A Memory to Take With Me

Choosing one memory to take with me into the next world is hard. I have so many memories some good, some bad and some both that it is difficult to decide which one to take on my journey into the worlds of God. Now it may seem odd to take an unpleasant memory with me on my voyage, but I have found it the bad memories were caused by events that increased my faith. These were the events that caused me to go to God’s word for the answers and forced me to look within myself for the strength to preserver.

I could take a mixed memory with me for eternity. There are a lot of these; in fact there are more of these memories than any other kind. These memories cover a wide range of subjects and were caused by events that I either had no control over or by my own lack of foresight. One of the memories caused by my lack of prudence resulted from a game of Hide and Seek.

One summer evening, when I was about five or six, we went to my cousins’ farm outside of Blackwell, Oklahoma. On this evening, the adults went into the house to play cards while we children were outside playing games. Someone suggested that we play Hide and Seek, so we begin the game. My cousin Charlotte was it. Up to that day I had never won a game of Hide and Seek, something I wanted to do.

A few days before, Charlotte’s parents had gotten a new Frigedare refrigerator and left the old one, with its door still attached, on the back porch. I thought that the old refrigerator would be a good place to hide, so I opened the door and crawled in. I curled up in the fetal position to wait for my cousin to find me or to admit defeat.

I must have gone to sleep, because the next thing I remember is seeing my Grandfather. He was standing at the open refrigerator door. He picked me up and carried me into the house. Whenever I get discouraged, I remember that my Grandfather saved my life and know that I am meant to be alive. This is the memory I want to take with me for eternity. This is the memory that has kept me going through all the down periods of my existence on earth.