Faith of our Fathers.

I am at school. so what else is new... I have a midterm this afternoon and I am SO ready for it. It is in history. Have I told you blog-reading populous how much history fascinates me? Well, allow me...please, do.

I <3 history. American history mostly. Our country is SO amazing. I don't know how many of you listened to Obama's acceptance speech last night, and as far as speeches go, it was a pretty swell one [someone should hire me his ghostwriter for my next speech class]. anyways, I was particularly struck by a part where he was talking about a voter in the south who was 106 years old. and he mentioned all the changes she'd seen our country go through. it was so amazing to me. i actually got chills listening to it. [this does not mean i'm an Obama supporter, he just gives good speeches.]
But I realized how rich our country is. Sad, deteriorating, full of sin and sinners, with more debt than Bill Gates has money...but still pretty rich. And we can read all about what makes our country great in any text book. But I think the most amazing thing is when we can sit down and hear first-hand accounts from people who have lived through the events that have shaped and molded us.

segway.

I had an pretty terrific experience the other day, following this same flow-ish. I had gotten home from school and this elderly man was out in his bright red motorized scooter taking a little jaunt around the block. he stopped in front of my driveway and in my head i was thinking, "I hope he doesn't want to talk...I just want to go inside and sleep." But he looked at me and asked me if anyone in my house knew a man named Bill White* [*last name changed to protect the innocent]. When I informed him that not only did we know him, but he is my great-uncle, I could tell he was pretty excited. He proceeded to tell me that he worked with Bill and they were good buddies. He spent the next twenty minutes re-living the good old days when him and Bill would eat pie and share a cup of coffee when they had good days and bad. I was now instantly fascinated by this talking history book right in front of me. I also felt ashamed of my attitude earlier. The man's name was Gene, and he knew he was going to die soon and wanted to see Bill before he passed away. Both men are very old and sick and with Bill living a good 45 min. away, the chances of them seeing eachother were slim. But Gene still asked me to give Bill his phone number and address and see if we could work something out.
The very next sunday, my mom was having potluck and who was coming over but Bill and his family. I had hoped Gene would be around, but couldn't get in contact with him. That afternoon, I was upstairs studying and my mom calls me down. Turns out, Gene had been riding by on his scooter and my mom stopped him to see if it was the same man. And at that same moment, Bill was driving down the street with his daughter. The reunion of the two was joyous and brought a tear to my eye.
Here is a picture of the two men:

Both Bill and Gene are men of God and I am continually amazed at how true the Scripture is when it says that the older should teach the younger because of their wisdom. Listening to them talk and share of their lives gone by and their hope for their eternity with Jesus is inspiring and makes living life all the more worth it.
There are so many of these people in the world, who have lived life and have learned hard and valuable things from it. I challenge you, as well as myself, no matter our age, to take advantage of those around us who have been there and done that. It wasn't on a whim that God allowed overlapping generations. This was on purpose. So lets grab the proverbial bull by the horns and dig a bit deeper into the mysteries of life by hearing firsthand experiences.
Sorry this one was a bit wordy =] enjoy.

xoxo