"May we carry on that dependence on God"

The story goes that many decades ago, a couple, raising six children on their Midwestern farm, were preparing for special guests.  Grandpa & Grandma S were coming all the way from the Northwest!!  Of course Grandpa B from a few towns away was eager to see his daughter-in-law's parents, too, so he made sure to be there when they would be arriving.  As soon as the Northwestern grandparents arrived, they and Grandpa B and the farm couple and their six children knelt on the floor and "started their visit with a real prayer meeting." 

Fast forward to April 2016, in the living room of a farmhouse a few miles away from the one where that "real prayer meeting" took place.  Folding chairs were shoehorned in between the couch and comfy chairs around the circumference of the room, and a few people sat on the floor.  Of the Midwestern farm couple's six children, the four who live nearby sat in a circle with their spouses and all six of their local children (plus a few spouses), and even three grandchildren.  And we knew that some of the aunts and uncles and cousins in other states were on a conference call at that very moment, meeting for the same purpose we were.

The host and hostess handed out our prayer list: a double-sided paper, listing each of the six children and their spouses (all living and now ranging in age from mid-70s to 90!), each of their children (and spouses), and each of their children (and spouses and children)!  111 names to intercede for!

We prayed for physical & emotional healing, school decisions, parenting wisdom, God's guidance in future spouses, His help in current marriages, provision for jobs, ministries (both formal live-by-support ones and informal people-we-meet ones), and more.  We prayed for greater faith and submission to the Lord.  An aunt in her 80s prayed that her generation would be faithful to the end, so that the generations coming up would be able to see their faithfulness, the way we look back and see the faithfulness of those who are already seeing our Savior face to face.

Yes, we saw family that Sunday afternoon, but we also met with God.

And, as the refrain of one of Little Guy's favorite picture books goes, "And it's good, so good, to give thanks to the Lord!"