Three weeks ago, I attended my 40 year reunion in Nottingham, (see TFTD 19-2-24). It was something I was eagerly anticipating and I wasn’t disappointed. Having had a clear drive up the A1, I arrived at the hotel, situated on the university campus around 12 noon, to be greeted with friends from years gone by – some I recognised and some not.
Fortunately, our insightful organiser had made up lanyards with our names and photographs from our original yearbook entry from when we all qualified. We spent time catching up on with what each of us had been doing over the years, where we were and reminiscing on our university days.
One phrase that kept getting repeated was, “do you remember when you……?” We also had a display of photos of our time at Nottingham.
Of course we have all got older, greyer, thinner on top (the guys), and wider on the side (some more than others).
One particular guy (Peter – not his real name) in our year was always the clown, and often the worse for wear at parties. We all wondered how he would make the grade. We also had a small number of students, who for one reason or another had failed their end of year’s exams and had to come down a year and join us.
On the Sunday morning after our reunion, as we were gathering again to return home, one of our group turned to Peter and said, “Dave, (one of the retake group – not his real name), told me how he was thinking of giving up, but after he met you, he realised we were just ordinary people, and wanted to thank you for helping him persevere.”
Peter knew nothing of this, and was deeply touched – (he has put his misspent youth behind him, and made a highly successful career in medicine).
This illustrates how we never know what seeds we sow and what affect we can have on people without even trying.
In our faith do we act in a way that gets alongside others, encourages, and helps them the people that God wants them to be?
Prayer: Loving Father, thank you for those opportunities you put our way, without us being aware. Thank you for the opportunity to look back and remember, and for all those people who have influenced us in the past. Help us to act as you would have us do, to encourage and to say thank you. AMEN