The Words To Tell

Today’s message was written by guest pastor, Rev. Tasha Blackburn.

One of the most beautifully written books I have read in the last few years is Marilyn Robinson’s work Gilead. It is the fictional story of an old man who is ill and the book is his journal he wants to leave behind for his young son. There is a passage I go back to over and over again. Robinson writes:

“I’d never have believed I’d see a wife of mine doting on a child of mine. It still amazes me every time I think of it. I’m writing this in part to tell you that if you ever wonder what you’ve done in your life, and everyone does wonder sooner or later, you have been God’s grace to me, a miracle, something more than a miracle. You may not remember me very well at all, and it may seem to you to be no great thing to have been the good child of an old man in a shabby little town you will no doubt leave behind. If only I had the words to tell you.”

My prayer for each of us today is that there is someone in your life you could describe this way, someone who has “been God’s grace” to you. And, if there is, that you will tell them that this week. In all our lives we do not know how much time we have to be remembered by the people closest to us. And most of us do not keep a journal for them. So use your words to tell them what they have meant to you. Use them now and do not wait.

Paul tells us that faith and hope are great things but that the greatest of all the greatest things is love. Share some with the person who is a miracle to you.

Prayer: Lord Jesus I thank you for those people who carry me. I thank you for the ways they have shown me your grace. I pray for them this day. Please always guide and protect them. In your name, I pray. Amen.