August 26, 2021

Dear Grandchildren:

Last month, I did a funeral for a classmate of your grandmother’s and there, I used the theme of telling her story. And it got me thinking that we all are living our story.

Life is a story. Life doesn’t come to us like a math problem; it comes to us the way a story does, day-by-day, scene-by-scene. You wake up and wonder, what will happen next? You don’t get to know until you live it out. You must enter in and take the journey as it comes and that is the way life is lived.

And your life or story is lived like chapters in a book. Your childhood is hard to remember but it’s remembered by the pictures someone took. That’s how I remembered my five-year-old birthday party where I was dressed up as a cowboy.

As you enter your teen years, your story grows. Learning how to drive, playing sports, and making new friends. You experience the joys of achievement and the lows of disappointments and how to handle both of them. You enter into relationships that can be short term or long lasting. Your grandma and I met in our teens, and our story is still being lived sixty years later.

As I think back, I’ve already lived most of the chapters you’re still facing-the chapters of marriage, raising children, and learning to live together. Included in this chapter is your work or vocation. And sometimes it involves moving to a different city-this means new friends and new challenges.

Throughout your story, there are different realities. Take for example, your relationships. Are you a people person that enjoys others? In your work, are you a team player that desires to get the job done no matter what? In your private life, are you honest and faithful when no one is looking? You see, only you know the answer to these questions.

For example, I grew up playing sports, so they have always been a part of my story. Since I really enjoy winning, I had to deal with the honesty factor in golf. When I played racquetball, no one can cheat because of the game, but golf is a sport where many times, you play on your own honor system.

And in life, you realize that life sometimes isn’t fair. Why did I have that accident? Why did she die so young? Why did I get Parkinson’s at 66 years old? On and on it goes. These are questions without any real answers, but they can really affect our life.

And in every story, there is an ending that is happy or sad. Don’t we all want the, “and they lived happily ever after,” ending? Stop for a moment, and let it be true. They lived happily ever after.

These may be the most beautiful and haunting words in mankind’s entire library. Why does the end of a good story leave us with a lump in our throats and an ache in our hearts? If we haven’t become entirely cynical, some of the best endings can bring us to tears.

Because God has set eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Every story we tell is our attempt to put into words and images what God has written in our hearts.

You see, every story has an ending, including yours. Have you ever faced this? Even if you manage to find a little taste of joy in your life, even if you are one of the fortunate souls who finds love and happiness in this world, you cannot hang onto it. You know this. Your health cannot hold out forever. Age will conquer you. One by one, your friends and loved ones will slip from your hand. Your work will remain unfinished. Your time on this stage will come to an end. Like every other person gone before you, you will breathe your last breath.

Then what? Is that the end of your story?

As I mentioned in my opening paragraph, I started thinking of this story line conducting this lady’s funeral. She died at 75 years of age. The question I ask is this: What is life?

Is it living 75 years on this planet? Heavens no!

You know I had to share the rest of the greatest story ever told. The key words in this story are love,believe, follow, and more love!

The Bible says that God so loved you and that’s why He created you. And He asked you to believe in His Son and to follow Him all the days of your life. Jesus then said to those who believe to love one another as much as you love yourself.

That’s why it’s the greatest story ever told!

Well, Grandchildren, continue to live out your story and know how much I love you! 

Grandpa

Featured Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay