May 28, 2025
She searched for hours. “Where could it have gone,” she asked? For two days she hunted high-and-low, yet the box wasn’t to be found. There was no way that container, and all its treasured memorabilia, had been discarded into the trash-heap of time.
It has to be somewhere in the house,” I quipped. Did you look in the basement, in all those tucked away totes?” Sure enough, minutes later, battered tote in hand, Danielle found them all. Her sigh of relief was audible.
My wife has always been a good saver of precious memories. Me, not so much. In retrospect, I’m grateful for her penchant to hold onto those things that one day just might be considered invaluable. The item in question was our daughter’s baptism certificate. It, along with other irreplaceables, was tucked away safe-and-sound, just waiting to be found.
Danielle scoured through the old tote to see what other memories it contained: a scrapbook from her high school years; pictures of mine that I snapped during my shipboard days; and even the first birthday card I gave to Danielle in February 1987 – a handmade treasure created by me and my two best buds (Pete & Mike). As my wife and I reminisced and laughed together, I said the obvious, “My goodness, time sure does fly.” Among all those toted treasures were pictures from Prom 1987. How young we were, I thought.
That prom was our one and only as we had just met the summer before. That evening was the first of many fond memories we’ve shared together. As we reminisced about that night: Danielle and I, Mike and Becca, and all our classmates gussied up, we supposed that dance was about 38 years ago this week.
Four colleges, two cruises, one war, and five short years later, we were married on the anniversary of D-Day at Nativity Lutheran Church in St Anthony, Minnesota. This June will mark 33 years of marriage and 39 years together; including, one year together with our current congregation in Comfrey, Minnesota.
It seems like yesterday when we pulled into the driveway with our pups in tow. How so much has changed since then. Our daughter flew off to Korea; our grandson was born; and our baby-girl graduated college. We celebrated the baptisms of a few children and shed many tears over the loss of departed loved ones. We never conceived a year ago that we would’ve lost my mother-in-law; and we couldn’t imagine how being grandparents would bring us so much joy.
Job, a man who lost it all but whom God restored, once said: “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle” (Job 7:6). That they are. The older I get, the more I realize how precious our days are. For me anyway, I don’t want any of them to go to waste; I hope to store them all like treasures in a tucked-away tote.
“My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle”
Years from now, when I’m much older, I hope to look back into the totes of time and reminisce about all the memories we’ve made with you. I hope that the tote includes pictures of the fun times we’ll share; of the babies we’ll welcome and baptize; birthdays and anniversaries honored; and yes, even the celebrations of life that inevitably will come.
It’s hard to think about the latter, but someday I too will go the way of Job and all the saints triumphant. Whenever that day comes, I hope my children will find tucked away a tote that contains treasured memories of my time with them, and also my time with you. Afterall, like my wife and children, you are treasures God has placed in my tote.
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