Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Best Laid Plans



This past week I finally went through all the boxes that have been stored in our spare room. Most of the boxes have been packed since we moved from our larger home in Phoenix, Arizona back in spring of 2008.  You know what was in most of those boxes?  PHOTOS!  I admit, I am bad at organizing photos and putting them into albums.  I am embarrassed to say that I have almost 20 years of photos that I need to go through and put into albums.    



Some of the other boxes had books that Jim and I wanted to save along with some family heirlooms.   One of the boxes has some of my dad’s things that he had before he passed away in February 1998.  There was also a small green metal box of papers that were important to dad that he gave to Jim as his power of attorney. 

Up until this past week I had never gone through that metal box.  The other day I brought the box to the couch in the living room and went through every paper.  There were copies of dad’s death certificate along with his Pennsylvania birth certificate, and dad’s high school graduation diploma.    Then I found a few things that surprised me.  There was a folder with a picture I sketched in 6th grade.  When I unfolded the picture there were locks of my hair when I received my first major hair cut the summer going into 7th grade.   It surprised me that dad would have a lock of my hair since at the time my parents were divorced.  Somehow dad got a piece of my hair and saved it after all these years.   Also in the box were a bunch of handwritten receipts that our daughter Heather had made as a child when she would play store or office.  Why these things were important to him to save after all those years I will never know.  Maybe it was the treasured memories he had of me with my long curly hair and my artistic talent I had never pursued; and the memories of when Heather and he would play store when he had lived with us. 

Something else had caught my attention in that small green metal box.  There were about a dozen or so life insurance policies that had expired or no longer good at the time of his death.  Most of the insurance policies were accidental death policies.   I suppose dad had believed that he would die in his car considering he spent so much of his life driving and even living out of his car.  Little did dad know that the cancer he had in his eye would take his life 18 years later. 

Dad’s best laid plans to leave my sister and me some money had vanished when he died of the dreaded disease of cancer.  All the money he had paid out in all these insurance policies had gone to waste.  My dad financially left this world as he came into this world – penniless.  But he did have one treasure that he shared with my sister and me – his Savior.  The day after dad died my sister and I went through his things and we found a little Gideon New Testament.  Inside the book was the “sinners prayer” and dad put down the date he had placed his faith and trust in his most gracious Savior. 

Oh what a glorious blessing the Lord had given my sister and I that day.  For we were no longer sadden that our father had died – instead we were rejoicing in the assurance that we would one day see our father’s face again.   Oh what a glorious reunion that will be!

Dad’s best laid plans were not in those useless life insurance policies.  They were in the day he had trusted Jesus Christ as His Lord and Savior.

What plans do you have to leave your children when you die?  Are you laying down treasures on earth to leave your family when you die?  Most importantly, have you invested in the Heavenly Treasure - accepting the Lord as your Savior so your precious family can have the blessed assurance that they will see you again in Heaven? 

Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that I do not wait until I die to leave earthly treasures.  I pray that daily I am laying down legacy moments with my precious loved ones.  Most of all I pray that my life is one that glorifies you and points to Christ our Savior.  Amen. 

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