Hearts of the Fathers and Their Children
As I live life, I often jot down notes of events and experiences which give me an idea of something to write for you to read in Daily Encouragement. Sometimes I feel like a news reporter. For weeks a torn piece of tissue has lain on my desk. I remembered that it was a note with an idea for a blog post, but in my busyness with Christmas and New Year’s I had not stopped to look at it. I finally picked it up the other day. I had printed Proverbs 20:19 across the center. Scribbled upside down beside the passage were two words: Glen, antifreeze.
Ah, yes, I remembered. We begin our small Sunday school class by catching up on everyone. A few weeks ago, recently retired Brenda mentioned that her recently retired husband, Glen, had reminded a young member of their family to put antifreeze in his or her car. I have forgotten now whether it was their son, daughter, or granddaughter. Glen and Brenda are always the caring, helpful dad and mom and granddad and grandma, so Glen was concerned about this person’s antifreeze.
The hired man on this farm near Woodstock Vermont,
usually emptied the radiator in his car every evening
and filled it with water again the next morning
to save the cost of antifreeze.
Photo by Marion Post Wolcott, c. 1940.
Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
The last time we were with Glen and Brenda, they were both happy—and tired. They had spent the previous several days helping their newly married granddaughter and her husband move into their first house, which is a very short distance from theirs. Glen has developed a plan to build a backyard fence for their dog, and we’ve heard mention of his possibly mowing their grass.
Now let’s look at that passage I wrote on that tissue:
The glory of young men is their strength,
gray hair the splendor of the old.
Proverbs 20:29
I love how Glen and Brenda’s generations are connected. Though now with gray hair, Glen and Brenda continue to have the strength to provide practical help to their family. With their recent retirement, they have the time, too.
It’s a beautiful thing when generations take care of one another.
In Malachi, God prophesied this about John the Baptist:
And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children
and the hearts of children to their fathers . . .
Malachi 4:6a
The Jews of the first century needed that to happen. One day Jesus confronted some scribes and Pharisees about a dishonoring practice they were doing. It is still a temptation today to be so busy with good things that we forget to take care of those closest to us. Sometimes other good things can feel more exciting and important than the mundane tasks of serving the members of our families.
Jesus said:
“For God commanded,
‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and,
‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’
But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother,
“What you would have gained from me is given to God,”
he need not honor his father.’
So for the sake of your tradition
you have made void the word of God.”
Matthew 15:4-6