“Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” Deuteronomy 11:18-20

I’ve come to realize that grandchildren are a time machine. Spending so much time with Amity and Dara has taken me back to the days of Kristin, Becky and Joni. There are significant differences – mostly in my energy level — but so much is the same as I interact with the girls all day long. Our conversations are wide-ranging and free. Nothing is off limits to talk about and comments made by one grand-girl will uncover a new thought path and we’re off to another discussion. In one errand-running car ride we’ll discuss pregnancy and birth and how mitochondria work and what they did yesterday with their friends and their eagerness and anxiety about school and why their Mommy died and what heaven is like and the next movie they want to see and clothing choices for school and what a certain word means, etc., etc. We are free range, organic conversers.

The girls are typical sisters loving each other deeply one moment and ready to destroy each other completely the next. They own themselves and their freedom to choose never doubting that it is their birthright to decide who they are and how they will live. I rejoice in this strength in them and seek the Lord’s guidance in how to love them into full surrender to Him. They are devoted to their father looking to him for direction and love simultaneously wanting to take care of him and protect him from the towering sorrow that shadows his life.

We’ve had the privilege of serving together several times recently. A friend of mine experienced the death of her aged father recently and in response to my offer to do anything she needed, she requested a small luncheon for her family and friends after her Dad’s memorial service. Her friends love her and we were eager to provide food and love for this gathering. The girls and I waited until my friend and her family left for the memorial service and with the help of another friend, we gained access to the house and left an abundant luncheon feast in her home awaiting the return of the family. The girls were thrilled to be ‘food fairies’ as they chose to call themselves and readily recognized this as an opportunity to comfort someone with the same comfort that was so recently provided to us. They experienced ‘pay it forward’ in real time and found joy in comforting another.

Yesterday we helped prepare goody trays for the ‘Bus Stop Café’ that is part of the great ‘School Supply Give-Away’ provided by area churches. The girls worked hard and lovingly laid out trays of cookies, muffins and sweetbreads to bless the teachers who come to ‘shop’ for free at the give-away. They were awed at the mountains of school supplies ready to be given away to help our hard-working teachers. Today they get to see the fruit of yesterday’s work as we go to help with the actual event. I’ve been thinking into next summer already. What do you do to keep two energetic girls occupied in God-honoring, growth oriented activities? I think I see random acts of service in our future together!

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” 2 Corinthians1:3-5