Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor has said that preaching is a borrowed art. Preachers have forever shared stories and illustrations with one another. Maybe the practice was established in the New Testament when Matthew and Luke borrowed over 90% of Mark’s Gospel when they wrote their own Gospels. They also shared material from other oral and written sources. Luke tells his readers how he did this in the first four verses of his Gospel. Many people have tried to tell the story of what God has done among us. They wrote what we had been told by the ones who were there in the beginning and saw what happened. So I made a careful study of everything and then decided to write and tell you exactly what took place. Honorable Theophilus, I have done this to let you know the truth about what you have heard. There are no greater biblical truths than the goodness, grace, and love of God found in this prayer of blessing that I am sharing with you. I first heard a similar prayer from my seminary preaching professor, Dr. John Claypool, at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky in 1967. Dr. Claypool was also the senior pastor of Crescent Hill Baptist Church in Louisville at the time. His prayers in the classroom and in church used the phrases, the goodness of God, the grace of God, and the love of God. The words goodness, grace, and love are three of the most often used words of the Bible. The creation story in Genesis, chapter one, ends with God’s pronouncement on what has been called forth out of chaos: “it is good,” indeed, “it is very good.” Many of the New Testament Epistles use grace and love in prayers of salutations and blessings. Dr. Claypool shaped a generation of students who went out and used his thoughts and words in their own sermons and prayers, as Dr. Taylor is doing for a new generation of ministers. Where appropriate and memory serves us well we should cite the origin of our stories and illustrations. It is with deep gratitude and appreciation that we say thank you for all who have helped to shape our lives and our ministries together in the family of God.