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Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life
by Tom Kelley
I live for Thursday evenings. No, go ahead. You can ask. "Why do you live for Thursdays, Tom?" That's the day I get to have my grandchildren for the evening. My father was only 42 years old when he had his first grandchild. By the time he was 45 he had four; all grandsons by my sister. At age 52 our first child arrived for him. By the time he was my age (56) he had all seven grandchildren from just two children of his own. I've got three children. One more than my father. So far we have only two grandchildren; twins, one of each.
Unless you're a grandparent, I can't begin to describe the way it feels to have them. As I have already told you, we get them every Thursday evening. We get the whole experience. We get to feed them supper. We bathe them. We change their dirty diapers. Ah, but there are other things we get to do as well. Following supper we get to go for a walk. I get the thrill of feeling that tiny hand in mine and the trust implied by its being there. When we return from the walk we usually play in the backyard, sometimes blowing bubbles and I get to see the wonder of a child's world all over again.
When we go back inside it's play time. It's time for tickles and hugs and big wet kisses and reading books and playing with some really neat toys. It's really all about becoming grandparents instead of just being grandparents. Biologically, you only have to have children who have children to be a grandparent. But what you do with those children that your children have is what really seals the deal. It's what you do, as older and wiser than when you raised your own children.
Remember the award I shared with you yesterday? We are Christians. But there is a big difference between just being called a Christian because you're a church member and becoming a Christian because you truly believe you have been given the right to become a son or daughter of God (John 1:1-13). So, what are you doing with your award? Did you set it on a shelf so others can admire it? Or do you wear it every day and make your life's reality dependent upon it?
"We should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting; but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head -- Christ -- from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth in the body for the edifying or itself in love." Ephesians 4:14-16 That award is not just so you can go to heaven, but so you can take someone with you.
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...He was the Minister of the Minorsville Christian Church located near Stamping Ground, KY.
...Becky and Tom have three children; John, single and in worship ministry in Nicholasville, Kentucky; Sean, married (Jennifer, elementary school teacher) with twins (Grace and Patrick, b.d. 10/31/04) and regional director of Papa John's Pizza in Central KY; Kara, married (Vince Taylor, prison guard) and working with Hospice East in Winchester, KY.
...Tom went to be with the Lord on November 13, 2009 after a lengthy battle with cancer. If you have been touched by Tom's writings please send an email to Tom's son at jkelley@catalystchristian.net
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