He's also wise. You know the old man in church that is funny and loves the Lord, but has the uncanny ability to tell you Truth in a way that makes sense. That's my grandfather. He's the old, wise man in the church. Kind and gentle, but honest. The way that love should be expressed.
Two days ago I got to spend the day with some family including Pappy. When I was leaving he pulled me aside and told me this story from his Sunday School class the week before:
There was an Indian Princess who heard that the neighboring village had the best corn. She went to visit. She asked the chief if she could take an ear of corn back to her village. He agreed on one condition. She could walk through the fields and inspect the corn and take whatever ear of corn she wanted, but she was never allowed to turn back. Once she passed on a stalk, she couldn't come back to it. These seemed like reasonable terms to her, so she set off to find the best ear of corn in the field. She walked and inspected each crop carefully. And she was impressed, this was good corn. So she searched on. Soon enough, she found herself at the end of the field and she was empty handed. In her search to find the best, she had found none.
His point was this: not to let the desire for perfection to keep me from life. It's such a good lesson for me. There is a time to wait, but there is also a time to live. And sometimes, that means sacrificing in some ways to gain in others. It means defining goals and finding ways to meet them.
I love my Pappy and all the lessons I have learned from him. I love that he makes popcorn on the stovetop and reads the Christmas Story every year. He is a fisherman and hunter and he loves his family almost as much as he loves the Lord.
