I Want To Give; a love that smiles, and I know the will of…
In looking back, a young woman discovers her ‘years to come’ and sees her future.
It begins with the sadness of her Grandfather’s passing, takes her back to the memories they shared, and then leads her to rediscover her strengths and instincts as a child when she recalls a single verse [see Luke 2:49]
In loving memory of my Grandpa.
He showed me the Lord.
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For I am not ashamed of the gospel,
because it is the power of God
for the salvation of everyone who believes.
Romans 1:16
‘‘I Want To Give just like my Grandfather gave to so many others and myself; a love that smiles, and I know the will of God and ‘life and work’ of my Grandfather - and both call me here.
~
A Personal Short Story and Memoir:
I Want To Give ~ In Loving Memory & A Single Verse
Her Grandfather passed away last year. She remembers him as always working and smiling, and he loved to laugh out loud. He cared about people and always had a lot to share with them.
On her last visit…
His face and spirit still like a shining star. It always started out she felt inspired; they ate together, caught up on the family-tree, and looked at old photographs.
Grandpa loved to share the gospel. He had a way with speaking out. He was the kind of man to welcome a child on his knee and tell Bible stories. As she got older, she read the Bible and he listened. In all those years, and every time she saw him, he would say, “Jesus loves you.”
They had fun playing board games Backgammon and Scrabble, and when they competed in Croquet they could always count on each other to say, “Let’s go again!” If she were to add the hours they played their favorite card game? It would be a better surprise to count the number of times they charged at the challenge to see who was the fastest; and jumped across the table to reach the last pile, and exclaimed as loud as they could “Dutch Blitz!”
She listened when he talked about his life and work. They were ‘cut from the same cloth’ in the way they shared an understanding for respect, especially for listening and learning.
It was during their last visit, she sensed there was more to their connection…
And, so began the subtle power of God’s enduring grace.
One day in her reminiscence…
Her mother told her of the day she was born: said she was “unusual” in the way that she smiled a lot and was content; Grandpa would always say she had a “beautiful spirit.”
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She saw her Grandfather much in the same way, and perhaps inevitable…
Soon, every time she ran to the corner store she was greeted with “Smiley!” by the storekeeper. But the storekeeper was not the only one inspired. She remembers it struck her somehow, as if to say she was so grown up and her smile would surely lead to her destiny.
At five years old, she arrived home from summer Bible Camp - a children’s camp founded by her Grandfather, and ran up to her mother in the kitchen with a very big smile and cried out in glee “Guess what, I asked Jesus into my heart!” She somehow knew that in her heart and in her life Jesus would always be.
She felt him in the way she felt her spirit now.
Now she knew God's love.
She then came to learn more of what Grandpa was all about…
Times would come when she would help with the Newsletter - a native gospel newsletter also founded by her Grandfather, and sort stacks of ‘little green paper’ on many tables where together they put them in numerical order and then folded them in half like a book, and she was already excited to know the inspiration books could bring…
Holding her breath, she would always go down the dark, cold basement steps to Grandpa’s library study, at the same time anticipate what she would find next down there - always a new world to explore.
On this day, she found a heavy volume of big, blue children’s books that talked about Jesus and his many journeys. A story in particular, when Jesus was just a boy and went to the Lord’s Temple where he had to be about his Father’s house - and listened and talked with the many scholars there.
It would stay with her ‘for years to come’.
Was God speaking to her there?
With an innate knowledge and respect for leadership and principles she works to share that with people too, and lives to influence people to listen within and to welcome their own spirit so they can see others need theirs too; and shares compassion.
Could it also be, that reading about Jesus and his journeys, and learning from her Grandfather’s influence, is why no matter where she is, even in a cold and dark basement, it always feels like home?
God is serenity. She remembers that summer on the beach and sitting on a rock, and it occurs to her now: she does not remember her thoughts before that moment or who she even was, but she remembers how she felt during that prayer, and ever since then, and that is to always consider God before everything she does and to look after her spirit - she never feels alone - she has never felt lonely.
She knows God is everywhere. He speaks to us all the time. She wants to share that, for she sees there are many people who feel alone or get lonely.
The rock is symbolic; of, no matter the weight we carry, God will always hear us and respond with a smile…
And we will surely feel it.
Now at a time in her life when she is making another life-changing decision, she sits on the rock she founded…
She goes back to her last visit with her Grandfather, and speaks with him once more; at the same time she feels a deep aspiration to change the direction of her work…
Indeed, God has spoken. It was as she sensed before.
Then she hears Grandpa say “Hello Smiley! Bring my work up from the basement and let’s take it to the store!”
Her Grandfather had a sense of humor and he always made her laugh! He also loved candy! But she was not scared to go down the cold, dark basement steps, and do you know why?
Because at the end there would always be a part of him that she would find…
For she had to be about her Grandpa’s house.
He lived to share God’s grace…
Now she works to serve God.
To bring the mysterious, enlightening and wondrous works of God upon her as a small child, and the dedicated ‘life and work’ of her Grandfather - to share their grace and love through her passion for stories and writing that will inspire ‘for years to come’.
To let others know God is speaking to us all the time.
The final step she takes...
She will look back on her ‘years to come’... and happy to see ‘life and work’ are one and the same.
And she knows it is the way it is to always have been - with God.
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‘‘I Want To Give; a love that smiles, and I know the will of God.
~In Loving Memory~
‘‘I had to be about my Grandpa’s house.
In reference to his library study and his ‘life and work’ and a
single verse she remembers as a child in a story that stayed with her ‘for years to come’
[see Luke 2:49]
- What story, children’s book or single verse ties in with your fondest childhood memories ‘for years to come’?
- What personal discovery is found?
- When will your adventure unfold? How about now!
Read more about...
I Want To Give and the vision behind
‘for years to come’ in her
biography.
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