Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Grandparents

What is it about grandparents that makes them so great? I wonder, is it life that has made them this way? Should we all expect to love the way they do when we've lived as long as they have? Perhaps they have had so many opportunities to love and be loved, and they have sifted through all of the things in life that are unfulfilling and meaningless, and they know so much more deeply than we do the incredible importance of love. Because that certainly is all I ever got from my grandparents. I often wonder if everyone's grandparents were as amazing as mine were. And obviously not all grandparents are saints (I strongly believe that most if not all of mine were), but I'd have to say that the general consensus is, at least in the eyes of the grandchildren, that most are indeed saints. I believe if you asked any parent, they would say that children are the greatest blessing they have ever received. And I can only imagine what it would be like to see your blessings get little blessings of their own. Surely it reminds the grandparents of the time that their children were born, and it must be a bit of a chance to relive their parenthood, only with a lot fewer sleepless nights. And maybe it gives them a chance to love in the way that they might not have gotten to love their children when they were younger and less mature and not quite as well rested. I hope and pray that my future children are able to feel the love of a grandparent, because it could quite possibly be the earthly love that most closely resembles God's love for us. I recently read a passage by Charles Spurgeon about the blessing of old age, and how "At evening time it shall be light" (Zech. 14:7). The older we get, the closer we are to our homes, and the more settled our hearts surely become, because with each passing day we inch closer to God. Maybe that proximity is what accounts for the love that grandparents pour out unto their grandchildren to no end. Or maybe it's God's way of helping them leave their legacy of love as they draw nearer to the end of life. Or maybe it's a realization of how precious life is, how precious love is, how precious we are. I don't know what it is, but I know I am better for having received it, and I hope some day to be able to pass it on to my grandchildren.

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