September 17

Day 187: Blessed Gift

Yesterday was my mother's 88th birthday, and her first in heaven with the saints in glory. Mom left this earth on December 28, finally released from her pain and the constant cloud of Alzheimer's. Carried to the arms of her waiting Savior. She took the entirety of her faith with her.

Yesterday, Deb asked me how I felt. To be honest, I didn't know how to feel. Still don't.

I've never been in this stage of life before. I don't know the proper protocol. This was the first year I hadn't mailed some Alaska-themed thing (or flowers) off in the mail, in time for her birthday, in like forever.

It's funny how things change over time. The ones I am consumed with now are my wife, our children, and their children. They dominate my thoughts and prayers, my hopes and dreams. My father and siblings are still family, for sure; but it's a different kind of family connection. Not good, not bad; just different. Adulthood does that.

Some sociologists have said that no one human being can manage more than a handful of close, intimate relationships in their lifetime. (I wonder if those same sociologists are also card-carrying introverts? I think yes.)

The Bible makes it clear that some familial relationships are supposed to change with time. There are in life some healthy and necessary transitions. Genesis tells us, "that a man should leave his mother and father and cleave to his wife." Sounds like a transition. (And what makes for a good marriage, too!)

It's also true that to look past to several generations still surviving does not leave the option to also look forward to future living generations - at the same time. People only live so long.

The Lord has put a cap on average lifespans. Probably because those long-living people in early Genesis got in each other's way, and made for complicated holiday meals (?)

To see even the generation that follows is not necessarily an entitlement; it is a gift. To see and get to know one's own grandchildren? A great and rare gift. Not one to be received lightly.

Psalm 128 says it like this...

"Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in His ways! You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the LORD.

The LORD bless you from Zion! May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life! May you see your children's children! Peace be upon Israel."

This is not written as an assumption. It is a hoped-for blessing. It is a prayer for the Lord's deep favor.

It's not hard to see ourselves, in part, in our children. Sometimes, this brings us joy. Other things we see in them bring us dread. (I always prayed our children would look just like, and be just like their mother. Didn't quite get my way entirely on that.)

If I look hard, I can see glimpses of my mother. In her grandchildren. Makes sense; our children each inherited a quarter of her. Maybe, in time, I'll even see fainting glimpses of her in her great grandchildren.

Even that would be a blessed gift.

-Mike Rydman, Lead Pastor, Radiant Church | Juneau