David Bailey is the man behind the Pastrol Counceling Center “Restoration” at the First Presbyterian Church, 900 Second Avenue in Opelika and provides a monthly column for the Opelika Daily News.

I recently finished reading the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Gilead by Marilynne Robinson.  One particular passage stood out to me as the anchor of the book’s power.  I’ll quote it here, even though taken out of context it’s probably not as evocative.  The premise is that an old pastor (who fathered a child late in life) is dying, and he wants his son to know how much he loves/loved him.  Presumably, the son would read the letters when he’s grown older and his father is long gone.  Here’s the passage:

“I’d have never believed I’d see a wife of mine doting on a child of mine.  It still amazes me every time I think of it.  I’m writing this in part to tell you that if you ever wonder what you’ve done in your life, and everyone does wonder sooner or later, you have been God’s grace to me, a miracle, something more than a miracle.  You may not remember me very well at all, and it may seem to you to be no great thing to have been the good child of an old man in a shabby little town you will no doubt leave behind.  If I only had words to tell you.” (more…)