It felt very good to have him walking beside her. Good like rest and quiet, like something you could live without but you needed anyway. That you had to learn how to miss, and then you'd never stop missing it.

We inhabit, we are part of, a reality for which explanation is much too poor and small.

If we focused on using the opportunities we have, which are very great by any standard - health, longevity, comfort and privacy, endless resources of culture and information - we would not just navigate this world, we would leave a good inheritance to succeeding generations.

A man can know his father, or his son, and there might still be nothing between them but loyalty and love and mutual incomprehension.

There are several sources for my appreciation of pastors and the way they are described in this book. One of them is reading history and realizing that they had a profound creative impact on the Middle West and the settlement of the Middle West.

Rejoice with those who rejoice." I have found that difficult too often. I was much better at weeping with those who weep.

There is more beauty than our eyes can bear, precious things have been put into our hands and to do nothing to honor them is to do great harm.