Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:
for gaining wisdom and instruction;
    for understanding words of insight;
for receiving instruction in prudent behavior,
    doing what is right and just and fair;
for giving prudence to those who are simple,
    knowledge and discretion to the young—
let the wise listen and add to their learning,
    and let the discerning get guidance—
for understanding proverbs and parables,
    the sayings and riddles of the wise.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
    but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

• Proverbs 1:1-7

For the Lord Most High is awesome,
    the great King over all the earth.

• Psalm 47:2

He has remembered his love
    and his faithfulness to Israel;
all the ends of the earth have seen
    the salvation of our God.
Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth,
    burst into jubilant song with music;
make music to the Lord with the harp,
    with the harp and the sound of singing,

• Psalm 98:3-5

Then I said:
“Lord, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments…

• Nehemiah 1:5

The photo above was taken when this blogsite had just gotten started.  I needed photographs as illustrations.

Now roughly nine years later, the boy in the photograph has graduated high school with honors, nearly a month ago.

He has several scholarships and is looking for more financial aid.  Since he was selected for all-state choir, he is eligible for that scholarship if he takes choral music classes.

He wants to be a veterinarian.  He has worked with animals large and small.  He was asked by the biology teacher to house animals over the Christmas break each year.

I am very proud of him, but the reason for this post is none of the accomplishments that he has attained.

My wife and I housed my son, his wife, and their one-year-old (at the time).  My son was out of work, and they came to Pennsylvania for nine months.  Their little boy hardly ever had a bad day.  He constantly had a smile on his face.

And his favorite word sums up the Scriptures above.  Whenever he saw something for the first time or heard something, his one-word reply was, “Wow!”

He had this joy of learning from that moment until now.  He moped during school breaks.  He was excited when he had a chance to go back to school.  He loves school.  He loves learning.  His vocabulary grew, but the “Wow” of life was present in each thing he learned.

And he grew up loving Jesus.  He loves helping others.

I wish him the best in college.  And may he never lose that “Wow!”

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.