Moments Into Memories

My most sincere apologies for those of you who have been faithfully checking in on "The Palmer Perspective" only to find out that it was woefully missing updates. My schedule, both at work and at home, forced me to focus my attentions in other areas. Preaching (and all the other duties that come with it), youth ministry, and baby preparations have kept me up late into the night during the week and awakened me early in the mornings on the weekends. So today I decided to take a much needed break.

Rochelle and I spent the day looking for what I'm sure many soon-to-be-parents have to look for: a high quality digital camera. We had a great 35 mm camera that my brother gave us for Christmas several years ago, but it was dropped and broken. So, alas, we set out to upgrade our camera to digital quality.

When you shop with a pregnant woman, store personnel notice you and read "sucker" written across your forehead. You could feel the salesmen, sharks circling around us the minute Rochelle popped through the electronics room door with her belly shouting, "I'm nine months pregnant and might blow anytime!" They were on us like white on rice. We needed a camera, did not have long to look for one, and we didn't have a whole lot of knowledge about what we wanted. Behold, the perfect prey! First it was Wal-Mart--not enough selection. Next came Best Buy--too expensive (as are most things at Best Buy), then Sam's Club--only ONE camera please (all things aren't meant to be sold in bulk), onward to Conn's--a close relative to Best Buy, and finally Radio Shack!

We came home with a camera, but more importantly for my wife, the assurance that the first days of our daughters' life would be archived and preserved for lifetimes on end. The human hearts loves to make moments into memories. We love to revisit those minutes of mystery when we are reminded that life is about the people that you love and the time that you spend with them.

Cameras are powerful! I'm guessing that the next few holiday weeks will witness their share of families and friends sitting around tables and turkeys looking back over family albums and shoeboxes stuffed to overflowing with pictures from the past. In those moments we will realize again how fast life moves and how much we miss it. We learn again how special people are and tear over the fact that other people think we're special. There is no price that can be put on that. At least, there is no price that we would not pay!

Baseball umpire Durwood Merrill tells of his rookie year calling balls and strikes in the major leagues. In his first game, Nolan Ryan, the great fastballer himself was pitching. The second pitch of the game was so fast, Merrill never saw it. He froze, unable to make the call. Finally, he yelled, "Strike!" At which point the batter backed out of the box and said, "Ump, don't feel bad. I didn't see it either."

I think life is like that sometimes. It moves so fast you might not ever see it. But when you get a chance, when life slows down, if even for just a moment, grab a memory! Snap a picture!