A Tale of Two Sick Ladies
A dear friend told us recently about her trip to the emergency room during an extended visit at the home of one of her sons and his family. Our friend checked out okay after her emergency room visit, but she had felt very unwell earlier in the day. From the way she described her symptoms, I am confident she made the right decision to go. She was disappointed with the timing because she had planned to go to a special event for her grandson that evening. When her son took her to the hospital, she told him to leave her there and to go join his son at the event. “I’m not going to do that!” he told her emphatically and stayed with her. Soon another son joined them from his home half an hour away.
This story was a stark contrast to a comment I once heard from a lady with a serious illness. The lady’s husband was devotedly helping her during her ordeal, but she said this about other family members: “I ain’t got no family except my children and grandchildren, and they’d probably hang me up to dry.”
One of the many aspects I love about the life of Fanny Crosby was the relationship she had with her grandmother. She once wrote a poem about her grandmother’s rocking chair, a piece of furniture that played a significant role in the HDS play I began telling you about yesterday. In one touching scene that I plan to share with you in a few days, Fanny remembers her grandmother and recites the poem she wrote about her grandmother and her rocking chair. In it she speaks of her Grandma’s voice, her loving arms, her patient care, and when they bowed in prayer.
In word and deed and example, be sure to teach your children the value of their grandparents.
You shall rise up before the grayheaded
and honor the aged,
and you shall revere your God;
I am the Lord.
Leviticus 19:32
I am happy that one of our rocking chairs served as Grandma’s rocking chair in the recent production. My daddy was really good at honoring the grayheaded and the aged. I enjoyed the times I got to climb in Daddy Leland’s pickup truck and deliver groceries with Daddy. The elderly ladies he served loved my Daddy, as did everyone else I knew. This rocking chair once belonged to one of those ladies. In this picture Mercy and John Crosby and the two actresses—one who portrayed young Fanny and the other who portrayed the teen and grownup Fanny—gather around Grandma as she holds baby (doll) Fanny in Grandma’s rocking chair. Keep reading in the days ahead to learn how the lamb played a role in the play.
Of course, God does not want children and grandchildren to “hang [our parents and grandparents] up to dry.” As Paul wrote to young Timothy:
Honor widows who are widows indeed;
but if any widow has children or grandchildren,
they must first learn to practice piety
in regard to their own family
and to make some return to their parents;
for this is acceptable in the sight of God.
1 Timothy 5:3-4