Madison723web

TheTime COIN
Camille Anding
“Put it on the list!”
It’s been a household slogan of mine for multiple years. There’s an on-going grocery list that
I keep by the fridge and a similar one for all sorts of items that I list on my phone. I try to make it
a constant to list items when I’ve used the last one or emptied a box. The list makes for a more
organized life.
I suppose my list-making dates back to my high school days. There were assignment lists that
were important to keep and lists of important facts that our teachers promised to ask on final exams.
College lists carried greater weight. There were listings of grades outside professors’ doors that
I sometimes asked a friend to check on for me. Chemistry lists were the most threatening. Grading
on the curve was a new experience for me, but how I grew to appreciate it in chemistry class.
One of my most exciting and joy-filled lists was the one I made for wedding guests.
There were lists for showers – those attending and the list of gifts. Then there was
an important list for thank-you notes. Mother reminded me that regardless of my
new life as a wife it was absolutely necessary to keep a list of the thank you notes
I wrote for all our wedding gifts.
Quicker than I could have ever imagined, I was going down store aisles with
a school supply list for our children. Then there was a required list for school
vaccinations and a long summer reading list of books.
The lists never ended. As my parents aged, and we switched many roles, I kept
medicine lists for their doctors’ visits. There were dietary lists of what they could and
couldn’t eat and a list of appointment dates for doctor visits.
Years ago, I remember being in a Wednesday night church service where the
pastor read a long list of prayer needs for members and other special needs outside
our immediate church family. It was always a long list of names – the hospitalized,
the bereaved, those facing surgery, those recouping from surgery, our military, the
missionaries and church ministries and always a growing list of the sick.
When our pastor asked us to divide into small groups to pray for those listed,
Othel whispered, “Someday we’ll be on this list under one of these categories.”
It was an unsettling thought, but it was a thought every individual should ponder
and digest. There’s no way other than the Rapture that believers won’t be on a list of
the sick, the dying, or the bereaved-someday.
Such thoughts always turn me to the most important list ever written – the names in the Lamb’s
Book of Life. That’s ultimately the only list that will matter. It’s hard to imagine anyone neglecting
“so great a salvation” offered and paid for by the List Maker.
80 • JULY 2023