January 23rd
Read: Psalm 145:1-21
People and places are so often linked in my thinking; my grandmother in her kitchen, my father fishing on an Adirondack lake, my sister and I walking the streets of our home town, my first in-laws and their lake cottage, my friend Janice in our high-school study-hall. No matter how many years pass, these are the memories I hold. No matter what more recent events have occurred, those people and places are slotted together in my mind.
How gracious is our God to help me not always to see Grandma on her deathbed, my father in the throes of Alzheimer’s disease, my sister in her suicide attempt, or my in-laws in their last illnesses. Somehow God softens the bad memories and enhances the good ones for me. Isn’t He wonderful?
THE HOUSE ON LONDON BRIDGE ROAD
The old house still stands on a rise near the road,
Possessed by a sentience of time, ever-slowed.
Its windows have mirrored a wagon, horse-drawn,
And youngsters in knickers have played on its lawn
And swung on the maple that o’ershades the roof,
Yet still it stands stalwart, from change held aloof.
Its yard slopes away to a daisy-filled field
And yonder an apple tree ripens its yield.
There’s still an old woodshed tacked on out in back,
And its shingles are curling and starting to crack,
But my eye does not notice such commonplace things,
For larkspur still beckons to humming-bird wings
And hollyhocks welcome beside the front door
As they did in my childhood, those sweet days of yore
When Chaser would greet us with glad, joyous bark
And evenings we’d capture a firefly’s spark.
Yes, there it still stands on eternal bedrock,
And to enter it surely must turn back the clock …
And it does, in a way, for there through my tears
I see the dear heart of this house, full of years
That have taken their toll on her elderly frame,
But the love in her eyes is forever the same.
Prayer: I thank You, Father, for all the pleasant moments and memories of my life. They far outweigh the bad ones because of Your goodness to me. Help me to appreciate each moment as it comes.
