I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:17b-19)

Burned into my memory is the image of my father, a few days before his death, clinging to his well-worn King James Bible. It was the source of his inspiration, the place where his favorite scripture passage was written: "Who shall separate us from the love Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" (Romans 8:34-35 KJV). Despite a life of considerable challenge and personal stress, my father had most certainly been blessed with the powe…