Wedding Thanks

"The best things are nearest: breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of God just before you."
Robert Louis Stevenson

It was a weekend filled with gifts - great and small. Their commonality was the Giver - a loving Father who pours out His love in ways that enrich beyond measure.

In the midst of the bustle and excitement of the big events in our lives, if we take a moment to slow and look closely, we see the evidence of  His abiding presence. It is there in the hours and days that seemed filled with sameness and failings. There in the years that seemed to stretch so far ahead and were suddenly gone, leaving us wondering if we had done all. There in the joys and sorrows, the gains and losses.

Through tear-dimmed eyes we see the things we couldn't see then. We see promises fulfilled, answered prayer, unexpected joy and hope for the future. And having seen we know that He is faithful. We can put, with renewed faith and immeasurable gratitude, the days and years that are to come.

I am so thankful for:

- children who yesterday (or so it seems) filled our home with noise and love and all those "growing up things," and today fill my heart with wonder at the adults they have become.
- grace that took my bumbling attempts at parenting and worked in my children's hearts with wisdom and love
- His faithfulness in times we simply couldn't see how it would all work out
- love that multiplies a thousandfold and comes back in ways we couldn't imagine
- Grandchildren - Just JOY!!

- these two - so dear - a beautiful daughter and a new son

- little granddaughters - looking through their eyes and seeing all the beauty and wonder

- His part in making it all so lovely - the majestic trees casting shadows, the gentle breeze, the grass carpet - and later the heavens filled with twinkling lights

- all those wonderful Grandchildren - new nieces and nephews for Nicolas

- my favorite girls

My heart is still processing it all. Sometimes it just has trouble keeping up with the rapid trickle of sand through the hour-glass. It wonders, feeling as it does that it is still just a young heart itself, how it is that the baby is all grown up and married? And just when did those Grandchildren grow so tall?

A look in the mirror explains it all, but truthfully, I am often startled to see that face, with its lines and wrinkles, looking back at me. It reminds me that I must hold the moments closely. This was a weekend filled with priceless moments. I am thankful.

linking today to Ann's Gratitude Community.

Blessings,
Linda

A little apology for the pictures: they are the ones I took - so we are conspicuously absent :-) When the newlyweds return, I hope to have much better pictures!