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A Glory Seed Devotional
Remembering

Authors note: I’ve sent this once before but with Memorial Day Weekend, nearly here I am sharing it again. The following verse is personal and is offered in hopes that it can be a catalyst whereby you might enjoy remembering and reconnect with loved ones who are no longer living in this world. And I hope you’ll find yourself a wiser, a little more peaceful. Enjoy the journey.

One of the greatest miracles we humans possess is the miracle of our minds. With our minds we can do so many things, we can travel to so many places; we can take complex problems and make them simple. We can soar on the wings of our memories to times past, we can relive events and remember people who have helped shape our lives. Sometimes we can experience the past of which we were not even a part. Please join me on a remembering journey of mine perhaps it will help you get started on one of your own.

As I close my eyes and enjoy the miracle of remembering, I can feel the fear and the terror of a young Harley M. Piper, from Davis City, Iowa huddled in a fox hole. I can hear the bullets and see the shells falling around. I can smell the gunpowder of mortar round from his gun as he desperately tries to defend himself, his friends, and his country. I can hear him telling God he’d give his life to Jesus if He would spare his life. After being freed from a German POW camp I can see, in my mind him coming home and keeping his promise to God. Harley M. Piper, World War Two Veteran, former POW, indebted to God, dedicated to Jesus Christ, future father.

Across the panorama of my mind, the scene shifts and I see him protecting us under a kitchen table from the destructive powers of a 1951 tornado. I see him remodeling the garage so we could have a temporary home on 20th Street. Suddenly tears form in my eyes as I see the hobby horses he made from nail barrels for my brother Alan and I. But wait! Isn’t that the sound of that wooden home built go-kart he made going up and down Ward Street? Again, the scene changes and I see a small flat bottom boat with old rolled roofing on the bottom going up and down the creek. “I need copper wire for an 80 meter antenna,” as a young ham radio operator, I asked. Next I see us standing at Flinchbaugh Electric buying 3 pounds of 12 gauge enameled coated copper wire. Harley M. Piper, protector, remodeler, toy builder, antenna man, father.

As I sit here and let my mind continue to wander, I remember good ole dad fighting to keep control of our car after losing the front wheel on the driver’s side. I can see him checking the motor in Yellowstone Park and suddenly hurrying back into the safety of the car as a bear family came from the woods looking for food. So many scenes, so many memories, I wish I could write them all down; I wish I could pause in one and stay awhile. But alas, the clock of my life ticks ever onward never stopping.

There is, for me a great deal of joy walking through the pages of the past, yet there is also sadness because I wish I could go back in time knowing what I know now and just say, “Thanks dad, I really needed that. And oh, by the way I love you.” Yet in some mysterious way, he knows because he now journeys in a place where yesterday is as today and today is as tomorrow, a place where time no longer exists. Harley M. Piper, living in the uncharted realms of heaven with the Creator himself walking hand in hand with Jesus since March 11, 1998.

Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us the gift of memory, and thank you for giving us your Son Jesus so we can share our memories with you in heaven. Thank you for my mom and dad who gave me life. And Lord, thank you for all the men and women in our armed forces and our police officers who have given their lives that we might be free. Amen!

Grace and PEACE!
Gary

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“I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?
My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.”
(Psalms 121:1-2)

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Scripture quotations marked ESV "Are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved."