Dear Friend,
Can you believe that we are already in the eighth month of 2025? Job reminded himself that his life was a breath, James tells us that we are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes, and the writer of Ecclesiastes urges us to remember our Creator in the days of our youth. So, whether the arrival of August features the return of the school bus or makes us nostalgic for days long gone, we rest assured that our times are in His hands.
My thoughts have turned in this direction because of a couple of encounters in the last month. The first was at The Cove (the Billy Graham conference center in North Carolina), where I met a couple who were celebrating their seventy-third wedding anniversary, and the second when, along with one of my granddaughters, I visited with Dick Lucas in London. Next month, God willing, he will turn one hundred! What an inspiration to be in the company of those who have been loving and following the Lord Jesus for decades and have lived to a good old age! It seems entirely appropriate that our book offers this month should help us to follow their example and teach us how to apply biblical wisdom in honoring our parents as they grow old.
Flying home across the ocean is not as exciting as watching the light show of a landing in Los Angeles or the dramatic skyline of New York City when heading for London. Much of air travel is learning how to manage the long stretches without succumbing to boredom or indifference. This can serve as a useful metaphor for the middle years of marriage. Because something is routine, it doesn’t follow that it has to be dull. It is probably true that the best of marriages are not sustained with the equivalent of a series of exciting take-offs and landings, but they are those where the couple has managed to negotiate the long stretches of routine activity with patience, imagination, and quiet grace.
Later this month, Susan and I plan to retrace our journey to the mountains of North Carolina, where fifty years ago we spent our honeymoon, and reflect on the goodness of God, who has kept us “going steady” for half a century. Now we have in view the couple I referred to earlier, who are blazing a trail en route to celebrating their seventy-fourth! They can testify to the fact that marriage is in some measure like hitting a golf ball well: It is not easy, but it is straightforward!
Please know that I make these observations keenly aware that they will be read by many who have never married or who are now no longer married. We seek to learn from each other, care for one another, and acknowledge that we are better together than any of us are on our own.
With sincere thanks for your prayerful and financial partnership, which enables us to bring God’s Word to an ever-growing audience in the vast, far reaches of the world.
With my love in the Lord Jesus,
Alistair
