Ok. I'll be honest. As a Christian, I kind of hate this question. I always feel like the "right" answer is supposed to Jesus or Mary or one of the apostles or Moses or some other great biblical character. Now, don't get me wrong. If I could magically be transported back in time and have dinner with one of those people, I would do it in a heartbeat! It would certainly be amazing to sit at any of those people's feet and just hear their stories and learn from them, but the way I see it is that I'm going to have eternity with them. Eternity is a really long time. I can't even fathom it in my little brain. I've tried to. So, I figure I can spend all that time with them. If I only have one shot at dinner with someone, I'm going to pick someone else.
I thought about it and I would love to go back in time and meet my great-grandfather, Pliney Mallory Pratt. Yes, that was his real name. He died when my mother was about 9, so obviously I never met him. From everything I've ever heard, he was a really wonderful man. I would love to have some real memory of him more than just a picture and someone else's story. That would be really special to me. And I would love to tell him about all the grandchildren, great-grandchildren (one of whom is named Mallory after him), and now great-great grandchildren he has. Unfortunately, he didn't have any sons to carry his name on, but I hope he would be proud of the way his legacy has passed on.
So there's my choice. It's no one world famous who did anything really great to change the world, but I wouldn't be here without him and it would be really cool for me!
Thanks for reading!
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| Some of Pliney's descendants. I hope we've made him proud! |
Even as a Christian, I don't think there's any one "right" answer. Every single person you could name is one of God's children (whether they like it or not!), so to choose one of them is always an opportunity to honor God's creation by wanting or wishing to better know who that unique person is. I think I could be asked this question every day and never have the same answer. One day, I might be especially missing my Gram. Another, I might have just watched an episode of The Bible and want to discuss some of the more human feeling Jesus might have been having during Holy Week, because the Bible can only provide us with so much detail, since it has a far more important message to tell us. Or I might have just finished reading "Killing Lincoln" and think that I would love to sit and listen to Mr Lincoln tell a story, as he was known to do. Or I might say, "my friend, Theresa, because it's been a long long time and it would be good to catch up." See? No wrong answers. =)
ReplyDeleteThanks! We'll have the chance for dinner! We're planning a Disney trip for February 2016. It seems so far, but I know it will come much quicker than I like to think, so mark you calendar! ;)
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