Ayden, Visiting Annie, the Miniature Horse Next Door. May, 2007.
“When I was a little boy,” our friend Hiram said to me at church one morning, “visiting my grandmother was about the very best thing in the world. I was always so happy when my mother told me we were going to see her.”
His offhand comment brought me up short. Sometimes I’m slow on the uptake, but it had never occurred to me that our grandlittles enjoy coming to see us. It sounds silly now, but it’s true. I delight so much in those visits that I hadn’t considered that the children also look forward to them.
I invite you now to think back to your childhood–or perhaps your child’s childhood. My grandparents took us to the circus and to the zoo and out to dinner. I remember those outings and I am grateful for them.
But if you asked me what first comes to mind when I think of those visits, I would say:
My grandpa made me “stilts” out of coffee cans and string. He would take me out to his workbench, use a hammer and nail to pound two holes in each coffee can, then thread string through to make handles. Finally, he set the cans, upside down, on the floor, and adjusted the strings to be the right length for me.
You’re growing, he would say. The strings were shorter last time.
My husband remembers that his grandmother would propose a walk up the avenue, which almost always included a stop at the five-and-dime for an ice cream cone.
We instituted a walk through our neighborhood with our own grands. They visit our neighbors’ horses and chickens. They collect acorns and pine cones. They inspect the cactus that grows beside the street.
It’s a leisurely amble down the street, nothing more.
But we’re gathering memories, right along with the acorns.
How about you? What do you remember from visiting your grandparents? Or taking your children to visit their grandparents? What memories to you hope to build with your grandchildren?
Indeed, may you see your children’s children.
Peace be upon Israel!Psalm 128:6 (NASB)
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