Marks Upon My Heart

Tours, France, 2008 (Wikimedia Commons)

I have a piece of cardboard cut to cover my desktop. It’s been here for several years, according to the notes on it. I’ve forgotten exactly when it went down, but there are notes written all over it.

“Kayla was here 1/21/06” and she’s in her third year away at college.

“Sam was here!” doesn’t have a date on it. She’s away, too. I don’t hear from her as often, but from Facebook I know that her young man has entered the service and she misses him.

“Stephenie wuz here!!” has an even stronger exclamation point and I must admit she’s had a great impact on my life.

There’s an unnamed “I wuz here 11/18/99” which could have been – it is possible this desk has been here since that date. And, that is a rather telling date – Second Daughter’s birthday is 11/18.

“Britney 6/23/99” attests to an even earlier date, and she left a drawing of a flower. I’m missing her. She has been in and out of our lives for a while.

Another left no name, just wrote “Rabbit Tracks” in an unmistakable handwriting. That would be Rae. She hasn’t been in my home often, but she has a full room set up in my heart.

The most prolific is “Amanda ….”, beginning with the times she wrote her name, no dates, through the time she wrote her married name. She’s the beautiful child that grew up and presented us our precious great-granddaughter.

The latest appears to be “Janice was here 4-3-10.” Not a young person this time, but my beloved sister-in-law, who sat here this last spring. While on their way to a new home in Ohio, her laptop died and she used this desktop.

There are some without names. “I love my Mommy (heart)” could have come from my First Daughter, or have been written by any of the above.

I am struck by the fact, too, that every one of the above have been in pews in our church. This is the extended family we’ve joined when we speak of the body of Christ.

So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. [Romans 12:5 KJV]

There are so many more who have not made it up my stairs into the loft corner to sit at this PC. Some of them I read on this machine. There’s Lisa, for whom we pray daily; Tina, who has led us in prayer in Sunday School, Ladies Meetings, Vacation Bible School, AWANAs; Nancy, who has opened her heart and her home to the widowed – and to every lady at our Christmas parties. That list stretches from here to heaven, where Miss Patty stands to meet us when we arrive.

I don’t know what message our Lord has in store for you from this time of remembrance from me, but it is what it on my heart first thing this morning, and that’s the way this blog has always been written. The only other Bible verse that continues to roll through my mind really is appropriate:

And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. [1 John 4:16 KJV]