As many of my readers know – perhaps you, being one – my wife and I have one son – who went home to Jesus last December – and zero daughters.
“Mitchell, party of three!”
“Make that two!”
::Sigh::
And, as some of you also know, I wanted exactly four girls and a son when I entered into matrimonial bliss with Sandy. Alas, God gave us a boy, in quite a miraculous way, which, if you didn’t already know, can read about in a prior post. The way in which Graham came into our lives more than makes up for a quiver-full of daughters, believe you me.
But God –
Isn’t that always the way of things?
But God – who knows best, and who redeems, reshapes, revisits, restores, rekindles and regenerates – knew the longing in my heart from decades past. He doesn’t forget. He heard me ask my mom, when I lay broken and newly paralyzed long ago, if she would ‘settle’ for adopted granddaughters. He’s seen and felt the pang in my soul when I see dads out with daughters, wishing I knew what that was like.
Graham would’ve been a great big brother.
::Sigh::
But God.
Is good.
And that’s enough.
And because of a “but God” that means the story isn’t finished!
For the past three-plus years, I’ve been given a small flock of guys and gals – twentysomething’s – to whom I’ve been honored to be a father of sorts, mentoring, investing, loving, doting, caring and generally being proud of.
So when I received this* from the gals in our group – the finest concentration of young godly women I know – needless to say, the father in me went totally verklempt by the daughterly love from them.
I carefully broke the fancy wax seal, unfolded the letter, and found a blessing they’d written for me.
It read:
Dear Pastor Scott,
(I instantly forgave them for the missing nomenclature ‘Pasture’)
We see in you: Leadership, Humility, and Mentor
(They already had me at the Oxford comma)
We all join together to say thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Thank you for being obedient to God’s will, and for stepping into the position of being our leader and teacher. Thank you for leading with such grace, mercy and humbleness. We all are so grateful to have a place to call home with the Millennials. We could not have asked for a better Mentor and studies of the word of God. You have taught us to be women after God’s heart, to realize that we are beautiful, but not because of our outward appearance, but because our Father is the Creator and He hand-crafted each of us into Hus image, and lastly, you have taught us not to settle. To not settle for men, because we have the only refuge we will ever need in God, to not settle for a mediocre life, because we serve a God of immeasurably more, and to not settle for what we know of God’s word, but to continually dig deeper and press into the promises of God that we know to be true. We are blessed to call you teacher and friend. We continually pray that God will use you in whatever way He pleases, to build His kingdom and that you will be an obedient follower!
In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. 2 Timothy 4:1-5, NIV
Thank you, darling Daughters of Zion. I receive that – and it is my intention to live in the blessing you have spoken over me.
Thank you also – each one of you – for offering all us guys – so generously – a dazzling portrait of the breathtaking beauty of the resplendent Bride, who faithfully awaits her Bridegroom Lord.
Y’all are the bees knees!
_______________
*each of the young men received beautifully crafted blessings from our gals also.