I love the sound of a fishing boat speeding across the lake past our dock or a cruising pontoon filled with people’s laughter as they enjoy a summer sunset.
These sights and sounds remind me of visiting my nanny and granddaddy as a little girl at their home in Gulf Breeze, Florida. Going “across the bay” was a special treat, a step back in time.
My grandparents bought their bay house from a salty old fisherman around 1930 when a ferry transported visitors from Pensacola to Gulf Breeze. Nanny and Granddaddy kept the rustic flavor of the house through the years, adding only a single-window air-conditioning unit to the master bedroom.
Family and friends relished the opportunity to sit on the weathered dock or the screened porch and listen to the sounds of boats skimming across the water. At night, every light on the Bay Bridge sparkled, like a giant diamond necklace strung three miles across Pensacola Bay. With open windows in the front bedroom, the lapping of waves on the sandy shore lulled me and my cousins to sleep. Even now, I can close my eyes, smile, and remember the sounds, sights, tastes, and salt-water smells of my childhood there.
What amazing gifts memories are—bridges transporting our past into our present. God tells us in His Word to remember, to set up altars in our minds to remind us of His goodness.
On some days, my mind tastes my mother’s famous strawberry cake or curried shrimp. Nanny’s delicious “Gaspachee,” a traditional Pensacola salad, was a requested favorite at the annual fish-fry across the bay. Life is a wonderful collection of memories, strung together, continually creating more.
Why not thank your heavenly Father for giving you all the memories that bridge your earthly past to your eternal future?
(Photo courtesy of pixabay.)
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Macy Johnson is a native Floridian living the lake-life in Georgia. She is an instrument of God’s blessings as a writer, church pianist, community accompanist, wife, mother, nana, Bridge player, adoptee, retired auditor, and member of Word Weavers International. Her “God Sightings” are published weekly in the Greensboro Herald-Journal. Find her at www.macymjohnson.com, macymjohnson@gmail.com, and on Facebook as Macy Martin Johnson.