Hello God. It's me, Mara

You know, Lord, rifling through an old stack of saved papers; it’s amazing what one might find! It’s Valentine’s Day, how about a “poem” called “ONLY LOVE,” written long ago by Ann Thompson Jester:

“Only love will last. An old home place disintegrates when years have robbed it of its laughter, Joy and tears, yet from its memoried ruins, LOVE will rise to live and shine again in someone’s eyes.

“The year at spring is beautiful and young; before it’s gone a million songs are sung by silver-throated birds. Inconsequential is the lack of words.

“For their melodies the poet sings, and love, the source, from whence all beauty springs survives in time through words and song. It matters not if season, short or long, fade into destiny. In time against all odds love still remains … perfect and pure as God ordained it to be.

“Only love will last long after summer rains subside and winter winds are still. Though mountains soon grow bare and river beds run dry, there will out of love’s arid desert bloom, a lasting flower — love, with rarest, sweet perfume.”

Memories have a propensity to drift by; a few special country memories are being young and sitting high in the old cottonwood tree, eating raisins, nibbling chives or onion tops while hoeing in the garden. Watching cattle drink, seeing deer and rabbits, bringing the cows in from the meadow, remembering a big rock in the pasture, watching chickens scratch for seeds and bugs, playing with the barnyard kittens, feeding the horses in their stalls, looking at wild flowers, savoring apple blossoms’ scent, reading the Bible, swimming in the pit, watching sunrises and sun sets — ah — beautiful sights to the mind’s eye. Precious memories live in our hearts forever.

Thank You, Lord for Psalm 150:6: “Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord.”

Love Mara