No, we did not return to Lancaster! This week we spent a few days in Cooperstown and it was peak season. The colors were breathtaking, the rolling mountains stunning, and God’s handiwork glorious. It was all we hoped for and more.

Although we didn’t particularly choose to be there on October 11, we were mindful of the calendar. For eighteen years we have been acutely aware of when Stacey Day falls—the day our daughter went home to beauty that makes the scenes I just described pale; the day that left us with gaping holes in our hearts. But I’m still here, still remembering, still wiping unbidden tears. And God is here—as seen in creation’s beauty and felt in the calm of my heart.

He gave me a special gift this year and I want to share it with you. You may not have lost a daughter (oh, I hope not) but we all lose people we love, who mattered deeply, who left us with memories, sweet and bittersweet. So I share these words that just happened to be next in my reading of Charles Spurgeon.

Suppose that you are a professional gardener, responsible for a garden that is not yours. You take great care of several prize rose bushes. You fertilize, water, prune, and train them. Now that they are blooming in great beauty, you take considerable pride in them.

One morning you come into the garden and find that the best rose has been taken. You are angry and accuse your fellow workers of taking it. They declare their innocence, saying that they had nothing to do with it. But one says, “I saw the Master walking here this morning. I think he took it.”

Is the gardener still angry? No, he immediately says, “I am pleased that my rose’s beauty attracted the master’s attention. That rose was his, and he has taken it. Let him do what seems good.”

It is the same with your loved ones… Thank God that He let you have the pleasure of caring and tending for them while they were here. Thank Him that as He gave, He Himself has taken.*

God is good.

*Beside Still Waters, Charles Spurgeon, Lest You Sorrow, 1 Thessalonians 4:13

Will I always regard Wednesdays as The Day of the Stroke? Exactly two weeks ago I was working on a rough copy of the blog I would send out that night. Of course, that didn’t happen. Days later I came home from the hospital and glanced at my desk. There was my well-planned, numbered, and prioritized to-do list, with only a few items crossed off. My life had been abruptly interrupted and most items on that list didn’t matter at all.

At the outset of 2022 I determined to FILL the new year with good things—virtues and priorities that would make my life more fruitful. I held myself accountable to you, my friends and readers, by blogging about each one:

• Thank-Full
• Peace-Full
• Mind-Full
• Hope-Full
• Mercy-Full
• Joy-Full
• Grace-Full
• Prayer-Full

A stroke wasn’t on the list but, then again, our lives are punctuated with events not our lists. This is why it’s vital to live God-aware—to grow in His likeness, to reflect His heart, and to maintain ongoing conversations with Him. Then, when life is interrupted, we will discover our hearts are thank-full, peace-full, mind-full, hope-full, mercy-full, joy-full, grace-full, and prayer-full.

May He grace each of us with eyes to see Him more clearly, ears to hear Him more precisely, and hearts to follow Him more intimately in 2022.

The Lord  bless you and keep you;
the Lord  make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;
the Lord  turn his face toward you and give you peace. Numbers 6:24-26