Family Reunions

​Do you remember going to family reunions? This picture is a reunion at Ledges State Park in Iowa in 1952 or 1953. I am the little girl in the chair, deep in conversation with my cousin. In those golden oldie days, family reunions were important. You might attend several over the summer, for all the branches of the family tree.  
Food took center stage. Always homemade and always in vast quantities. My mother would bring fried chicken, homemade cookies, orange-pineapple Jell-O salad, and cold lemonade. The food would be spread potluck style on a table, but I always sought out my Mom’s dishes. I preferred safe to experimental.  
But the conversations were the main event. Reconnecting, sharing family stories, talking politics with a little arguing, and generous amounts of laughter. While the grownups sat and talked, the children would become reacquainted with cousins we rarely saw and have great adventures. I remember when I was a teenager meeting one cousin from California who tried to teach me to smoke. That was an adventure my parents may never have heard about. 
When you are a Christian, you look forward to the best reunion of all. Reconnecting at last with family members who have gone before us, conversation, laughter, food, and, best of all, seeing Jesus face-to-face.  
 After a lengthy hiatus concentrating on several other things, including finishing three novels, I am back to blogging.  My blog, The Storyteller, will be a little bit like a family reunion—a place to connect, a place to share stories, and a place to laugh. I hope you, my readers, will all feel as warm and welcomed as this little curly-headed girl did so many years ago at her family reunion. I can’t promise you a potluck meal, but I will nourish your heart with a story.  
And remind you of the hope that includes a family reunion in Heaven for each of us.