This amazing day continued as we were talking about the wild one we encountered.  But let me give you a back drop to this story.  I grew up in Seibert, CO a farming community of dry land wheat farming and cattle.  I was into sports as much as anyone could be.  In a rural community, there isn’t much more to do as a teenager than to participate in football, basketball, baseball, and track-we didn’t have soccer.

In the summers, I would coach little league baseball and one summer we won it all.  One of the players on the team was Randall Herman who I lost touch with when I moved away.  It so happened that Randall and his wife and son moved next door to my mom’s house.  The house he moved into was my Grandma Gorton’s, my dad’s mom who lived next to us until she died at the age of 92.

Randall’s son Kent was a great athlete like his father and helped the Seibert High School team be awarded the state championship in football and basketball.  He graduated and began to help his dad on the farm.  Now back to the amazing day.

Someone pulled in back of our car that was parked and out of the pickup stepped a 6 foot 5 inch young man who knelt down and began to talk to Mom.  It was Kent Herman.  He started by saying, “I heard that you were in town and I looked all over town to find you because I wanted to see you and say hello.”  Here is a 20+-year-old who had to say hello to my mom.  She had such a positive impact on him that he stopped whatever he was doing to search my mom out to see her.

What is amazing to me is that my mom had  an impact not only on students she taught but upon the newest generation of adults.  Kent loved my mom and needed to see her when he found out she was in town.  It takes a special person who is able to relate with any and every person in our society.  I began to see my mom being that person.

There are all kinds of people who cross our paths during our life here on this earth.  Infants.  Toddlers.  Children.  Teenagers.  Young adults.  Middle aged adults.  Older adults.  Aged individuals.  It reminds me of Jesus when He saw his disciples pushing children away from Jesus.  They had the perspective that children are to be seen and not heard (sound familiar  to some of you growing up in the 40s-50s),  Jesus told the disciples to let the children come to him and not hinder them. Matthew 19:14

On this journey, the process of seeking to connect with all people who come across our path will determine the legacy we live for the coming generations.  Be aware and ready to value people in our sphere of influence.