I never called him Fred. To me, he was Granddad because that’s who he was to Sarah. He was married to Gammie. They were family from the start. I never, even on that first visit, felt like an outsider.
Sixteen years later, when the dance was finally over, like a country song, I carried his casket.
Baseball innings consist of three outs. Get three outs and you’ve won the inning. Even a long inning only lasts a matter of minutes. With life as crazy as it is, let’s not over-complicate it. Getting through 2020 sounds daunting, doesn’t it? And as good as 2021 sounds, we don’t know what it holds yet either. We don’t have to.
Just win the inning.
The fire’s sparks jump skyward like dancers to the rhythm of a beat I cannot hear. One after another—jumping, jumping, jumping. The constancy reminds me of the order of things, built into the very warp and woof of life. Sparks fly upward. You cannot stop them.
Then my mind wandered to the other things I forgot. That email at work I meant to respond to. The request in my personal inbox with an invitation to join a conversation on a podcast. The sermon prep I meant to get a jump-start on. The cheese Danish left somewhere in the back of my car for the church breakfast months ago. The older I get, and the more I do, the more I forget.
The play of a child when no one is watching is beautiful. It is who we all want to be: lost in a world of our own making, where it’s all ours. I left that place long ago, but my children still live there. They haven’t faced the real terrors yet that rob us of make-believe.
God’s excellent greatness is that he’s not too great for you. He’s never too busy. He always has time. And nothing ever goes against his perfect plan. Who God is for you is all you need him to be at every moment of your life. He’s not too great for you; his greatness is for you.
Of all the benefits of the gospel offers, none is higher than this truth of the Fatherhood of God.
What we need to get from our drab, everyday doubts and fears is a big vision of the big God who created this whole world, and who is re-creating it in the redemption of Christ.
Remember the old school-yard debate? “My dad could beat up your dad.” In a boy’s eyes, no one is stronger or mightier than their dad. It should be this way. Dads are strong and mighty. But though our earthly fathers wither and fade, God never can and never will.
