I received a very nice comment on one of my blog posts. In it was the statement, “I don’t know who you are, but…” It reminded me of a story I read about a mother and her grown daughter. Most of their photos were stored in their phones, but one day the daughter came across an old photo album while visiting her mother. She found a photo in it of her mom as a sassy looking teenager and showing it to her mom she asked, “Who are you?” She only knew her mother during the wife and mom stage of her life. That photo prompted them to compare their teen years and they became even closer to each other as a result.
It was no surprise that a stranger from across the International Date Line (the comment was posted the day after I was reading it) did not know me. My name is very common and I have never done anything to deserve public attention or notoriety. However, anyone who reads all of my blog posts will get to know me very well.
All of this made me think, “Who am I – really?” I am the nine-year-old child recovering from the measles, holding my mother’s hand and my breath as we felt our way through thick smoke and trees to our nearest neighbor while our home and everything we owned burned to the ground. I am the boy of eleven who tearfully knelt at the altar of a church and gave my heart and my life to Jesus Christ. I am the young airman making it through basic and two tech schools before serving 18 months on Okinawa and another 15 months on Crete. I am the nervous young groom watching the love of my life slowly walk down the aisle with her father. I am the maturing husband through 50 years of marriage whose wife stayed by my side through thick and thin. I am the wound nurse, caregiver and advocate for my wife as she fought cancer and MRSA infection. I am the widower whose wife went on ahead of me to heaven leaving me in God’s hands until we reunite. Most importantly, I am still the child of God that I became 66 years ago. Yes, I am all of those things and much, much more.
“Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained by living a godly life.” (Proverbs 16:31) “The glory of the young is their strength; the grayhair of experience is the splendor of the old.” (Proverbs 20:29) We are the sum total of all of our experiences throughout every stage of life. It has been said that every time an elderly person dies an entire library of information is lost. I don’t know about that, but I do know there is a whole lot more life and experience inside us than you can imagine just by watching the limitations of our old, worn out body. If you are blessed with Christian parents and grandparents who are still living, take advantage of that blessing by asking them to share their life experiences with you. You may even want to record them or write it all down afterward. Be sure to pass them on to your children and grandchildren along with your own experiences and wisdom. Don’t let those stories and wisdom be lost.
Now you know why I share so much of my life with you in my blog. I have no children, so you are my adopted child or grandchild. I hope you get as much pleasure from reading about my experiences as I do writing about them.