In a few days I will be 59 years old and it has me remembering my parents. When they were this age they were looking forward a few years in their lives and dreaming about their retirement together. During a vacation trip in the mountains, they found a little piece of property my Dad would later call a "Bit O'Heaven" and they purchased it. It came with two rustic little cabins situated at the bottom of a ridge nicely hidden from the road and just about everybody driving along it. The greatest feature of this little bit of heaven however is the creek of cold flowing mountain water which defines one of the edges of the property. The steady flow of the water over and around the clay earth and many rocks which help define its path give the place a feeling of calm and peace.

Mom and Dad loved it and shared it often with my brother and I and our families. They absolutely reveled in having their grandchildren be with them at "the cabin". My parents are now citizens of the real heaven and now my wife and I are blessed to have this little slice of heaven on earth. We too enjoy being there very much and we hope and plan to share it with our grandchildren someday. We were there earlier this year for a little over a week enjoying the sounds of the creek and the beauty through which it flows.. Our oldest son was with us there for most of that time and we all enjoyed a restful, quiet and peaceful break from the rest of the world and all the craziness of it.

One early evening about dinner time our little Bit O'Heaven and the surrounding area experienced a very fierce storm. There was not very much wind, but the rain came fast and furious and it kept raining hard for quite some time. The water in the creek started turning an orange-brown color from the clay of which the earth is made there and it began flowing much faster as all the water from the rain came flowing down from the mountain peeks above us. Before long our peaceful little creek seemed more like a raging river! The creek runs within just a few feet of the cabin, so we had a front row view. It was an awe inspiring site to see.

Somehow, I saw in all of this a reminder of our all-powerful and ever-loving God and His inexhaustible mercy. I was reminded by His Holy Spirit that God's grace is always flowing in our lives. It is always present whether we recognize it or not, whether we want it or not and even whether we believe in it or not. His grace flows through our days just like the steady mountain creek which never runs dry and never overflows. You can always hear it if you listen for it and yet it is so easy to be distracted by other things and forget that it is there. When the storms of our lives come along, those we create through our own knucklehead decisions and those which come through no fault of our own, well that is when His grace flows even more and rages through our hearts longing to be received.

So today whether your life seems calm or stormy remember that the Creator of the universe, Who made you and loves you, is with you always! His grace is flowing out to you right now. Receive it! Receive it through prayer, fellowship with others, learning about your faith, participating in the sacraments of the Church and in serving others. He is always with us and when the storms unleash their fury upon us, His grace becomes like a raging river flowing through our lives.

From Live4More Men’s Discipleship Ministry

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