Yesterday was my Aunt Billie’s birthday and today is my younger brother’s birthday (he’s 10 months and 6 days younger than me). He, along with two older brothers, made plumbing their life. The three of them owned a plumbing shop and retired one by one from it. I have leaned on this brother throughout my life for so many of the things which come about that I’m not good at doing. These are things like repairing a faucet, fixing an underground sprinkling system, replacing a doorknob, assembling a greenhouse and a host of others! We are as different as night and day, but some say we have a lot in common–only God knows what that is.

Today and tomorrow is my college graduation 50 year reunion. I am going to “most” of it. I have dreaded this since the day I registered Kathy and my attendance. When I’d started college I was only months away from the sexual abuse of my brother stopping and my father’s verbal abuse was still in full swing. The day I was to move onto campus my dad left the farm and took the car keys so I wouldn’t have a way to get there. Luckily, mom had a key even though she didn’t drive. So, she and one of my older brothers took me to the college and dropped me off with my bag of clothes. Others had family with them excited to be there, I tried to enjoy their excitement. For me it was more of a relief being away from dad and being “on my own”.

I write all of this because no one knew any of this person’s past and no one knew any of it 4 years later when we graduated. Getting together with them today makes me feel like I need to confess to them all what a “loser” I was–they just didn’t know it. I know the lie this is, so I’m going to reflect the truth that I’m a new creation just like each of them. My value comes from God and my past had nothing to do with value, it had to do with being born into a sinful world just like everyone else. Wow, it is good to write this out.