Tears in the Paint Can

 Tears in the Paint Can

From the book, "River Crossings"

This last week we got an interesting phone call from our son Nathan and his lovely wife, Kylie.

It wasn’t till the next afternoon when I was painting some drawers to match our other bedroom cabinets that it hit me. I was getting a bit bored with just the ‘whop whop’ of the fan and the smell of the paint fumes so I decided to pop in a CD that we’d found in a pile of stuff left by the last folks in this apartment.

Suddenly it was 1981 and I’d just flown in from Japan to the states to adopt a perfect little two day old boy. While I was there, I had randomly bought a cassette tape of some new band who didn’t know how to spell their name, and I loved it so much I played it almost non stop for a year.

Now as I began to listen to the all too familiar strains of Abba (with the backwards B) all those feelings from way back then began to come together. I saw a tear land in the paint and had to sit down and collect myself. Where did my little boy go? How could anyone have brought his dad and me so much joy and now… Who was this MAN calling to tell me that HE’s going to become a father? How could my little boy be a father when he was just reaching up to me out of the crib a few years ago? Do Kylie’s folks have the same dejavu’ feelings about their little girl growing up?

Where did the time go? When did he grow up? How could he possibly love anything as much as we love him? How does this ‘grandparent’ thing work anyway? How magnificent is our God that He gives the ones we love the most… something to love even more? Ahhhh………. We’re going to be GRANDPARENTS. My mind is still blown… which, of course isn’t a good thing since we’re swinging into full time language school!

But on that note, we’re happy to report that there have been no disasters yet. We’re actually doing rather well, but after only two formal days, it may be a bit soon to call it! Tony and I are in separate classes, each having about four or five different nationalities, English not being a common language. Once everybody figures out what the teacher is saying, I’m sure they’ll take off. Anyway, as my grandmother, who I’m beginning to understand loved me dearly, used to say about most anything that was productive, “It sure beats hanging around the drug store!”

Have a great week as you celebrate with us! 

Marsha and Tony, the Ancient Ones.

"Children’s children are a crown to the aged, and parents are the pride of their children." (Proverbs 17:6)


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