I spent three days in Pryor and am now home.  Worn out.  Frazzled.  But it was fun.  The 1956 high-school reunion was interesting.  Everyone there--but me--was old!!  People told funny stories, ate too much food, and every time someone came in the door, someone would ask, "Now.....who are you?" and they would answer, "I'm Bob, or Sue......who are you?"  And then one of them would say, "You look the same as you always did," and everyone in the room would laugh.  

The best part of the weekend was going to my former church.  Everyone was so glad to see me--which was nice.  I got a zillion hugs but the best part was that everyone told me how great I looked--you never stop being a vain woman, just give us a compliment.

The thing about a church stretched over a lifetime is that you have helped raise each other's children, got their teenagers through a few scrapes (when their parents threw up their hands in despair), helped each other through tragedy, sickness, difficulties, took a million casseroles to help someone out, and loved each other forever and a day.  It's a like family reunion on steroids.  Wonderful.  I can't imagine what heaven is going to be like.

I will never have another church like that one.  The secret is to start going when you are young.   But it is never too late to start.  You can't find that kind of love anywhere else.  Once you serve the Lord together, learn to forgive each other for their rough edges, help each other through the bad times and celebrate their good times...you bond.  It was encouraging to see so many young couples there with their children, starting that life journey by going to church with their families.  Through the years, I've watched people try other paths that end up sad.  So sad.  You have to make a commitment to take a different path if you want to end up where you want to go.  And at the end of the day, at the end of our lives, let's hope we choose the right path so that we will end up with God.

I am amazed at how short life is.  Right in the middle of living it, it vanishes.  Way before we are ready.  "Once I was young, and now I am old.  Yet I have never seen the godly abandoned or their children begging for bread."  Psalms 37:25