Reflection

Gate to Huff Cemetery

Great-Great-Great-Great Grandpa Huff

Great-Great-Great Grandpa Huff

Great-Great Grandma Huff

Great-Great Grandpa Huff

Great-Grandpa Huff

Great-Grandma Huff

Grandma Huff

On Sunday night, I had a chance to take a breather. With the recent trip to New York, finishing up the econ project, closing on the house, and various other demands, I just needed some time to sit back, read, and reflect. I came across these verses from Psalms. While this entire passage is quite beautiful, I am most struck by the last three lines below. "All the days ordained ... before one of them came to be."

Psalms 139:13-16 (NIV)

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.



After my grandma died, I became pretty fascinated with the local cemeteries - specifically, the Bremen and Huff cemeteries. In fact, for several months, I regularly walked through the Bremen cemetery and looked at the stones. In a strange way, these walks gave me an incredible sense of time and place. When I started thinking about just my own ancestors, the odds of me (or any of us) living at this time in this place seem absurdly slim. Yet, as the Psalmist describes, this has all been planned out before any of us came to be. Now that just kind of blows my mind. I think it adds an incredible sense of value and purpose to our lives. No one else will ever have the chance to live in this specific location at this specific time under these specific circumstances with these specific opportunities. Kind of mind boggling.