I remember when I was little I think it was Gramdma Cook used to make us girls those little crocheted slippers that looked like banana holders. Room for toes on either end. What a disappointment for an 8 year old, but as the years went by and banana holders kept coming, the gifts became funny and we got a kick out of them.

You and your family are in my prayers. I cared for my grandparents at home. Grandma was there to help with grandpa but when grandma became bedfast i had to move in with her to care for her. She was bedfast for 6 1/2 months. We had some wonderful talks during that time. I have a wonderful memory of my grandpa. He used to come to my back door and yell Hey! I would go and he would hand me five dollar bill and say buy some milk and things for the boys — but don’t tell grandma. After grandpa was gone to be with Jesus grandma decided to used grandpa’s wallet to carry her bill money in. As she was taking out hims papers from it she look in the secret part and there was a five dollar bill. I told grandma — that is my five dollar bill. She said no it is not and then i told her of the five dollar bills and we cried together. God was so good to give me such wonderful grandparents. I live in their house and they are still here with me. I feel their love all the time.

Isn’t it interesting that the things that we think are stupid and a waste of time as kids mean more to us than can be expressed when we become adults? Maybe it’s because we realize just how brutal this world can be; maybe it’s because we realize that the world is so unstable; maybe it’s because we now have our own children and realize what is really important in life. Since my daughter was born several months ago, I have done so much thinking and changing. The material things, the “keeping up with the Jones’s”, the stuff the world says is what we need to have the real “American Dream” are now seen as they truly are: empty. As I spent months praying for my friend’s prodigal young adult daughter, the Holy Spirit showed me that the world cannot make good on what it offers. Not that it doesn’t or won’t, but it CAN’T. It is unable. I think that when we realize that, all of these little things, like a had-written card from a deceased grandparent or the orange juice glass that I drank out of as a child when visiting my precious Grandma Shepler, mean more to us than all the money the world could offer. The connection to those who helped to make our childhood stable and good: these are the things that we cherish as we grow up in years and wisdom.