My grandfather, “Grampa,” was always there for me. I don’t think I ever said to him, “I’d like to be just like you when I grow up,” but I wish that I had. I wonder what he would have thought about that, or what his reply might be?

I’d like to think Grampa would have appreciated the complement but encouraged me with a reminder that God makes each child unique, with their own set of gifts–that He designs each child with a life plan specific to those gifts to enable us to live fully in Christ Jesus, to bring hope through Jesus to others and in doing so, glorify God.

Although I don’t know what he would have said, I know what my Grampa modeled for me. I believe he modeled Jesus.

My Grampa had a great yard. He made every leaf its greenest, every flower bloom its brightest and scent its sweetest. But he did something more than just grow everything the way God had intended it to be viewed, but the way God meant it to be shared.

Grampa showed me how to prune and cut and mow and watched and guided with patience as I tried to do what he taught.

He was also at my Pop Warner and Little League games when I warmed the bench. And when the score was high enough, either beyond reach of the other team or out of reach of our own, my coach would put me in. And if I didn’t get to play, Grampa warmed my heart with a pride in me that out shined the pine bench I warmed the last quarter or inning before.

He was as most practices, especially football where I seamed to have the most problems. And I imagine now that he hurt with me when he heard the coach yell at the top of his lungs, “Get with it, Wilber!” Or when my teammates made fun of the way I ran. I was very pigeon-toed when I was young, do there was that. But just as easy pickings was my backside. Wilber’s are blessed (or cursed) with enhanced glutes–we sort of put the “maximus” in gluteus maximus–so when I ran it looked like I was being lifted from the back of my belt loops by some invisible hook in the sky. That invisible hook also prevented me from getting anywhere quickly.

My Grampa would take me to a different park or school yard after or between practices and he’d work on technique with me. He taught me how to point my toes and stretch my legs when I ran. Although I had a lot of work ahead of me, it helped.

He’d also let me practice blocking and tackling him. Grampa wore elastic bandages everyday–he had bad circulation which caused discoloration of his legs and as I found out year’s later, also caused great pain.

On those days we’d practice, Grampa would wrap his legs with an extra two or three bandages, get me set up in the right stance, take a few steps back and encourage me to hit him with all I had. He’d let me have at those tender legs, me in full gear–helmet, shoulder pads, and all the momentum I could muster.

Even at my skill level–very, very low–that had to hurt. And though I was only eight or nine years old, a guy with healthy legs would have been smarting some after one of those sessions, which is why football teams practice with blocking bags and tackling dummies–not 50-something-year-old men with bad legs.

The practice eventually paid off. I made the track team in 8th grade, and as a freshman in high school I started at fullback and defensive end on the sophomore football team. Grampa was at many of those track meets and football games to see the early work pay off, but more certainly the dividends of his prayers.

Grampa died before he got to see me play on the varsity football team as a sophomore, and go on to gain awards and win championships playing football through college.

Though I continued to play and excelled after Grampa died, I missed him on the field and off. I still do and just as intensely, but then, maybe even more now that I’m a Grampa myself. I’d really like to know how he made every leaf its greenest, every flower bloom its brightest and scent its sweetest. Yet he’d probably remind me that I already do, except I do it with the unique gifts God gave me, just the way Grampa had his own specific gifts that enabled him to live fully in Christ Jesus, to bring hope through Jesus to his grandkid’s and in doing so, glorified God.

Peace and joy,
Steve

For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 1 Peter 2:21 (ESV)