One Year Pray for the Family - Flipbook - Page 23
February
God’s love delights our days. Unfailing, eternal, and infinite, it is perfect and wise and
good. This month, as the world celebrates love with cards and candy and flowers,
let’s pray for our families to know God and experience the heights and depths of his
wonderful love. Let’s pray they discover the life-changing joys of living and loving
according to God’s amazing design.
L OV E EQ U A L S TI ME
by Grace Penn
When my son Lewis was a toddler, Grandpa would take him on walks
around the neighborhood. The trek was always at a snail’s pace. As
Lewis stopped to examine every shiny rock or bug that crossed his path,
Grandpa would bend, hovering at Lewis’s side. I hold this image in my
heart—this man slowing and stooping to be near his grandchild.
Because my in-laws chose to move 1,100 miles to live near Lewis,
Grandpa was there to experience his firsts: his first birthday party, first
Christmas, first trip to an amusement park, first camping experience,
first soccer game, and even his first year in college.
Grandpa has recently experienced some health challenges. We’re no
longer celebrating Lewis’s firsts. We’re celebrating what are most likely
Grandpa’s lasts: his last Valentine’s Day, his last birthday party, his last
trip to his favorite restaurant. And all the while we’re anticipating his
first glimpse of heaven.
The love my son and my father-in-law have for each other didn’t happen overnight. It grew day by day, hour by hour, with a profound commitment to the truth that love equals time.
Today Grandpa is the one who moves at a snail’s pace. He stoops not
to inspect a ladybug but to lean on his cane. A heart condition combined with a recent fall requires that he have help walking. And now I
hold a new image in my heart—Lewis slowing and stooping to listen to
Grandpa as the two walk, arm in arm, down the hospital corridor.
Excerpted and adapted from “Walking with Grandpa,” Focus on the Family Magazine,
November 2018.
