In a time when the world appears to worship all things youthful, sometimes aging is seen as synonymous with diminished value and purpose. Because of this cultural posture, as older adults, we can be reluctant to accept God’s call to share His truth and wisdom from the lens of an authentic life lived in His care. But accept that call is what Dolores did when she took an assignment to mentor, nurture, and mother a broken young woman who was running from abuse and dysfunction while heading down a road presenting self-destructive choices.

Dolores was sixty-five years old, had raised two children, taught hundreds, and was enjoying peaceful retirement years, with her life’s partner, in a sleepy mountain town in western Colorado. Then she met Laura, who was in her mid-twenties. Dolores committed to being Christ’s hands, feet and heart on the road to turning a hurting, frightened, and angry spiritual refugee into a woman of God, wife, mother, artist, and scholar.

As you follow the narrative of their thirty-five-year relationship, it may change the way you see beauty and purpose in aging. And it may convince you of or reinforce your belief in the God who spares no effort when reaching out to the broken and lost. The blessings to both women are too many to be counted. It is likely that the blessings to the reader will also be too many to be counted.