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My oldest grandson (13) gives his mom (my daughter) a kiss |
Growing old has increasing times where I find myself happy and sad at the same moment. It all revolves around love and the passing of time. My daughter sent me the photo at the right of her being kissed on the cheek by my oldest grandson. I thought to myself: I remember them both as babies. I pushed my daughter in a stroller everywhere; at lunch we would look at each other across her high-chair while I fed her Gerber's baby food. At night I would gently rock her to sleep and hum lullabies. Two peas in a pod. There's nothing better than being a father.
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The same grandson as a baby about to go on an "adventure" |
When they learned to walk they began to move away from me -- at first with unsteady little feet then with increasing steady confidence. In their own time, decades apart, they both looked back to me for encouragement, then less with time. That's as it should be. Their legs strengthened and mine withered. They must increase while I decrease. But I was left with sweet memories of our cozy pea pods. They grew with a foundation of nurture. Every child deserves that.
(I have a tender memory dating back to 1976 when my daughter was born. Stevie Wonder's song about his daughter was a hit: Isn't She Lovely. I was a commercial television writer at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). The song came on the radio and I pecked away at my manual typewriter in time to the music. I was so happy to be a new dad and could not wait to get home to see my baby. Thirty-eight years later I still say "Isn't she Lovely.")
I watch now from the sidelines with sentimental pride, and wonder
where the time went and where life will take them. God created them for a purpose. My greatest desire for them (and all my family) is that they will walk each day with Christ, desire to serve Him, and discover the purpose for which they were created -- then pursue it.
I think I will revisit the old song. This for all the new dads and grandpas.
[Click on image below or this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVvkjuEAwgU for "Isn't She Lovely", by Stevie Wonder
Mark
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