Day 27

 

Mar-Mar

 

"I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived  in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also."

 

2 Timothy 1:5

 

 

When you called my grandmother on the phone you had better have some time on your hands because you were going to talk (well, listen) for a good long while. Some of what she said was new but most of it you would have heard many times over. Getting caught on the phone with her for a while was a small price to pay for what you got in return.

As kids we spent a good deal of time with our grandparents. I remember playing card games with her on numerous occasions. Once when I was an adult she confessed to me she really never liked playing cards; she had played simply because she loved us. My older brother and I talked her into taking us to see the Alfred Hitchcock movie The Birds. We convinced her it was a Disney nature film. I know by the time Suzanne Pleshette got her eyes pecked out she knew it wasn't a nature film and she surely didn't like it but she never let on.

When I was old enough to be dating if there was a girl I was pretty serious about I had to take her to meet my grandmother so the girl could pass inspection. Most of the ones that made it that far my grandmother liked but there was one she took a dislike to. She told the girl how understanding it was of her to go out with me since I had been hit by a car in second grade, bouncing my head off the pavement, and had been a little off ever since.

It was true...at least the part about getting hit by the car in second grade. I was hit by a car and I did have my head bounce off the pavement after being knocked flying several yards. I suffered a concussion but I was not a little off ever since. I was never on to begin with.

When my brothers and sister and I were adults we would go to her because of her strength and wisdom. She lived in what once had been a nice neighborhood but had become  part of a barrio. On more than one occasion I replaced window panes that she had shot out keeping burglars from breaking in. She had been robbed several times. Once they did not get her money though they looked every where for it. It was in an offering envelope in plain sight. She had cashed her social security check and placed in the envelope to remind herself that God got his tithe first. (There is an obvious lesson here). She would walk about a mile to her church through the bad neighborhood since she didn't drive. Nothing was going to keep her from being faithful to her church or drive her from her home.

She helped us through the trials of life. She always believed in us. She prayed for us daily. She loved to read, especially to read her Bible. She was like Timothy's grandmother Lois. She had a sincere faith and she passed it down.

She loved God's word so much that when she died we buried her with her Bible in her hands. Now she is in heaven hearing God's word in person ... that is if God has got his turn to talk yet.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read Acts 9:36-43

 

• What was Dorcas known for?
• Why do you suppose Peter was urged to hurry to Joppa? Was it so he could get there in time for the funeral or do you think they were hoping for a miracle?
• Why were all the widows so upset?