On January 23. 1874, Prince Alfred, the son of Queen Victoria, married Marie Alexandrovna, the daughter of Tsar Alexander II of Russia. The marriage is pictured as a political one, an attempt to calm relations between Great Britain and Russia after the Crimean War, even though the couple had met when she was 15 and fell in love immediately. Unfortunately, the couple's own developing friction between themselves began to undo those initial feelings and kept much from being accomplished politically. The continued tensions in Asia and other realms, didn't help much either. If ever there was an example it's this—what began as a passionate love affair ended with a philandering, and possibly polygamous, husband, and a princess-wife who was a spoiled Daddy's girl" who had absolutely no one in her new family or country who liked her They stopped trying to please each other and spent their time pleasing themselves. Even ropes of precious jewels, royal title after royal title, and crowns in her carefully done hair did not give this lonely woman a happy life. Her oldest son eventually committed suicide and her unfaithful husband died one month after a diagnosis of throat cancer.
But the rest of the world got something pretty nice from this affair. For the wedding, two bakers, James Peek and George Hender Frean created the Marie biscuit in her honor. "Biscuit" in England is what we Americans call a cookie. (Our "biscuit" is what they call a "scone," simplistically speaking.) This particular "biscuit" is lightly sweetened and crisp and became an instant hit. They are still eaten today, even in other countries than England. Spain has its own special version called Maria cookies. We have friends from Zimbabwe who have them at tea most afternoons. If you care to look, you will find recipes all over the internet. So this couple did not leave much of a dent in history, but their cookie did. It might be a small legacy, but it is keeping their names alive, especially hers.
What kind of a legacy are you leaving? Will people still talk about you after you are gone? I am old enough to have lost quite a few friends to death. They certainly live on in my memory, but they also live on in the memory of others. In our women's class we still talk about a widow who spent her last years putting things in order in the meetinghouse every Monday and Thursday. Lesson plans and bulletin boards were carefully filed, and new letters for those same boards cut out when old ones had finally become too soft and raggedy to use again. Even a couple of years after her death, we were finding notes she had left on walls and in the storage room about where to put what and how to use those letters without sticking holes in them with tacks! Another good sister's name always came up when we were coordinating meal lists for the sick and bereaved. We missed the dishes she always brought, and that made us stand and talk about our favorites of hers for a few more minutes.
After both of my parents died, people came up to me again and again as we traveled, or sent me notes or emails when they heard the news, telling me about the wonderful things they had done. I had grown up watching them serve, of course, but I never heard about the things they did in later years after the money crunch eased up some. They bought pews and hymnals for small churches. They would walk up to a preacher who had minimal support that he could lose with hardly any notice, and hand him a check "for something special." They were the first to donate when a need arose. And when my Daddy was dying, a hospice worker came to check on him one day, commenting on the big shop fan he had in his garage. "Wish I had one of those," she said. "Our air conditioner is out." When she left that day, he insisted she take the fan.
My mother passed 8 years after he did. When I was writing her obituary, it suddenly dawned on me that every one of her children, grandchildren, and their spouses were all faithful Christians. If ever there was a legacy that speaks on for years afterward, it's that one.
So what are you leaving behind you? It doesn't matter that you are still young. When do you think my parents started working on their legacy? It certainly wasn't a last minute chore. Those legacies took years to create, and those years pass far more quickly than you will ever believe—until it happens to you.
If my children and grandchildren remember my cookies, that's fine but I hope they remember the love that baked them. And I certainly hope you and I both have a far better legacy to leave the world than a tea biscuit.
“Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves, so that you don’t forget the things your eyes have seen and so that they don’t slip from your mind as long as you live. Teach them to your children and your grandchildren.Deut4:9
Dene Ward
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