Hello, Husband

My dear husband of 65 years...today.  As on the night of our wedding in Minneapolis, Minnesota, there is snow a blowin ' here on our mountain. The hardy Scandinavians who graced us with a beautiful wedding and reception filled the church.

I am so curious about so many things.  What do you look like? The Word tells me you do not have your glorified body yet because we will all receive those at the same time. All of our immediate family will be there. Our preferred Exit Plan would be to zoom in simultaneously, but as you always said: "We aren't in management!" Do you know what is going on down here or would that taint Heaven? What are you doing? When our remaining family was together for my 86th birthday last Sunday we wondered if you and Doug are buzzing the Planets as you "buzzed" our houses when you flew over Bear Valley. You always told people: "When you read in my obituary that I have died, don't you believe it! I will have just begun to live!" I surely would like to know what that  "living" looks like. ...

You were such a shy young man when we married. Your disciplined study of the Word of God and your belief in what you read made you bold.  You were a hard worker all your life and I admired that so much. You lived and breathed II Timothy 2:2.  No matter how much pressure was put on you to aim for numbers in our ministries you kept right on pouring the Word into those God led to you whose mission was to teach it to others.  You aced every test the evil one threw your way, modelling for us the fact that God uses everything for His ultimate glory. I can't thank you enough for that.

The Thursday girls just left and I am so excited to tell you about them.  They are all building relationships with people who have an empty place in their souls that can only be filled by Jesus! Today I played your podcast "Meekness #2 " for them. They love hearing your voice and your good sound teaching.  (Ted's pod casts can be downloaded on 12stoneslegacy.com.)

I still have all of my own teeth.  Did you check them out before you married me...kind of like farmers used to do before they bought a workhorse?  My new hearing aids cost almost as much as our first house. The three nails that hold my hip together throb when the temperature drops.  My brain is still relatively good. ... remembering some things best forgotten.   You were always the "half-full glass" partner in this marriage.  I mentioned to you more than once that you weren't very good at spotting deceivers. Over my desk I have a picture of hounds racing pell -mell after a fox.  Blending in, running with the pack is the fox himself!  I Thesssalonians 4:11 ("Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, mind your own business and work with your hands.") provides a check on me:  If I don't have a hound dog in the race I pass.

The country is a mess, no matter how wide a brush the president chooses to paint his picture.  We were given much as a nation and much, therefore, is required.  Am I scared? ...not for me. ...but for our families?   Persecution will make them strong. ...just as it has down through the ages.

I love you and have since we were seventeen!

How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is giv'n!
So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His heaven.
No ear may hear His coming, but in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in.

Love,

Your Jo