An Inkling
Fall is my favorite
season. I was reminded of that Monday as
Sarah and I celebrated her birthday by driving out to Montpelier. The autumn colors were amazing, and the cool
dry weather made for a delightful tour of James and Dolley’s place.
With the beauty of that day
and it being Sarah’s 57th, I got to thinking about life’s
seasons. We married when we were just
entering the spring of life, only half way through college, but we thought
ourselves well enough seasoned. By God’s
grace our early spring marriage served all the more to season us, and he has now
granted further seasons.
In that spring I saw my bride
blossom as a young woman. She was
beautiful in so many ways as she finished college, worked every way she could
to help me get through seminary, launched as a mother of three daughters, and
learned the complex roles of a pastor’s wife.
That beauty grew yet richer as
summer came. She brought great love and
wisdom to our girls in their childhood and teen years. She came into her own as one gifted for
ministry, serving both in our congregations and in local and national
ministries. Then late in her summer
season, she launched our three daughters as brides.
Now it’s fall. And as beautiful as she was in her spring and
summer, I would not have imagined that there was something lovelier still to
come. But so it has. As with the beauty we beheld all around
Montpelier, I can testify of Sarah that she is even lovelier now as a middle-aged
grandmother than she was in the blossoming of her spring and the fruitfulness
of her summer. Her long walk with Jesus,
far from sapping her, has seasoned her beauty in the most amazing ways.
And it all makes me eager to
see what God does with her in winter.
How is he seasoning you?
Still smitten,
Keith
