Making Memories

As seen in the HEARTbeat and the Village Voice

Making Memories

            How often do you take a trip?  How often do you do something special?  How often do you do something so profound you wonder how you did it?  Very valid questions to say the least.

            I would often use the phrase with my girls when they asked, “Where we going, Dad?”  I would say, “We’re going to make memories,” and that we did.  My youngest daughter and I have had some pretty deep discussions lately.  We talk, we laugh, and she brings to mind the times when we did special things together.  To me they were insignificant, but to her they were priceless, like me laying under a car while she handed me tools.  Of course, they were the wrong ones at first until she learned.  Or taking them to a little pond and fishing.  What seemed so simple to me was an extraordinary event which made a lasting impression.

            Recently my best friend of 45 years passed away.  I was traveling down the road in my car, the same road I traveled when I would go visit with him.  I found myself thinking of the times we spent together, the side jobs we did together all the way back to the day we first met in college.  Suddenly I found myself farther down the road than I intended.  I had taken a trip down memory lane and just for a few moments found some wonderful places.

            What memories have you made?  What special things have you done?  We all can remember where we were the day JFK was shot, or on the day the Twin Towers fell.  But here is an important question:  Can you remember the day you gave your life to Jesus?  Did you make memories that day?  Or how about the day you led someone to Christ?  Why are these events so special?

            One day we will stand before the One who died so we can have eternal life.  It is believed that our lives will be reviewed.  Now, don’t let that scare you.  Scripture tells us there will be no sadness or tears in Heaven.  What I believe will be reviewed are the special times we impacted the Kingdom of God, like the day we gave our life to Jesus or when we witnessed to a friend.  Yes, the review will be a happy one.

            Want to make memories that will last a lifetime, and even beyond?  Lead someone to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and change a life forever.  We can do things now that will resound through history, or as Buzz Lightyear said, “To infinity and beyond.”

            We may forget as we grow older, but the impact we have on others as we spread the Good News will never be forgotten by the One who knows every hair on our heads, Jesus.