64 years

Dear God, 
Today , I have finished my sixty-fourth year and I thank you with all my heart that you have been my shelter and shield over the years. Without you Lord there would be no life worth living. 
I will soon start a new way of life, and I have been concerned and sometimes desperate when I think about the years ahead. But I know that  the years ahead are also your years and I have to let go of my anxiety and place it all in your hands.  
  
Faith is tested in different ways and  recently it feels like I've been walking a long uphill road where I have become more and more exhausted and now have to stop and rest.
You have led me to a serious road where things I believe in have been put to the test and I have become silent to be able to see what you want me to understand.
You have touched things I have long forgotten; you have shown me that after all these years together  with you Lord, it is still necessary to be watchful and careful i my walk in faith, so I can  know what is true and what is in harmony with your Word.

I have realized now, that the  seriousness of your guidance in my journey of faith, is related to a thought at the beginning of 2014. I felt my faith needed to be deepened  and in your infinite wisdom you  placed  me in emotional storms right from the start.You have reminded me this year, that I must deepen my  roots in you to be able to live my faith and not just talk of faith.
To trust you Lord is a lifelong lesson, and I I'm still learning.

Yesterday when I was going home from work Lord, you gave me an image of a memory I had forgotten ...
     A little girl is sitting alone on a firewood box beside the stove in a small country church. She is holding her song book upside down because she can not read yet, but she sings solemnly with the others and listens to the Word of God. It is an image from the old chapel where her faith first was founded. Now sixty-four years later I'm sitting on a bench beside that girl; watching her, with her white bow in her hair and her innocent look; and I'm thinking how  little she knew about  life and what she would be faced with.

I think you wanted me to remember this image so I would also remember that it is your constant love that has been, and still is, walking alongside me on my path through life.

I thank you Lord for my salvation through Jesus Christ, 
I thank you for your guidance though the Holy Spirit 
and I thank you for being my God and my Father.

In the name of the Father, 
The Son and The Holy Spirit
Amen.