It has been quite a while since my last epistle. When your mother urges me to write another I tell her that I have to feel “inspired.” Perhaps “laziness” is the culprit? When you are pushing 80 can that be a legitimate excuse?
I am very thankful to still have a church in our home and have about 20 souls willing to listen to me preach. In my younger days I thought that anyone my age had, as my dad used to say, “gone to seed,” or was ”put out to pasture.”
Your mother has become quite the photographer since I bought her a digital camera, and she can take a thousand pictures at no cost whatsoever. Most of the pictures are taken from our living room window. We have a magnificent view as can be found in no other place than Alaska! Cheyne has called our place “Last View Acres.”
We are well aware that we are living on “borrowed time” (Psalm 90:10). I can’t imagine what it must be like to grow old without the knowledge and confidence that your sins have been forgiven.
“No condemnation now I dread; Jesus, and all in Him is mine!
Alive in Him, my living Head, And clothed in righteousness Divine.
Bold I approach the eternal throne, and claim the crown, thro’ Christ my own.
Amazing love! How can it be, That Thou my God, shouldst die for me.”
(Charles Wesley)
Our daily prayer continues to be that all nine of you, your spouses, and our 36+ grandchildren will all be with us when we sing “Worthy is the Lamb That was Slain” (Rev. 4:11). This brings me to what I have wanted to share with you for quite a while now.
Years ago I read a poem written by Dr. Bob Jones Jr. I found it in the flyleaf of my Bible after moving to Alaska. It was so moving that I wrote him a letter expressing my appreciation.
“Sometime I shall not care
That wanton spring breathes perfume on the air,
That roses blossom forth serenely fair.
I shall not care that mountains high
Loom shadowed beauty ‘gainst a sunset sky
Or flaming eye of dawn has put to flight
Black-visaged night.
For I shall see his face
And all earth’s wonders, all of nature’s grace
Shall fade before the beauty of that sight
As candle flame grows dim when day is bright.”
Until Then—
Love, DAD
[Click on an image to enlarge.]
