Have You Ever Assembled A Scrapbook?

Have you ever assembled a scrapbook–a grouping of pictures and mementos in one large collection?

Scrapbooks today are often works of art, encompassing old pictures, ticket stubs, napkins, menus, etc.  The item can be used to enhance the significance of the event.  Brightly colored pages with themes incorporated in the design, die cut letters, miniature replicas  like diplomas, birthday cakes, and skateboards, can be purchased and attached to the page. What have you included more than pictures?

When my son was soon to graduate with his Bachelor of Science degree in biology I decided to create a unique gift for him. My husband and I had already made plans to gift him with a new set of wheels, but I wanted him to have something more personal than an ignition key to commemorate the day. I joined a scrapbook group at church and plunged headlong into a world of scissors, tape, and colored paper. The possibilities were endless.

I began the book at his birth. Baby pictures were easy to find, but I also had saved things that had come home with him from the hospital. A wrist tag, some trinkets off baby cards, a tiny bottle, and a lock of hair made for a good beginning.

School days yielded programs from plays and musicals, pieces of costume, feathers from hats. The pages filled quickly.

College years yielded awards, honorable mentions, and living arrangement changes.

Then I began to write short notes of memory that he wouldn’t know. I filled in pages with incidents involving former friends. His life became a painting of memory, snatches of time we could never get back. A masterpiece of history, the collection was the personal touch I wanted to give.

In my newest release a scrapbook is offered as a means of reaching out through two decades of disconnected lives to mend broken hearts. The memory book is created from old pictures and fragments of a life lived in turmoil. The  hope is to connect a teenage girl to a past she cannot claim.

Will the pictures resurrect those who have been caught in the crosshairs of a family warped by their own success? Can a mother reclaim her place in her daughter’s life? Can a faithful grandfather see his dream come true? So much is at stake, failure waits ahead, and yet they hold on to hope.

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV) states: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight”

For this family trust in the Lord may be all they have.