"Let us hope that we are all preceded in this world by a love story."

For so long, as long as I can remember,

I have wondered who my ancestors were.

What did they do, what did they look like?

Did they have hopes and dreams...

did they have struggles just like me...

were they brave,

were they kind?

Did they think about their future

children and their future generations?

Did they know the Lord,

did they love Him?

Were they called by His name?

~~~~~

Last year, my grandmother, on my mother's side, told me about her

great, great Uncle Newton Nutting... how

he was a judge and a U.S. Representative from

NY state. I decided to look him up for further

study and found with great delight, a book written

by him entitled, 'The History of One Day Out of Seventeen Thousand.'

This particular book is a story of one day, when he was ten years old, that he remembers from his life in October, 1850.

A day in which his father takes him out on a hunt,

and he kills his first partridge.

~~~~

I decided I must have this book, so off I sent for

it, paying dearly, but justly so, or so I figured.

I was just longing to hear of the lives

lived by my family...

years gone by...

but lived just the same.

I wanted a connection somehow, with

those gone before... to somehow glimpse

into their lives...

to live a bit alongside

them.

~~~~

In the book...

He speaks of his life on the farm in

West Monroe, NY...

of his beloved home and the sweet

land surrounding...

of his father and mother,

my great, great, great grandparents.

It was all such a dream come true almost,

to be reading of the lives of my

family... but something still

was missing...

until...

I read this...

'He [Newton's father] then picked up his gun, and was about to start on,

but he stopped, lowered the gun, and stood and gazed

long and silently upon the waters of the spring. He

looked like a piece of statuary, as he stood there-the

woods all about, and the beautiful spring just in front of

him. I asked him what he was thinking about. He

started, and looked at me, and said, " It is thirty years

since the first time I saw that spring. I was twenty-one

years of age, and these waters bubbled up and ran away,

just as they do now. All these years has this spring

been noiselessly sending forth to the world that same life-

giving water. It never gets weary, nor does it stop for a

moment in its good work. The Divine Being, to whom

we are all accountable, and who guides us all our lives,

if we will let Him, furnishes the fountain somewhere in

the hills. This spring, my boy, should teach us a lesson

in life. It should teach us that the things that come

from God's hands are pure and clean. It should teach

us not to stop in our efforts to do our fellow-men good.

It should teach us to do acts of love without show or

noise. It does tell us that God has provided, and will

provide for all the beings dependent upon Him."'

They knew Him...

they were His children...

what joy this was to me!

To read that my great... grandfather

believed such of the Lord...

and to see that even today, almost

two hundred years later, his words

of truth still ring true.

To me...

I can see that all that comes from God's

hands is pure and clean...

and good.

Just as He walked with and guided

my ancestors,

He will be with

me.

~~~~

I love the quote at the top of the picture...

we are all preceded in this world by

a Love story...

if we choose to follow Jesus.

And His Love lasts forever...

from generation,

to generation.

He remains

Faithful.