Darla

“Alec Guthrie’s voice, serene from the shadows, said, ‘You are not going to Russia. You are not going. All your life you have resented control and brooked no hint of instruction or guidance. This time, your will is not paramount.”
― Dorothy Dunnett, The Ringed Castle

“We have reached the open sea, with some charts; and the firmament.”
― Dorothy Dunnett, Checkmate

“And deep within him, missing its accustomed tread, his heart paused, and gave one single stroke, as if on an anvil.”
― Dorothy Dunnett, The Ringed Castle

“Romans 8:16 tells us that the Spirit bears witness to our hearts that we are children of God. Part of the mission of the Spirit is to tell you about God’s love for you, his delight in you, and the fact that you are his child. These things you may know in your head, but the Holy Spirit makes them a fiery reality in your life. Thomas Goodwin, a seventeenth-century Puritan pastor, wrote that one day he saw a father and son walking along the street. Suddenly the father swept the son up into his arms and hugged him and kissed him and told the boy he loved him—and then after a minute he put the boy back down. Was the little boy more a son in the father’s arms than he was down on the street? Objectively and legally, there was no difference, but subjectively and experientially, there was all the difference in the world. In his father’s arms, the boy was experiencing his sonship.”
― Timothy Keller, Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God