I can watch videos of my grandkids over and over again.  It's why I take so many, I guess.  

There are videos my daughter posted of her baby giving big smiles.  I am certain I have watched that at least twenty times.   Maybe more.  Whenever I feel I have been working too much and need a break for a minute or two, I watch Noah smile big, big smiles.  He really gets into it.  His entire face gets involved in the action.  My favorite part is that he does it on cue.  "Can you give a big smile?"  And he does.  I'm sure it's because he is so smart.  

My granddaughter really enjoys singing so I have taken a couple of videos of her getting her groove on (we used to say this back in the olden days.)  She has arms swinging, eyes closed, head swaying as she sings "Mellow Yellow."  If she could snap her fingers, she would.  As it is, she just goes through the motions for it.  

So I watch her sing.  Over and over again.  

And videos of Ben playing with trains.  He doesn't even know I take them because he's so involved in his play.

Part of the reason I take videos is so that my grandkids have them.  You know, for the time of their lives when I am no longer here.  I know that sounds a big morbid, but it crosses my mind from time to time that I am not going to live forever.   So far... so good, but you never know if I can keep this up.

I want my g-kids to have a recorded memory of things we used to do for fun.  

It's why I have recorded those storybooks with my voice for each grandchild.   I don't want them to forget me.  I am have "Grandma's Journal" that I am filling out little by little for my grandchildren to have someday.  Memories of when I was a young girl.  Things I want them to know about me and what it was like back in the middle of the twentieth century.  

My dad did these things.  I realize how important they are, so I am doing them, too.

I doubt that the g-kids will forget any too soon.  My own grandmother passed away three months before the birth of my first child, so it has been more than 30 years.  Yet I think of her every July 8 which is her birthday.  I remember sitting on her swing trying to go high enough for my cousin's and my feet to touch the ceiling light fixture on her porch.  (Yes, we did get reprimanded for doing that.)   I remember playing Yahtzee with her.   Watching Lawrence Welch (it's how she pronounced it.)  And Saturdays she would make donut holes.   With lots of cinnamon sugar on them.   I know where Grandma kept her chocolates -- the good ones.   Grandma's house was a lot of fun to go to and we went whenever we could.  

Grandma always had ice cream bars.  Always.

I also remember Grandma and Grandpa would speak in German to each other when they didn't want you to know what they were talking about.  And it worked.  We were clueless.

I have driven past Grandma's house many times, even after the house was sold.  So many good memories were made within those walls.

I couldn't forget my Grandma if I tried.  

That's what I want my grandkids to do... not forget me if they tried.  I want them to remember that Nana and Papa had a house that was fun to go to and that they came whenever they could.   I want to make good memories in my house.  And record them so they can relive those memories any time they want.  I want them to drive by my house and think "remember when..."


Good memories.  It's why God created grandparents.  

The Bible tells us that we are to remember God and all of His benefits.  His blessings.   Psalm 103:2  Let all that I am praise the LORD; may I never forget the good things he does for me.  New Living Translation  

We are to go over the things He does for us, over and over in our minds.  Almost as though we had a video.  When we're down, replay that mind-video.  Recount all of the wonderful things He has done for us.  Not to forget a single thing.  

We are to recount His goodness over and over again.  

There's a good reason for that.  It's so that we don't ever lose sight of what He provides.  What He means to us.  How good He has been and will continue to be to us.

If only we were able to have videos of God's faithfulness.  His provision.  His love.  So that we never, ever forget.

Like Grandma's house.  Only so much better.  

There is some guy in a car in the parking lot across the street from my office who must be made of money.  I say this because he is sitting in his car revving the engine for who knows what reason.  Over and over.  And over.  Huh, you would think a guy with money to burn like that would have a nicer car... 

At the price of gas, he's really running up quite a tally.  Six dollars... seven... eight...

He doesn't really seem to pay much heed to the fact that the gas station down the street posts the premium fare of $3.79 a gallon for this golden liquid.  And I believe "golden" might be an accurate word here.

Nine dollars... ten... eleven...

Again and again he races the engine.  Blue smoke is coming from his tailpipe.  Well, not his tailpipe ... the car's.   The tachometer in his dashboard must be all the way to the "red-line-o'-danger" ...  twelve... thirteen... fourteen.

What a waste.

In my job I am developing something for Kids Church (my job is what I do when I'm not rambling on incessantly here) and it had to do with being a good steward.  You don't know what that is?  Let me 'splain it to you.

Every good thing we have comes from God.  The Book of James says so.   My money would fall under the category of "good thing."   We were given these things to have dominion over them ... to use them for the best things.  Perhaps even to make it grow, as in a bank investment, CD or the like.

Matthew 25 is about the man who went away and gave his property to three different people to care for it.  The parable of the talents.  One was given ten talents, the next five and the last one was given one talent.  Two of them were really good at making a profit.  One was not.  He wasted what the owner had given him by burying it in the ground.

Waste.  It's not how God wants us to spend what He has entrusted to us.  We are not to waste our time, our energies, our gifts, our abilities... nothing.  It is all to be spent wisely.  To be used for a greater purpose than just on us. 

Do we waste the abilities God has given us?  Do we throw away the good gifts with which we have been blessed?  Bury our talents so no one knows which ones we possess?  Possibly. 

Why would we do that?  Maybe it's so no one asks anything of us.  So we aren't asked to step up to the plate.

Ahhh... but here's something you probably don't remember.  We were all given whatever talents, gifts, abilities, our desires yes, even our experiences to make us who we uniquely are.  You are unique, just like everyone else.  And God has a plan for you (Jeremiah 29:11).  That plan includes all of those gifts, talents.... you get the idea.

You were designed to be someone God could use for His specific purposes.  Don't waste that good thing He has given you.

Don't be like the guy across the street (seventeen... eighteen... nineteen dollars) working on his car.   And yet the engine is revving as it has been all the while I have been typing away on this white screen. 

Trying to fill... and not waste... this space.

Last night I was working in the Children's Ministry room while an adult Bible study was going on in the fellowship hall.  I had the television on to watch old Veggie Tales videos as the kids were tired of playing and just wanted to rest a bit.  It was late.  They were tired.

One of the children wanted to watch "Larry Boy" so I found the video tape, that's right, I said tape, as in VHS.  I popped it into the video player, but alas, the tape had not be rewound by the last viewer.  Probably in 1999. 

One of the little boys became quite impatient waiting for the video tape to rewind.  He wanted to watch.  He wanted to watch now.  DVDs have taught our kids we just push a button and the magic of television comes to life.  Videos make us wait. 

The four-year old boy doesn't understand videos.  I don't know if he thought I didn't know what I was doing.... what on earth was taking so long?  He wanted to watch and he let me know as only a young child can (by saying it over and over and over) that he didn't want to wait.  Watch Larry Boy, watch Larry Boy....

I get it.  You want to watch Larry Boy.  

Finally, after what seemed to be a good twenty minutes, the video had rewound and we were able to push the play button.  The television screen was fuzzy for a moment, but finally the Veggie Tales theme song came to life.  The boys danced and sang along.  All was well with the world.  The boys and I were all thankful the tape was ready to play.

Change.  The world of videos has long gone except for the few homes which still have a video player.  In our home we have videos which tout the advent of movies coming in the summer of 1995.  Movies I have long forgotten are still in promo trailers on these relics.  I also have a DVD player and two blue-rays at home.... because they're just better than a VHS player.  And VHS tapes are a little hard to come by lately.

Time marches on.  Things change.   

But not everything changes.   God is the same today as He was thousands of years ago.  His faithfulness, His caring, His love and protection... all exactly the same as they were at the time of Moses.  Abraham.   Adam and Eve. 

His rules haven't changed much either.  Love God the most and love everyone else the way you love yourself.   Loosely paraphrased. 

Although I appreciate change with the advancement of things like Blue-Ray over VHS, I also love the fact that God's love for me never changes.  I cannot do anything that would keep Him from loving me.  It's impossible.  No matter how impatient I become, or how I might tend to ignore Him because I'm swamped at home.... He remains the same. 

I can do absolutely nothing that will put me outside of His ability to love, care and guide me. 

There's a lot of comfort found in that.  He is unchangeable.  And not only that, God is unable to change.  His love never ceases.  His mercy endures from generaton to generation.  His faithfulness... the same yesterday, today and always. 

And for that I am very thankful. 

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the
  heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17.