Remembrance

This morning I attended a funeral service for a man in our church.  That makes two funerals in four months--no fun at all.  Any death makes me think of Jamie and well it still hurts a lot. 

Anyways, earlier this week as the boys and I were praying I prayed for the Alvarado family.  Afterwards the boys asked why.  I said, "remember I told y'all Mr. Alvarado was in the hospital."  They nodded.  I continued, "he died and is now with Jesus, but his family is really sad so we need to pray for them."  Jeffrey said, "when someone is going to die just take a picture and write their name on it so you won't forget."  I laughed a little and told Jeffrey you could do that as I thought you never know what a 4 year old will say.  And I didn't think anything else of his comment till today.  When you die do you want people to remember what you did, what you said, how you looked and your name?  Or do you want people to remember the love, joy, peace, & grace that flowed through your life from God?  When others remember my life I want them to think of God's love and the name of Jesus.  Isn't that what life's all about? 

This also makes me think of Christmas.  When your children are grown and think back to their childhood Christmases do you want them to remember all the gifts or that you celebrated Jesus's birthday?  We do several different things to keep the focus on Christ.  We bake a birthday cake for Jesus.  This year Jackson decided with a little help from Jeffrey that we would bake a chocolate round cake with white icing and sprinkles with a baby Jesus on top.  We read scripture each night during Advent.  We give the boys three gifts just like Jesus received.  We read the Christmas story for the book of Luke on Christmas morning.  And we talk a lot about why we celebrate.  Our carpool buddy (4 yrs. old)  now gets in the van saying I already know why we celebrate Christmas because she knows it is going to be talked about.  These are simple things that help your kids and all of us remember Christ.  It is not to late to change your focus from "stuff" to Christ.