Remembering

This morning in church Rob asked a question, "What has God done for you that you are thankful for?"

My husband was raised in a good christian home, but life there wasn't always good. He ran away from home when he was 16 and I am pretty sure he stopped going to church before that. When he was 14 his parents gave him a bible, he brought it with him through out his travels, packed in a box with other things that he never looked at.

Yet, it was because of his prompting that I started going to church. It was because of his encouragement that our children and I have been faithful to an awesome God...

God promised me that John would come back to the faith of his youth and for over 30 years I held on to that promise.

When he got sick it was an honor for my children and for me to witness the grace of God in his life, to see the peace and strength that God gave him, he took it and held on to it, he did not let go and neither did we.

After God took John home, I found myself paging through his bible. I found it unmarked except for one place, near the very end, 1 Peter 1:3 , underlined in the scrawling hand of a boy...

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade - kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed...for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your soul."

...the received promise held on to by a 14 year old boy.

I will never stop thanking God for remembering His promises.