Sixty Years Ago- today!

SIXTY YEARS AGO TODAY, exactly, was a Saturday- the day I left home.. Lawrence and Louie Durkee, and Joanne, their daughter, we kind enough to take Lennie and Roy Laudermilk and me along with them to take us from Akron to Boston, to Eastern Nazarene College. Six adults in a nice new but quite compact Plymouth sedan.
The trip took two days. To say I was apprehensive is understatement. I was close to insanity with homesickness. We drove all day and stopped for the night near Syracuse. Mr. Durkee paid for tiny tourist cabins, and Roy and I shared a room just big enough for a bed.
That night I took out my little Bible and opened it "by chance" to Isaiah. I came to Chapter 41, and read the tenth verse (Isaiah 41:10) "Fear thou not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I amthy God. I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness."
Right then I knew God knew where I was even when I did not. I 'got the message' that God was with me and would be with me. That verse that night was a life-line to me. It still is, these sicty (60!) years later- the Presence! The Presence!
I probably have come a long way in beginning to understand "grace"- the unmerited love of God for a sinner. But I know I don't know anything, really-- I have only begun! I cannot explain, or analyse, or prescribe to you or for you. But I can and do tell you that I have come to believe two things: God is GOOD! and God loves ME! (which is to say "God loves YOU!) I am not His favorite-- or maybe, yes, I am! We all are!