The job of a grandparent is to make a grandchild feel beloved, special, secure. My grandmother did that for her grandchildren. Now I try to do that for my own grandchildren. World events can and do storm around us, but as grandparents we put aside our fears and concerns to give our grandchildren time and space to grow up happy and secure… Knowing that when they are grown, they will have storms of their own to deal with.
Today Frank and I meet our granddaughter Hannah and her family at the zoo, to celebrate her 4th birthday. There is new snow on the ground and a crescent moon in a pale winter sky. It will be cold. But the job of a grandparent is to make a grandchild feel loved and secure. So we will be there. For Hannah’s birthday.
It is Hannah’s turn. To be a child, running, happy, carefree.
Frightening things are happening today in Europe. I feel shaken, apprehensive about the future. But this is Hannah’s day. My role is to help her to be happy. To feel safe. To feel loved.
To feel the way I felt at my grandmother’s house.
Sometimes when I can’t sleep I go to my grandmother’s house, in my mind. She had a huge West-facing upstairs bedroom that my sister Mary and I slept in when we visited. In summer that room was filled with light for hours, long after we went to bed. I could get up and sit and look out the window, feeling the warm breeze, soaking up the tranquil views of grass and trees and farmland, sneaking a chance to read from the books my mother read when she slept in that room.
I felt so secure there…. So happy… So beloved.
My grandmother faced many challenges in her life: times of struggle, and pain, and fear. But I knew none of this, when I was a child. To me, my grandparents’ farm was a tranquil, safe place, full of sunshine and peace. A place where I felt special, where Grandma’s face would light up when she saw me, where she would stop work to listen to me play the piano. “You play so well,” said Grandma. “I want you to have my piano one day.”
My grandmother had a deep faith that took her through all the challenges in her life, a deep faith that came out when she sang. I can still see her, singing her heart out when she was in her 90s, her face glowing even though her voice had grown husky.
Her faith got her through her hard times, just like our faith will help my generation through ours.
Today I remember Grandma’s favorite hymn, the one she chose for her funeral, as I get dressed and ready for the zoo. Guide me O thou Great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land. I am weak but though art mighty; hold me with thy powerful hand.
It will run through my head as Hannah runs to see the children’s zoo, and the monkeys, and the penguins. Strong deliverer, strong deliverer, be thou still my strength and shield; Be thou still my strength and shield.
Like my grandmother, I will turn today from anxious thoughts to trusting God, to loving my family and grandchildren. Like my grandmother, I choose to sing in my heart, and to reach out in love, instead of living in fear.
Later today I will play the piano, my grandmother’s piano, that is now in my home. I will sing. I will think about the special role of grandparents in a child’s life. I will be grateful for the God who brought my grandmother safely through her long life, and who will bring us safely through ours. Songs of praises, songs of praises, I will ever give to thee; I will ever give to thee.
Guide Me, O thou Great Jehovah,
pilgrim through this barren land.
I am weak, but thou art mighty;
hold me with thy powerful hand.
Bread of heaven, bread of heaven,
feed me till I want no more;
feed me till I want no more.
Open now the crystal fountain,
whence the healing stream doth flow;
let the fire and cloudy pillar
lead me all my journey through.
Strong deliverer, strong deliverer,
be thou still my strength and shield;
be thou still my strength and shield.
When I tread the verge of Jordan,
bid my anxious fears subside;
death of death, and hell’s destruction,
land me safe on Canaan’s side.
Songs of praises, songs of praises,
I will ever give to thee;
I will ever give to thee.
William Williams
1771