This past week, I thought of my maternal grandfather. I haven’t thought of him for a long time because he died more than 50 years ago, and I’m not sure what inspired me to think about him last week.
One thing I remember about my grandfather was his sense of humor. He always was telling jokes, and we all laughed, even though I had no idea what that joke was about.
For instance, “Why did the monkey not eat the banana? Because it was not appealing to him.”
I tried to think of all those jokes, and then remembered something I did to my grandpa, which was to make fun of his hands.
“Grandpa,” I remember saying said, “how did you get all of those wrinkles on your hand?”
Looking at me, he replied, “Well, son, if you must know every wrinkle is the result of one year of hard labor.” He looked at me, smiled, and then we both looked at his hand.
“Will I ever get hands like that?” He laughed and then said, “Only if you live as long as I do and work as hard as I did.”
The other morning, I got up and went to my easy chair for my morning coffee. As I began sipping the coffee, I happened to look at my hand, and I was scared. Is that my grandfather’s hand? I almost had a heart attack as I was looking at my hand and seeing my grandpa’s hand. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It was as if my grandfather’s hand was right there holding that coffee cup. How in the world could that be? After all, he’s been gone for 52 years.
I looked at that old wrinkly hand and soon realized that it wasn’t my grandpa’s hand, but mine. It was like he was right there in front of me.
Looking at my hand for a few moments, I begin to count the wrinkles. If what grandpa said was true, that every wrinkle represents one year of hard work, I must be 150 by now.
In a few moments, I began to smile. The thought came to me what this challenge to my smile was. How many other aspects of my grandpa do I have?
This is an area I don’t want to visit. But is it that my grandchildren are seeing me as I saw my grandpa?
The other night, while watching TV, there was a commercial about getting rid of wrinkles. I watched it very carefully, and for a moment, I was tempted to get that cream to get rid of all my wrinkles.
When the commercial was over, I sat back and thought very deeply. What is wrong with being like my grandpa?
After all, he was a good man. What I should do is to live my life in a way that he would be proud. So, my wrinkles are here to stay.
Recently, I read in the Bible a verse along this line:
“Children’s children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers.” — Proverbs 17: 6
I’m beginning to see many things in life that lead to my grandfather. I need to leave something to pass on to my grandchildren so when I’m gone they’ll see part of me in them.
Dr. Snyder is a former pastor who lives with the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage, wife Martha, in Ocala, Fla. His email is [email protected].
