Legacy in Envelopes

We’re greeting-card happy in my family. Elaine and her family brought Rich two birthday cards when we celebrated his birthday earlier this month. One card came from Elaine, her husband Rob, and Cadence and Sawyer. The second card, a “Happy Birthday Grandpa” card, carried only the boys’ names.

I smiled when I browsed through the stack of cards later, thinking about our fondness for greeting cards. It wasn’t always that way.

When my brother, the baby of our family, entered high school, my mom went to work outside the home. Her first job entailed maintaining the greeting card display at a local department store. I remember Mom reporting, “Did you even know they make ‘divorce’ cards?”

I didn’t. But we learned that if the occasion can be named, American Greetings publishes a card to suit. And we sent more cards to one another.

I remember housebreaking my puppy, Rosebud, before my daughter was born. My folks were visiting for dinner; as I praised the pup for her successful performance, Mom called out: “Should I send a card?” And she laughed.

Mom’s laugh was music.

Mom had moved on to her career in insurance before my daughter was born. But the greeting card habit has outlived my mother, passed down to another generation. It’s not very green, but it’s part of my family’s love language.

This spring, I’m thinking of my mother’s devotion to her Savior and praying for that trait, too, to emerge in her descendants.

27 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD,
And all the families of the nations will worship before You.
28 For the kingdom is the LORD’S
And He rules over the nations.
29 All the prosperous of the earth will eat and worship,
All those who go down to the dust will bow before Him,
Even he who cannot keep his soul alive.
30 Posterity will serve Him;
It will be told of the Lord to the coming generation.
31 They will come and will declare His righteousness
To a people who will be born, that He has performed it.
Psalm 22:27-31 (NASB)