Friday our oldest granddaughter, Gabriella, will be 6. I remember the day she arrived; May 1 came on a Thursday back in 2014. As it happens, we received two deliveries that day.
The first was a package generously provided by my sister, filled with carefully prepared and lovingly packed treasures from the life I've lived--and was lived before me. A tapestry of dreams, tenderness, ambition, hard work, disappointment, and triumph woven through photos, cards, letters, and other memorabilia. It contained a narrative of my past.
The second was of course Gabriella Grace, fearfully and wonderfully made, and delivered by our lovely daughter-in-law, Miranda, coached by our son Joseph. "Gabs" arrived at 11.10pm, weighed 7'10, and was just over 20" long. She, along with her little sister, our children, our grandsons and God willing, our greats...they are my future.
Legacies are brittle. Soak that in for a few moments...
I am grateful that I can look back, look around, and dream about the future.
I am grateful that I have a sense of where I'm from, where I've been, and who I've become.
I am grateful that at this moment, I can continue to shape character and destiny.
My story was shaped--altered when at age 15, I made a choice to embrace Christ and believe His story. He took my brokenness, yes, even at age 15, and built me into a man whose heart's desire is to be like my savior, Jesus. Laura, our children, know all too well the difficulty we've faced as a family and my shortcomings as a man, a husband, and a father.
Here's my point: it's these challenges, these failures that add strength and color to legacies--that will give my grands and great-grands the "roots" to make choices which will empower them to continue to shape character and destiny; to build bridges from their past to a solid Christ-centered future.
Indeed..."All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife, but He made something beautiful out of my life..." 47 years with Laura; our children Erin and Joseph; their spouses Matthew and Miranda; our grandchildren, Braden, Kellen, Gabriella and now Grayson and Gwendolyn.
Something old, someone new. Legacies are brittle. Lean into Christ.
Liveitwell!
