I am two weeks short of completing a year of work for the Osceola County Historical Society (osceolahistory.org) in Kissimmee, Florida. It is a small organization whose mission is to collect, preserve and share the history of Osceola County, promoting both the area’s cultural and natural history. We have a wonderful little museum which has four highly detailed and realistic natural history dioramas illustrating the flora and fauna of four of central Florida’s ecosystems: a cypress swamp, the pine flatwoods and scrub, the oak forests (hammocks), and the frequently interconnected freshwater lake system.

Simultaneous with this natural history story we illustrate through historical interpretive panels, artifacts, and photographs the cultural history, from the prehistoric native life, to the European explorations, regional conflicts, economic and related transportation developments, community growth, and pre-theme park tourism, finally ending with a discussion of the influence of multi-cultural immigration into the area.

We also operate a Pioneer Village which is a collection of original and reconstructed buildings representing life in central Florida around 1900. The original buildings were donated by descendants of some of the pioneer families from that time period. The reconstructions are replicas based on historical records which were built to complete the story of pioneer life. I am the education manager for this non-profit organization, running field trips and designing educational materials for them.

I was talking with one of our volunteers a few weeks ago during a kindergarten field trip and mused, “Can you imagine 100 years from now someone traipsing 60 kindergartners through your house talking about how you used to live?” It got me to thinking about the people whose stories we tell. They would not have thought of themselves as historically significant or worthy of showcasing to the world. Nevertheless, they were important because they lived – and that holds true for all of us. Each of us has a history that is important for lots of reasons. Your (or my) life story may not qualify as a best-seller topic, but it still is important to someone – and to God.

David, who succeeded Saul as King of Israel and who God describes as “a man after my own heart”, wrote Psalm 139 and accurately described how God views us and our individual lives. I’ve copied it below. Read it and think about your own life story.

“O LORD, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,’
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.
For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.
Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!
O men of blood, depart from me!
They speak against you with malicious intent;
your enemies take your name in vain.
Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
I hate them with complete hatred;
I count them my enemies.
Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!“

As your (and my) story continues to play out, may we thank God that He cares enough to have created us and knows everything that we are going through. Pray with me what David prayed – “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”