This is how I want my grandkids to remember me
January 13, 2015
For my wife and me, this past year has been the "year of family." We saw a lot of our adult kids who live in different parts of the world and United States and we had a chance to exercise our wings as grandparents. They range in age from four to six months.
My four-year-old grandson Xavier absorbs everything said and done. He and I last month took a bottle of dietCoke to our driveway and we put three Mentos in it. His eyes opened wide when it shot up in the air more than 20 feet. Will he remember that?
His two-year-old sister Gretchen is just starting to talk. I had many conversations with her. She can count to 10. My six-month old grandson Miles is taking it all in too. You can see his little mind processing everything that happens around him.
This brings me to the question of how do I want them to remember me?
Do I want them to remember me for all the neat places I've been to? Cuba while it was still closed to Americans? Deep into the heart of Bamako, Mali which is under threat from extremists? Haiti after the earthquake? West Berlin when it was still under the thumb of the communists?
I could point to some jobs I've had and to some interesting and famous people I've met and worked with.
I've thought about it and it's none of those. As I look over my shoulder at my life, I see my overwhelming need to be close to God. And I see my sin and how it prevents that from happening. It has taken me awhile to start really absorbing what Jesus Christ did for me and everybody else when he came to earth, died, rose from the dead and went back into heaven.
He saved me. I can now have that relationship. Jesus has made me perfect in God's eyes. While on earth I'm still under construction. I'm a Saved Sinner. That's the only real worth that I have. That's my identity and that's how I want my grandkids to remember me. Pure and simple that's me.