Last Saturday we had two dozen members of the Autrey family at our home in Garland. It was a family reunion, but in some ways it was a foretaste of heavenly reunions to come.
LeAnn’s mother, Thelma, was the fourth daughter and last child born to Taylor and Ella Autrey in Grayson County, Texas. At 102 years old now, Thelma is the matriarch of a family tree with branches stretching to Illinois, Oregon, the Texas Hill Country and various locations here in North Central Texas.
The gathering wasn’t so unusual as family reunions go. We had lunch with fried chicken from the colonel and lots of side dishes and desserts contributed by the family. With all the food laid out on the kitchen island and countertops, folks loaded their plates and spread out at three tables or the bar to eat and talk. Later, as people got up to get seconds or dessert, they’d go back to another spot and start up a conversation with someone new.
Throughout the day, stories and laughter flowed all over the house and out into the yard. LeAnn and her cousins shared memories of visits to their grandparents’ farm, and everyone got to spend time with Thelma and hear stories of growing up there with her parents and sisters. There was plenty of current news and pictures to share as well, and before everyone left, a new family portrait was captured with a cell phone balanced on the countertop.
Some of the cousins get together monthly on Zoom — maybe the only good thing to come out of the pandemic — but some haven’t seen each other in the flesh in a few years. That included brothers and sisters, and it was moving to watch them embrace the way siblings do. It had been three years since the last big gathering of Autreys, and there were promises to do it again sooner than later.
Easter is ultimately about the greatest reunion of all: with family and friends we love and we’ve missed so much; and with Jesus and God, who we haven’t met face to face but we’ve come to know intimately through the scriptures and the miracles of this life. This reunion is only possible because of the sacrifice of Christ’s life for our sins, his resurrection into heaven, and his promise that where he is, we will also be one day.
That means we already have loved ones waiting for us. For me, that includes Dad and Martha Ann, Debra, John, Alex and Anna Belle, Elvey and Martha, Lucy and Kenny, Perry, Dick and Terri, as well as a host of favorite friends, neighbors, teachers and colleagues.
While we don’t know when that reunion will come, we’re setting the table every day in the way we treat others. Like hosting a family reunion at home, we can offer hospitality and provision, shelter and safety, justice and mercy to those we know and love as well as total strangers who are “family” nonetheless. Every day brings opportunities to plant the seeds of Christ’s love and help nurture it into blooming.
LeAnn and Thelma did exactly that with their family on Saturday. Before our reunion guests left, each family group was given a gift tying the past to the future: a cutting from the antique rose bush that grew on the Autrey farm. With some water, love and a little luck, the cuttings will put out roots and can be planted to grow and bloom for years to come.