How little I understand the ways of the King. Last night several friends and I attended a function at St. Charles Seminary in Philadelphia. We listened as Father Dennis Billy dedicated his newest book to Al Groves. In front of an audience made up mainly of Catholic clergy Farther Billy explained how Al had pointed him to Christ years ago at Dartmouth.
Two years after Al died Dennis was telling them that Al expemplified true spiritual friendship. Al's love for people, his gentle demeanor and his rigorous intellectual honesty continue to reach people in unique ways.
Each day is salted with the tears I shed as I miss my best friend. But Nancy's paintings are finding a wider audience these days. And the fresh wound I feel allows me to move toward young parents grieving the loss of their unborn child, or a student mourning the combat death of his big brother. The pain I carry pushes me to others in pain.
Tonight I picture Al and Nancy as two stones thrown into a clear lake. Even now their ripples still disturb the surface, spreading his love in ever widening circles.
Why does this surprise me? In the garden of the King, a seed must fall to the ground and die to produce a crop. The seeds germinated through Al and Nancy will continue to yield harvests for many seasons to come.
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Hi Dan and family. Just wanted to say I still read every posting and pray for your family every day. Dan, I really pray for KJ too - as a 50 year old grieving the loss of a daughter who would have turned 22on March 2nd, it strikes me that it could just have easily been Jess who lost her mom, and she would have been in KJ's shoes. So I pray that the love your family has for one another and the blessing that Nancy was to each of you will continue to be used by God to heal your broken hearts. I think I told you before that Jess had been following your blog since October last year, and it was marked as a "favorite" website; I like to think that she and Nancy have connected in Heaven and are somehow aware of all that God is still doing as a result of the lives they lived as such Godly woman. Take care, and God bless - Cindy
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