Family videos

We experienced a most wonderful, God-arranged serendipity last evening.  Sandy and I along with our children, Emma and Andrew, were in the den watching family videos, when daughter Rachel called from Thailand on FaceTime.  Since it was a video call, I trained my phone's camera onto the T.V. and we all, including Rachel half a world away, watched family videos together.

We watched a particularly fun tape of Andrew and Rachel at ages five and eight.  There was a sketch of the kids acting a scene from My Fair Lady.  Imagine Rachel (as Pickering) holding a plastic, quart-size milk bottle to her ear, as if it was a phone, saying, "Hummm, what color are her eyes....?"  Andrew (Higgens) opens a door from the next room and shouts, "Brown! Brown! Brown"!  There was a scene of me as drum major (large spoon as the staff) leading A and R around the house, the "band" banging on pans and crashing cymbals made of pot lids.  There was Rachel in a ballet recital.  Then all of us on the beach at Sanibel.  Then Rachel riding her bike for the first time - and Andrew pouting because he wasn't allowed.  Oh, I had forgotten about the time we (OK, it was I) marooned the pontoon when the tide went out, which occasioned a hilarious discussion with the kids about the cause of tides.

What a great moment that was last night.  It made me grateful for God's goodness.  Whenever I watch family videos, I imagine the fun we are going to have when God gets out His family videos.  You know He has them, with all the best shots of our lives: when we did goofy things, or when He saved us (and we didn't even know!), or when He was especially proud of when we served Him; or when we did something loving for someone - and nobody knew; except God knew.

Yes, last night's serendipity was a glimpse into heaven and a foretaste of the rewards awaiting the faithful.