From my journal: Last Saturday I led a memorial service for Grace Dorothy Busky, 95 and one-half years old, who had died peacefully in her sleep. When Grace was born, the automobile and the airplane were experiments. There was no air conditioning, cell phones, or refrigerators. She faced two world wars, an influenza epidemic, an economic depression and recovery, and the onset of the knowledge society with its computers, internet, and spam-spreaders.

Grace crossed the line into conscious faith in Jesus in her mid-sixties when members of her family and people from a local church told her the old, old story in such a way that she finally got it. No TV evangelist, no spiffy CD-rom—just some plain folk sharing faith. From that point forward she organized her life around the love of Jesus.

When Grace Busky was born, life expectancy in America hovered around forty years. During her years, this number doubled to about eighty thanks to medicine, nutrition, and technology.