Reunion

This last weekend, we celebrated our high school youth pastor's 20th year at the church with a reunion and reminise time for all of the people who had passed through youth group with Pastor Mark. As I wandered around and looked at the pictures of events, all of my peers hanging out together, remembering the hours I spent at church and on trips and retreats, I just felt... happy. They were great memories.
I think with the past, you pick out the best parts and they become sharper in your mind and the bad parts become duller so that you're left with these shining gems that become your memories. Unless you're bitter, and then it probably works the other way. The youth group compartment of my teen memories is full of really wonderful times.
There were tables labeled with each year Mark had been a pastor, filled with pictures and mementos from that year in youth group. I wandered around and purused, remembering. Talent shows, work trips, service activities, friendships, music, joy. And so many moments not caught on film that shaped who I was. SOme of them were hilarious, some tender, some were just part of every day life. Some of them happened when they were supposed to, at a key moment, like a speaker at a retreat or a worship song. Some of them were on the outside, and everyone saw. And some of them were quiet moments that fashioned my heart and drew me closer to God. Conversations with one of the leaders, a lesson about some spiritual principle, or just watching the authentic way people lived their lives in front of me.
So many memories on those tables, and in my own photo albums. So many treasured in my mind, chapters written in those high school years that are part of who I am.
I loved youth group, having spent my freshman year in a not-so-healthy group of people who cared more about their shoes than about the Bible, it was so refreshing to become part of a group who genuinely cared about each other and about their relationships with God. I look back at those times, those three and a half years in youth group with Pastor Mark and the other friends I had (including my husband), and cherish them. I am so thankful God took me to that place. And I'll be thinking about that reunion for a long time, because there was something really special about it.