The Graceline

I'm getting pretty sick and tired of all my friends having grandbabies, and we don't have a single one. They go on and on about their grandchildren like they are the only ones in the world. Just wait until mine and Wanda's get here. We just bought a digital camera in faith that someday we will have some. Just wanted to warn all you current grandparents. Picture day is coming from the Ashley's. Count on it.

Lynn, my niece, just had her first grandbaby girl. I held Lynn in my arms when she was a baby, and now she has a grandbaby before I have one. There is something wrong with that picture. Anyway, she said something that made me think about how much Papa really loves us.

Like all grandmas, she has pictures, and she's proud. She showed off her precious to a co-worker the other day and all they said was, "She's cute."

"CUTE?!?! You better look at those pictures again. There's nothing in those pictures that is cute! Puppies are cute! She is beautiful! I don't know what you're looking at!" Lynn straightened them out right quick.

I thought to myself... If my niece feels that way about her grandbaby girl, can God feel any other way about us? He IS love, you know. How did we ever get the idea that God was not crazy wild about us? I know that the bad taste in our mouth about the goodness of God came from the off-limits fruit in the garden, but why has that bad after-taste lingered so long?

God has gone out of His way to pursue a love relationship with us. Jesus, His Son, came to earth to show us the way God intended for us to live... carelessly free in His care. Jesus died breaking the power of sin (living independently from God rather than in dependence upon Him) and setting us free. Free to do what? LIVE! Live life to the MAX! To enjoy life like we've never enjoyed life before.

Some of us have been programmed to believe that God expects us to be perfect. To do everything right and never mess up in order to gain His love and acceptance. Let me ask you grandparents out there: Do your grandkids mess up your house? Do they mess their diapers? Do they cry when they don't get their way? Do you put your life on hold just to be around them? Honestly, are they perfect? Really?

Don't you act like a monkey around them just to see them belly laugh? I've seen sophisticated people do some things they would have died over before they had grandchildren. Now they do stupid stuff routinely. Why! Because they have grandchildren!

I've come to believe that the people who make a difference in your life are not the people you believe in, but the people who believe in you. Many people believe in God, but He doesn't make much difference in their life. But those rare people who understand that God believes in them, they are the joyous, "live-life-wide-open" people who savor every drop of life, who are not afraid to fail, who take time to see the beauty of the world all around them. They enjoy the life Jesus died and rose again to give them. They don't take it for granted. They laugh out loud and are not afraid to cry when they are hurt, sad or mad. They live and love one minute at at time. They live carlessly in the care of God. Kinda like grandparents and grandchildren.

I'd like to leave you with some idea of how grandchildren view grandparents. Hope it brings a smile to your face... maybe even a belly laugh or a tear... both are cleansing for the soul.

• Grandparents are a lady and a man who have no little children of their own but they like other people's.
• Grandparents don't have to do anything except be there when we come to see them.
• Grandparents are so old they shouldn't play hard or run but it is good if they drive us to the shops and give us money.
• Grandparents take us for walks and they slow down past things like pretty leaves and caterpillers.
• Grandparents show us things and talk to us about the color of the flowers and also why we shouldn't step on the sidewalk "cracks."
• Grandparents don't say, "Hurry up."
• Usually grandmothers are fat but not too fat to tie your shoes.
• Grandparents wear glasses and they can take their teeth and gums out.
• Grandparents always have time to answer our questions and they always know all the right answers to everything because they have lived a long time.
• When grandparents read to us, they don't skip and they don't mind if we ask for the same story over again.
• Everybody should try to have grandparents, especially if you don't have television, because they are the only grown ups who like to spend time with us.
• Grandparents know we should have snack-time before bedtime and they say prayers with us every time and kiss us even when we've acted badly.
I've heard it said that God has no grandchildren, but He sure does act like one. You think about that, Beloved.