The Harvard Coasters

This isn't at all what I planned to blog about today. I have a couple of Bible verses I wanted to write about, but...you see, I ran across these coasters...

My dad will have been gone now for four years, come May. It's hard to believe. I still have an unsettled feeling every weekend when I don't make my weekly phone call to him, halfway across the country.

In his last years, my dad had a very nice lady friend. She boxed up a few things of his and sent them out to me over a year ago. I just couldn't bring myself to dig too deeply in the box so I didn't really know what it contained. Without planning to, I looked in the box this evening. When I unwrapped his Cleveland Browns mug I almost cried. It brought back so many memories of my brothers and I watching his beloved Browns with him when I was a child. I'm not quite ready to take it out of the box yet, but it's nice knowing it's there.

Then I ran across the Harvard coasters, and another flood of memories came back. I had totally forgotten about them. A gift from my Dad's brother, a Harvard Law School grad, they are made of copper and sport the Harvard crest. Suddenly I could picture our coffee table, and my dad sitting on the couch listening to jazz and studying a score for his next band concert. Back when life was simpler.

It makes me wonder what seemingly insignificant things will trigger good memories for my own children some 40 years hence. Although we Americans seem to have so much more stuff compared to when I was growning up, I pray that my children have good memories of a home filled with love of the Lord and love of each other. I hope they run across their own Harvard coasters and bask in good memories, too.