I spent the night with two long time friends.  One put me in my first pulpit, the other was a part of my heart before I was even born.  They are married to each other and wildly in love.

And one of them is seeking to chase the tentacles of cancer from his body.  It began in his bladder, did this invasion, and it has moved to his fine and voracious brain.  It has been two years of doctoring and drugging and changing eating habits and praying and breathing and surgeries and they are tired and aware of the succulent thing that is life.

Honest conversation comes easily when time seems finite.  Love is voiced freely when each moment is realized as precious.  The warm of sun, dreaming of dreams, speaking of gratitude and wonder; all are unwrapped as gift and marveled over with trembling and tender heart.

Oh, the mercy that is life and love.  Unwrapped, please God, in the temple of our hearts.