Last weekend we celebrated the Best Family Reunion. Our family tree has been traced back to 1244 but our memories and stories go back to the siblings of Willie & Mary Best who had 5 children (my mom, 3 aunts & 1 uncle) who then had 9 children. It’s just cousins now with stories. I grew up sitting on the porch, the living room and the dining room table listening to our parents talk about growing up…life! Last weekend, my cousin showed me a five-dollar gold piece necklace and asked, “Do you know the story behind this? When my mom & dad had no money for food, they would go to their friend, Bill Mann, a local pharmacist, who would loan them money using the gold piece as collateral. They did this several times” … our parents grew up in the devastating Great Depression (1929 – 1941). In perspective it was Covid on steroids with no money. The lesson our parents left us (100+ cousins) is, they not only survived, but thrived. They thrived with trust in God, family & friends, and their creative spirit to find a way. They told these stories with joy & laughter of recalling these special memories.

My Aunt exemplifies this surviving spirit. Years ago, when our storytelling Aunt turned 90, a television reporter from Jackson drove 197 miles to interview her. As they sat out on her “L” shaped porch (30 rocking chairs) under huge pecan trees the reporter asked, “Ms. Josephine, you have seen a lot of change in your life…electricity, indoor plumbing, air conditioning, even a man on the moon but what do you think is the greatest change you have seen?” She rocked a few moments and said, “Time, people don’t have time anymore. We didn’t have washing machines or refrigerators, we worked hard every day, but we always had time for family & friends. My children, grandchildren & great-grandchildren come here, with all their modern conveniences, always in a hurry because they don’t have time.” It has been her driving spirit that these family reunions continue. She insisted that all the family, “Get to know each other.”

Story telling has been a God ordained way of revealing His Way…His Love. “Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation.” Joel 1:3. The stories we have are to be passed down. God spoke through Moses to the Israelites before they took possession of the Promise Land. Listen to the instructions, instructions that apply today. Deuteronomy 11:2 “Remember today that your children were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the LORD your God: His majesty, His mighty hand, His outstretched arm…” and Deuteronomy 24:18 “Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this.” These situations, these stories, are really “God’s Stories” of how He moved in impossible situations in life. It is for His Glory, we share them.

Our parent’s lives reveal their priorities…relationships. Hard work, gardens & sacrifice were part of their survival strategy, but their “why” was relationships. Just as the currency of the world is money, they knew the currency of a relationship was “Time.” This takes us to the clarity of Jesus in Matthew 22:37-40 “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” God created mankind for a relationship with Him. Are you spending enough “time” with Him first and then people on your path?