner of one hall and saw a nice man down the way who looked so much like an older version of my guy that I was pretty sure I had just seen Marion Reimer for the first time.

He smiled and sure enough, I had found my future father-in-law.

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I have my own memories of him over the next 36 years and they are all good.

As I listened to different people share their thoughts and stories, I pieced together more of who he was and what he had been like the years I didn’t know him.

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Sort of.

As I was mulling over all these snippets of information; I realized that  when we leave this earth, all that is really left is the impression we made on others.

We are remembered for the impact of our interactions with them and our contributions to things that affected them.

How we made them feel…or where we missed the boat…their memories of things we did…but from their perspective only.

The truth about who we were and what we were thinking, the motives of our hearts, the inner struggles, the conflicts, the woundings and the healings…these are all a complex mix that, in reality, even WE don’t fully understand.

The way I hope to be remembered…the things I tried to impress on those who were in my area of influence…the legacy I strived to leave to our family…

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is completely out of my control when I am gone…

and they are left to tell their story about my story.

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I will be remembered for how my actions and my motives were perceived by those whose lives were connected to mine along the journey.

We can’t pick and choose the memories others will have of us.

It got me thinking about Jesus.

I know.

And yes…most of my pondering does take me to that topic.

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I thought how I am always wishing there was more information about Him in Scripture — what He looked like, exactly.

How He said certain things….like, did He roll His eyes when He asked them why they were worried about not bringing bread when He had just fed a huge crowd with a kid’s lunch box?

What was His mood as they left Him that day at the well in Samaria to go find something to eat?

So many things that I would love to know more in greater descriptive detail.

And it hit me that the Bible doesn’t tell me what His disciples memories of Him were…or their impressions of Him….or their take on why He did this or said that.

Instead I just get the bare details in an account form.

Just the facts.

Exactly what happened, the way it happened…

no human interpretation…

no descriptive experience based on one of their perceptions.

Not four different takes on one man’s life…

just the Truth recorded in four Gospels.

The Bible isn’t a book about human memories and interpretations of the life of Christ.

It is God’s Story, recorded and documented, so that each of us can truth-fully encounter His Son in a personal way.

His-story that changes our story.

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As we enter the season of Advent, I hope we can set our hearts to experience Christ and know Him personally by digging into what the word says about the Word.

Let’s journey through Advent 2016 together…

encouraging one another as we determine in our hearts to know Him more <3

 

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