1923?

90 years ago, this brother and sister were having a good time just hanging out in Shreveport. These two people had no idea that not quite a century later they would impact the lives of people in what was then a very sleepy little town called Madisonville. All they were doing was having some good sibling fun around the house.

While I do not know what became of the 'engine' that was pulling the wagon, I can tell you that these two helped make me who I am today, and I treasure their memories. Later today, I will have the honor of fulfilling the last promise I made to one of them just a few hundred feet from where I had a similar honor 13 years and one week earlier. For, you see pictured above are my grandfather (D.L. Oliver, Jr.) and my great-aunt Nannie (not Nancy, Nannie) when he was approximately five years old. According to the story I heard from my grandmother, Nannie played an important role in him becoming my grandfather, for it was when she and Nannie were at church one Sunday night (Wynn Memorial Methodist Church) that my grandmother noticed that handsome boy, and Nannie proudly announced that was her brother. Next thing you knew, according to the story I heard, my grandparents were married at the parsonage, with Nannie as one of the witnesses.

Long story short, Nannie and I grew closer when I was in college and was taking care of my grandparents after he got sick. She kept me in the loop on family politics and, until she went into the nursing home, a little bit on the local Methodist politics as well. After my grandparents passed, Erin and I made a point of stopping in to see Nannie every June when we would come to annual conference. It was at one of these visits after she went to the nursing home that she made me promise that, when the time came, I would 'have her funeral.' Wednesday of last week, her son, Charles Lamar, called to tell me she was near the end. Nannie passed at 1:50AM last Friday.

Centuries Memorial in Shreveport is, in someways, home for me, for many of my ancestors on both sides of my father's family are laid to rest out there, and before or after tomorrow's graveside service, I will go and pay my respects to my grandparents, the infant cousin I never knew, and both sets of great-grandparents from my father's side. While at each grave, I will give a word of thanks to God for the divine grace that allowed each of these, in their own way to touch my life and play a part in who I am today.

As I looked at the photo (which sits on our piano at the parsonage) of my grandfather and Nannie after inserting it in this e-mail, I couldn't help but think about all the children who gather around Jeff each Sunday for our children's moment, and of all the little ones whose laughter fills our halls during the week within our Mother's Day Out program.

Yesterday, we were reminded through the Psalmist about how hope is essential to truly celebrating Easter Sunday as intended. May we all have hope that 90 years from now, God will use the little ones among us now in ways we cannot imagine or comprehend.

You never know what's going to happen when our children and our youth are made a part of the life of our church. Who knows which ones of us will have a great-nephew or a grandson talking about us 90 years from now, giving thanks to God that someone brought them together with the church.

Grace and Peace, Lamar