MY MOST NOTABLE MEMORIES OF 2012

MY Most Notable Memories of 2012                                   Ron Unruh

This is my own personal list of cherishable memories over 2012 , arranged to reflect their value to me during this year of my 70th Birthday, during which many events were part of a 12 month celebration of that milestone.

UNRUH CHRISTMAS 2012

 Christmas 2012, and happily I slept until 6:30 am this morning. Neither a mouse or my spouse is stirring just yet. I am reflecting just now on how life and customs adjust with the years. Enthusiasm has evolved into satisfaction. A morning kiss will softly communicate our thankfulness for one another. Christine and I will give the other a gift we have chosen for ourselves. Santa is quite out of this picture.

MIGHTY MERCY

God loves to "magnify His sovereign strength." This is the answer to the question John Piper poses in the poem "Mighty Mercy": Why did God choose such "strange and roundabout" providence "[t]o get Messiah where He must be born?" This poem exalts God's absolute sovereignty in the "flukes of history."

LIKE MY FATHER

I used to hear that as one ages, the increasing tendency is to look like one's parent. I loved my dad but he lived for 28 years after retirement so I saw what old age is and does. I believe that I have managed to stave off the look alike predictability pretty well, that is, until a few months ago. I suppose it was when I turned 70 in September that I began to acknowledge that I am looking like my father; wearing my teeth like my father; struggling to wage a battle against skin irritations like my father; wearing my pants like my father; wearing my hair as short as my father; beginning to shrink in height like my father, becoming deaf like my father; having sight impairment like my father; living with unfulfilled dreams like my father. I am my father's child. That said, I know that I will do well if I can be as content for the next twenty years as my father was and if when I die, my family loves me as we have loved him. One other commonality with my dad ... I am married to a beautiful woman.

HAPPY DECEMBER 12,2012

Happy Dec. 12, 2012!

Today is a numerical marvel, 12-12-12.  Consecutive date sequences are rare occurrences and somewhat mysterious. This one is the last major numerical date of this sort on the Gregorian or Christian calendar for a long time. So, today is the last time that the month, day and year will all be the same number — at least until the next one which I will not personally experience on January 1, 2021.