'Twas the day before Spring Break, and I was up early drinking my coffee in the Scrounge, waiting for a meeting to begin. Despite the hour, I was chatty and exuberant, and probably a bit obnoxious to my morning companions. I remember my InterVarsity staff worker Billy looking at me curiously that morning and asking me if my sister and I were raised by our grandparents since both of us embodied several "old-ladylike" tendencies. I couldn't help but laugh at the remark because I very often think about these characteristics: using formal as well as old fuddy-duddy expressions, waking up early just to get the day started, enjoying my good ol' musicals and black and white films, and longing to be a professional rather than a student in a generation I often can't understand.While my sister and I didn't grow up in a home with our grandparents as caregivers, our mom and dad instilled in us a tremendous appreciation and respect for our elders, and we even picked up a few extra sets of grandparents and aunts and uncles along the way! I never met my mom's parents, and relationally, I was never able to just hop on the knee of either grandparent on my dad's side. However, we took Grandmom Peg and Grandpop Bill as real grandparents even though our blood lines never crossed. We visited our dear friends Rose and Ed Soken every week until they passed away when I was seven. Our family "adopted" Aunt Betty and Uncle Bob and Aunt Dorothy into our family and frequently stopped in to see my mom's Uncle Tony and Uncle Johnny in their musky old home. When I look back on my early life, I see just how much I was influenced by a different generation and by the relationships I had with older members of our family, the blood-related and adopted members alike.
It makes sense to me why I love chatting with older men and women, hearing their life stories and allowing them to impart their wisdom on an impressionable youngin' like me. The summer after my freshman and sophomore years of college, I had the wonderful opportunity of working at Sandy Cove's Campground with the volunteers who served in the Camp Store and in campground maintenance. Many of the married couples I encountered were in their sixties, and for me, they were a constant reminder of what truly Christ-centered marriages could look like forty years down the road. With John and Sue Smith, Tom and Lucy Stackhouse and Henry and Ann Norment, I was overwhelmed by God's grace in their marriages, the second chances he provided for many of them, and the self-sacrificing love they expressed toward one another. In my heart, I yet again adopted another three sets of spiritual grandparents who shared their walks of faith, their struggles, their stories and their lives with me. I created their work schedules and assigned them their daily tasks, and despite my young age in comparison, they respected me and worked alongside me with love and compassion.
On Tuesday morning, April 20, the Lord unexpectedly took home one of his faithful servants, Henry. An intellectual and problem solver, Henry's type-A personality kept maintenance a priority at the Campground. He and I talked about politics, religion, our families, the trips he and his wife took across the country in their mobile home "Bethany," and the good books we had read. He and "Annie," as he always called his wife of only a few years, woke daily at 6:30 am for devotions and prayer together; they preferred to eat meals with one another during the work day; they walked hand-in-hand beside the shoreline every evening; he always opened the car door for her and she always called him on their "walkie-talkie" to check that he was okay throughout the day. I am so blessed to have called him my friend and to have witnessed his faith daily during those two wonderful summers. I know he is worshipping with his Creator, and I can only imagine the joy of the reunion! For Annie, my heart aches that she has lost the love of her life and yet I still see her strength and faith amidst losing her husband to a sudden rupture and bleeding in the brain. To everyone in her e-mail prayer letter, she writes: "He returned back to His Father in Heaven and the Christ he loved so much. As suddenly he came into my life 10 years ago, he was gone. But what a Blessed 10 years."
I do not fear growing old for I see both the endurance of love relationships centered in Christ and the peace of returning to the Father at the end of the great race. I am convinced that there is tremendous joy in the journey if we have the faith to fight amidst our trials. I am so blessed by the faithfulness of Henry and Annie and the other couples who treated me as one of their own grandchildren during those summers. I only pray that God may shape me into a woman of faithfulness, love and perseverance as he molded these elder friends in my life.
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