I want to share a few stories that may help you along life's terrible, painful, dreadful, joyful, peaceful, beautiful ventures.

At my age, as I look toward the future, the land seems smaller now. As I look toward the past, the terrain is vast.

I choose to write it down—to remember, to offer it to those whose glimpse of the past may be shorter and whose vision of the future may be much wider. That’s why I’m writing these twelve letters to you. I’m writing them as if it were my final collection of reflections. A few more stories to give you while I can. The title of each chapter is the title of a book that significantly influenced my mind and my life. Those authors handed down their words to me. In the stories of this book, I hand down to you the lessons I’ve learned and those I wish I had applied with greater diligence. May you apply them better than I have.

One book, Peculiar Treasures: A Biblical Who’s Who, helped me glance at truth through words I often ignored and stories of Bible characters I too frequently rushed past. People with worries. People with wounds. People who made terrible mistakes. People who were loved by God, who looked like God, who were called by God. People like us. Like me. Like our family and friends. Like your generation and mine. That is us. The fallen ones are the loved ones. The scared ones are made in the image of God. The ones doubting any value they might possess are the peculiar treasures of life.

This is what I want you to listen. It is what I want you to believe. And though I believe it, I struggle at times to accept the idea that God might consider me a treasure. No matter how peculiar you or I may feel we are, we are His treasures. These are the things I want to hand down; I want you to hold, receive, and welcome.

Welcome my attempt with peculiar words as a treasure for your future. My hands can’t hold them too much longer. I want to hand them your way.