Keepsake Keeper Resolves to Latch Onto Memories & Hope of Heaven

I want to share a poem with you that I heard again just before Mother’s Day. I first read it in 2011 at a memorial service for a teenager. She had died “out of order,” before her parents.

Jessica was very much loved. Her family and friends crafted a garden at the church she attended and put the poem in concrete. A particular word stood out for me. It felt like that poem was mine. Maybe it will be “yours,” too.

Here is the poem. Unfortunately, a Google search yielded no definitive author.

I Thought of You Today

I thought of you with love today but that is nothing new

I thought about you yesterday and days before that too,

I think of you in silence …I often speak your name

All I have are memories and your picture in a frame

Your memory is my keepsake with which I’ll never part

God has you in His keeping

I have you in my heart.

 

I’ve called myself “the keeper of the keepsakes” because I feel so attached to my parents’ belongings. The dig is I cannot keep them all – and their things will not bring them back to me.

This poem reminds me I do not have to part with the memories, a gift of God. Those good memories are mine to keep. And this poem reminds me that my parents are in the hands of God.

He’s keeping them for me. I don’t have to fret. Just patiently wait. Someday we’ll make new memories.

That is how I survive the loss.

What are your “keepsakes”? What memories help bring you close to your parents and comfort you? Can you envision your loved one in the hands of God? Can you put yourself there, too?

 

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