always on my mind...

Denton Family Photo - September 10, 2004 - Dad's 90th Birthday

Opened one of those long Christmas letters from old friends last night and sat down to read up on what's been going on with their family in the last year. They're forever frozen in the mid-nineties in my mind... yet life has moved on... they've lived in several different states, added three children to their family and earned enough stories to easily fill a three page Christmas letter that must have been difficult to edit: knowing what to add and what to leave out. Each year their little missile keeps us feeling somewhat connected, though we're now miles and newly added experiences apart.

Learning to play the guitar, the two of them once sat in my office, long before kids and new careers and he played the guitar as she sang an old song I'd been fighting the chords to find. His fingers laid them down with ease and deliberation- showing me each move, allowing me to follow along. She lifted her voice in grace with words that haunt my heart from that sweet Willie Nelson ballad: Always On My Mind.

Reading their new adventures, learning the growing lives of their children, absorbing their stories of intentional living for Christ- one lovely moment together wouldn't let me go- a singular segment of time I doubt they'd remember... and the faces of so many I'd loved filled my heart... bits and pieces of the song came back to me, "little things we'd said and done. I just never found the time- but you were always on my mind... you were always on my mind."

We've been blessed, they're two among so many. I'm closely related to most the folks in the photo above, many whom I haven't had contact with since the photo was taken three years ago. Add to that the great number of family not in the photo and multiply it by the amazing number of people who've loved us like family- who we rarely see any longer and like the friends in the Christmas letter are now far from us and it still doesn't even number all those we see day in and day out, week in and week out, who we love so deeply and love us wonderfully, yet we never find the time... but you are always on my mind. We're so blessed.

At the bottom of our friends Christmas letter, not hand written in, just part of the print that went to everyone, the closing salutation read simply, "missing you." It struck a chord. I knew exactly how they felt... to everyone we love, missing you. To all those who've loved us and keep us in their thoughts and prayers: missing you. To family far and near this Christmas, missing you... to those no longer with us: Uncle Glenn, Uncle John, Gary, Gerald, Ed, Villora... so many more each Christmas... missing you... but you are always on my mind.

To live with intention... I think one of the first changes I'd make is to begin to find the time; to hand write that note of love, to make that phone call, to stop in and visit, to sit down together for a meal, to break the barrier that's kept us apart, to reach across the schedules and miles, "while today is still called today" and reconnect in love. "Little things you've said and done" like playing guitars and singing together in the office... have not, could never slip by unnoticed.

I went to bed with so many of you on my heart. Woke up at 2:30 and needed to write... the picture of my family is just the beginning of so many we love... so many as we approach Christmas who are in our thoughts deeply... so many of our friends captured in two simple words for this season: "missing you."

Missing you this morning. Praying that God sweetly surrounds you with His presence and comfort and that you know you're loved... that you're not alone this Christmas.

missing you,

Eric

ps
song of the day... not too tough to figure out... try playing it on your guitar. Wish I could hear Scott and Terri sing it again.