There is no period of our existence in which we are not precious in His sight, as there is none in which we are not utterly dependent on His goodness and care. We readily acknowledge the frailty and helplessness of infancy and of childhood; but we are equally, and in some respects growingly, dependent on God in our youth and manhood, in the evening hours of life, and in the last hours and moments of our earthly pilgrimage. The humble soul rejoices in this dependence, even as the all-generous God delights in being our shelter, our strength, and our everlasting home. God, who is our only help, who is nearer to us than we are to ourselves, regards us ever with the deepest and most loving interest. No mother watches all the manifestations of the child’s growth and development with more tender love; no gardener looks with kindlier care and delight on his flowers and plants from the very commencement of their existence, than God watches our infancy and childhood, our youth, and the years of our maturity and strength, and the days which, to the outward observer, seems days of declining life and of decay, but which to God are days of inward renewal and of hastening to the ultimate glory.   

Our Life-Day - Adolph Saphir