My husband gave me an early Christmas present — one of those digital frames that scrolls through my photos.  As I watch the images silently rotate, they speak volumes. I see the story I’ve been telling. This story is full of travel and family gatherings and a lot of cooking!

We all make choices every day that add up to the story of how we will be remembered.  The decisions we make really do matter…they become our legacy. 
 
Many of you reading this have made momentous choices that will become your legacy.  You opened yourselves up to the lives of others and made bold commitments in faith. You fostered children, adopted, left lucrative jobs to work in ministry. It’s been fulfilling and it’s been challenging.  You are writing your legacy with those choices, and that story is far beyond our ability to see in the present.
 
Which reminds me of a very personal story about Thanksgiving.  I’m from Cape Cod and my great grandparents many generations ago were pilgrims on the Mayflower.  Imagine, one hundred and two people got on a small ship and traveled to a totally unseen continent so they could worship God in freedom!  Talk about a legacy choice!

By the end of the first year, forty-six of them had died, yet they chose to give thanks for that year. My grandfather was a single shipman, and my teen grandmother lost her parents that year and later married him.  My great grandparents made a momentous choice that created a legacy, beyond what they could have ever imagined.  During these hard times of loss, we can also choose to give thanks for what we do have.

(Memorial in the Pilgrim Church. 
Those in black survived, those in gray perished)

I want to encourage you today that you are building a legacy, even in the days when it feels hard or impossible.  And that legacy will be remembered by those who come after you.  Whatever it is you feel called to do, don’t give up and don’t let it go.  It’s your legacy and it’s a story only you can write.