Too Many To Declare

God continues to provide for our family through the overwhelming generosity of others.  Before we can even anticipate or express a need, it is abundantly met.  Today our family received an extraordinary gift from the church in Vermillion, South Dakota.
My dad began preaching for this congregation when I was around eight years old.  We were an extremely small group, often numbering less than thirty.  We grew to be as close as family over the years.  Not only did we spend hours together each week during worship, we also orchestrated frequent get togethers.  I have wonderful memories of playing flag football in our cow pasture, volleyball wherever we could set up a net, and croquet in back yards. We ate banana bars and jello topped with bananas and Cool Whip.  We took advantage of the extra snowfall by sailing on a sled...which was attached by a chain to a surprisingly fast tractor.  One of my favorite activities was playing hide and seek in the pitch black cornfields close to our farm.
These friendships formed so long ago have stayed with me through the years.  Even without seeing each other often, the feelings endure.  When my grandma passed away two years ago, our friends from Vermillion drove to Nebraska for the funeral.  I honestly cannot express how much this display of support touched us.  Those relationships we weave in childhood can help sustain us when life unravels.

"Many, Lord my God, are the wonders you have done, the things you planned for us. None can compare with you; were I to speak and tell of your deeds, they would be too many to declare." (Psalm 40:5)