sun, dawn, nature

6/15/20 A Letter to my Grandchildren

Love and hugs to my very favorites, Ella, Claire, Kate and Lily,

I feel so fortunate to be alive in the year 2020!  

We are experiencing things that our world has never seen before…a combination of good and bad, exciting and scary that no one has ever before experienced in quite the same way.  Computers and television make it possible to see all that is going on all around the world in living color — all at the same time — even in outer space!  It’s amazing!  

Having said all that, I need to add just one thing.  All of these advances CAN CREATE PROBLEMS! Sometimes it is a bit overwhelming to see all the good and all of the bad that is going on in our world at the same time.  We were made to be able to handle the good and the bad that happen in our little world, today only—right now.  We were never meant to handle ALL the problems of our world.  When we try … it can be just too much! 

You have heard alot about the COVID19 virus.  People all over the world have become sick and many, many have died.  We have not been able to be together for such a long time because scientists believe that the virus makes older people sick more easily than other age groups.  For the first time ever, our country—our entire world — has literally shut down to try to control the spread of a virus.  That is the very first time that has EVER happened!

In just one week, we reached a total the significant milestone of over 100.000 deaths in America all because of a small virus we cannot even see. Multiply that number significantly and we realize worldwide families and friends have been devastated by loss of those they love!   In that same week, police officers unjustly killed a man instead of simply arresting him, leading alot of people all over the world to protest.  Many want things to change, and they want that change NOW!.  Some destroyed property and hurt other people to make their point. With all the chaos and bad news, it was tempting to let all the darkness distract from one amazingly bright spot in lives that occurred that same week … an amazing space flight in which a rocket took a little 19 hour jaunt some 220 miles out into space. to perfectly dock with a space station all moving at 17,227 miles per hour.   Amazing!  Breathtaking!  One day you will read about this week in history and you will try to remember where you were and what you felt.  I am guessing it will be hard to remember.

Papa and I lived through similar challenges when we were young.   They called it a ‘cold war’ with the country of Russia, a war where nobody fought, but our nation (as we now know) came the closest we have ever come to a disastrous nuclear war.  Our school days were peppered with what they called ‘duck and cover drills’ when to the sound of an alarm, we would each get under our classroom desks. I do not remember being afraid…just curious at all we were asked to do.  I think I felt it similar to our response to tornado drills, and that was enough for me.  Little did I know how close we came to experiencing the first dropping of an atomic bomb on the United States.

I felt absolutely certain at the time that my Mom and Dad and Grandparents were able to take care of anything that might ever be a problem.  I did not feel fear, for they ‘had my back’ and our God ‘had their back’.  I received a double portion of protection as well as my own guardian angel watching over me continually.  I fondly remember that sense of complete security, absolute faith and trust in being taken care of.

Yet, as birthdays come and go and we gradually receive the freedoms we long for as children and young teens—the freedom to make our own choices to experience life as it really is— little by little we begin to see the more painful parts of this world.  We begin to see that there are times when the security blanket that comes from Mom and Dad, Grandma and Papa is not always able to keep us absolutely safe.   We begin to see that many people are experiencing a very different life than we are, that there are hungry, hurting people who don’t know if they will have supper tonite—aren’t sure where they will sleep.  People do bad things to other people and make choices that hurt their families.  Our leaders and those that we trust disappoint us.  At times, even our God might seem very distant.   We begin to see that there is alot of pain and suffering in this world.

Our God never promised that because we love Him we would always have happy, carefree lives.  In fact He told us the truth—that life would be hard— but that we would never have to live without His close presence.  He promised something called an ‘abundant life’ .  He promised that we could live lives that even in the midst of very sad things, could still shine His light.  That is what our world needs now!  He promised that those who love Him would see all the circumstances of their life—the good, the bad, the happy, the sad—come together to create good.  I know that is hard to understand for those who are hurting badly… those who are hungry or very sick and wonder where God is in the midst of their sadness.

There is one thing I want you to never forget. One thing that will NEVER change.  The God of all creation— the God who created YOU—is totally aware of absolutely everything that is going on, the good, the bad, the ugly, the beautiful.  In the midst of it all, God is still in control.  He is all powerful.  And this God is filled with love.  He loves you!  He loves this world and He is not the least bit surprised by any of the things that have happened.

Yes, there is pain in this world. And there are bad people in this world…angry people who are full of hate and want to hurt others, often because they, themselves, hurt so badly.  You can tell which people are the hurting people by what and who they care about.  Many of them care mostly about themselves.  Many do not care about those people that are suffering but care only that they get what they want so they don’t have to feel their own pain.  There is often a story behind the story they are telling, often screaming!  Always try to understand the story behind the story!  Just maybe they have been badly hurt by someone in the past.

Why does our loving God allow pain in our lives?  I believe that it is because He loves us.  It makes us aware and warns us when something is wrong. If our bodies never felt pain, we might become sick or have a wound that made us very sick…we might ignore it and think that this is how things should be…until it was too late.  Pain can protect us from things that would bring us great harm.  Hopefully the pain in our lives will turn us to people who can help us and to our God who can help us to heal.  There are people in this world who never heal from the pain that they feel and they live in such great darkness as a result.  If only they knew how close they were to experiencing the light!  If only they could remember that things are the darkest just before the light pierces through to bring the dawn!

But this is the exciting part!

God wants to use each one of us to spread light…HIS light!  That is one of the reasons you were created and allowed the privilege of living this life on earth. God has filled you with His light!  Anytime I am with you, I see His light shining through you. I am continually encouraged by your joy and your energy.  Oblivious to the deepest sadnesses of our world, seemingly untouched by them, you are able to climb onto your bike and joy in the sunshine, or taste the sweetness of a candy treat— moving ever onward to your next adventure.  You seem to live above all the sadness, focusing on the joy of life, accepting— or perhaps ‘not dwelling on’— the negative.

You have heard me pray many times, asking God to help each one of you to discover what He created you to accomplish with your life for Him.  Each one of you have been blest with unique talents, gifts and passions. This was not just an accident, but a purposeful recipe that includes everything each one of you need to be able to accomplish all that you were created and gifted to do, for your joy in life and for our world’s benefit. Your lives will touch our world dramatically.  

Most of all, know that the true purpose of your life in this world is to honor and glorify the one who created you, Jesus Christ. Your God has placed His light in you and wants to use YOU to shine His light in the darkest places of our world.  He created YOU to be that light to help to bring good out of the darkest shadows of our world.

I can hear you say it, “Come on…Grandma…how am I supposed to do all that??”  

How do you share that light?  

Here are a few suggestions:  I warn you…these are very different suggestions than you will hear from this world.  But they are straight from God’s love letter to you, the Bible.  And you can count on their value and credibility!

Always find ways to help another person. 

It is in giving that we receive! Jesus modeled it for us.  God tells us that we should love one another, and that we should think of the other person as more important than we are. But God is not the only one who tells us this.  Mr. Rogers told us the same thing.  “In the middle of something very scary… to always ‘look for the helpers.” The helpers are often doing God’s work.  

Find ways to encourage another person to grow, and to do better.  

Yes, it is fun to win!  It is exciting to be best at something!  We all love to be #1!  But the truth is that #1 can be a pretty lonely place to be.  We can be MOST happy in this life, by helping others to advance, to see others flourish and grow.  Be happy when someone else wins a game and has a moment of feeling special!  If you are good at something, help another to know the secrets that will help them to be good at it too!  It’s a secret that very few have learned.  Helping others do well actually brings about our happiest, happy days.  At the same time, we are helped too.  We have so much that we can learn from other children, other cultures, those that have less than we do.  When we all work together sometimes we can do a much better job! 

Know that those who hurt others have often been hurt themselves.

Some of the most difficult people to love have been very badly hurt in life.  Hurt people hurt people.  It was a part of God’s plan that those of us who are God’s children point others who are sad and afraid to the ONE who loved them enough to die for them.  He loved them that much even when they chose to live in the darkness.  We need to help them see the light.  Nothing else will show them that light as much as our love.  Never forget that!!  

A very special man, Martin Luther King,  once said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” 

He was so right!  And that is our job!  To drive out the darkness by sharing our light! Let your light shine!!  That is my prayer for each one of you.  I pray that you will love the light.  That you will keep that light shining by keeping plugged into the Source of that light…your Jesus…and that you will not hide it under a bushel….let it SHINE!

I love you to pieces,  and your God loves you even more!!  These difficult times will pass and life will get back to more of the way it was.  And in your lifetime, you may experience another season of change, or even two more.  Hopefully, the things we learned together during this spring of 2020 will help you to help your children and grandchildren face all the change.  I am so glad to share these days with YOU!

Love, Grandma