Morning Devotional
May 12, 2005
"Grandma and Grandpa" 
    by Don Emmitte

I will praise you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. I will bless you every day, and I will praise you forever. Great is the LORD! He is most worthy of praise! His greatness is beyond discovery! Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts. (Psalm 145:1-4 NLT).

 

I don't remember much about my grandparents. My grandfathers died before I was born and my grandmothers were pretty old by the time I really got to know them. I wish that my children had had even more time than they did with my parents. We've moved around a lot over the years, sometimes we were not in close proximity to their grandparents. Perhaps that fuels some of our desire to be close to Faith and Logan.

 

This is not to say that Kyle and Brandy “need” us. They are marvelous parents. I am so proud of the way they have begun their journey with their children. However, in an age where homes are being torn apart, grandparents, real ones or adopted ones, can have a tremendous mentoring role in the lives of their grandchildren. There is a passage in 1 Peter that really speaks to my heart. Peter calls all believers living stones: "And you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house…" (1 Peter 2:5). Peter is making a bit of a play on words, from the Hebrew expression, "standing stones."

 

It is an expression that every Jew understood - but in our culture, the expression is lost. During the history of the Jews, when God led them through a difficult trial, war or time, they placed a large stone as testimony to what God had done. According to Ray Vanderlan, a historian who is very familiar with the Jewish culture, these stones were not just large rocks. They were massive, standing 15 to 20 feet tall. Not just a stone in your front yard where you put your address! You couldn't miss these stones even if you tried. Every time a Jew passed by a certain rock, that rock told a story of something God did. Just one of the many places in Scripture this is done is in the story of Jericho.

 

As our culture fragments more and more, grandparents can pass on the spiritual torch by telling their grandchildren of the "standing stones" in their own lives, thereby being "living stones." They can tell about those places where God really did something wonderful, where some great spiritual lesson or truth was learned. In these stories, like in the Jewish culture, a spiritual heritage and understanding of the character of God is passed from one generation to the next. It teaches the children that while the world changes, what God does, and what God values, do not change. He is the same "yesterday, today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8). This is a heritage I want my grandchildren to share in. In doing this grandparents can fill a gap that will bring strength and renewal to another generation. It is not substitute parenting. Only parents can be parents, but there is a wonderful role for grandma and grandpa too!