We’ve spent the week with the family up near Ludington fulfilling a dream we have had for years to spend the full week together in a cottage near Lake Michigan, thanks to the generosity of friends.
We spent hours on the beach, watched the antics our adorable grand-children, walked the shore at sunset, visited some lighthouses, enjoyed good meals together and meaningful conversation.
One evening after dinner we all drove out to a secluded stretch of Lake Michigan climbed a dune, built a fire, circled our chairs, and watched the day end. Sweeping our gaze south to north there was noting in sight but the forest and the dunes and the great indigo, blue lake and the sky. Clouds rolled in over our heads but it didn’t rain on us. As the sun set into clouds it left a golden glow in the sky—still spectacular and a memory we will hold in our hearts on winter nights and lingering cold spring days when we long to be with people we love all together in a place where the sun is shining and we can wade into the water and watch the children play.
There is a sense of great satisfaction is seeing the adults our children have become and watching some of them raise children and make their way in the world.
When the house quiets at night and I am alone with my thoughts, the deepest prayer of my heart is that the children and the grandchildren will know and love God with all their hearts for all their lives and never turn away. They love each other. They each know and love God. Though we have failed Him, He will always be faithful to us. He always has been. He always will be.
Most of all, after our week together, I’m deeply thankful for the grace of God. The older I get, the more I see, the more I thank God for His mercy and his grace poured out on our family and I say what an elderly old saint once said to me: “If you see any good in our family, it is the grace of God.”
