On my otherwise deserted front porch, I sit quietly, rocking gently in an antiquated rocking chair, listening to the sounds of the forest area I call home. Hearing these sounds, how can I not acquire a sense of peaceful wonder?
I am grateful for the years I’ve been given in this peaceful place, for the husband I still enjoy having with me, for the children who visit often, for the grandson who is growing into such a fine young man. Only now, in my retirement, in the later years of my life, do I seem to appreciate all these gifts. I’ve chosen to settle into a slower, languid pace.
I make the most of what I now know is important: faith in a loving, forgiving God; love and respect for my loving husband; and an ever-abiding, manifold love for my children and grandchildren.
God is the reason for all that I survey.
This message is an excerpt from “Great is thy faithfulness” by Ruby Kelley in the April 2019 issue of Gather magazine. Today we remember Basil the Great, bishop of Caesarea, who died in 379; Gregory, bishop of Nyssa, who died around 385; Gregory of Nazianzus, bishop of Constantinople, who died around 389; and Macrina, teacher, who died around 379.
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