How To Be A Christian Without Being A Jerk

Faith in real life

Grandpa Diary #44

February 27th, 2014

Dear Kaylee,

Come on now. Grandpa goes out of town for one day and you go ahead and start crawling. What’s with that?

Nana gets to see you crawl and I get a picture and a video. O, well. You are really moving now. In my head, I was hearing the song, “Going Mobile,” by The Who, as you are moving about, but boy, that really dates me.

Then I just saw you on Facetime and you were crawling backward. Instead of the “Moonwalk,” you were doing the “Mooncrawl.” I would start humming “Bille Jean,” but that would date me again, so I will just say it is hilarious watching you and keep working on that core strength!

Love,
Grandpa

Grandpa Diary #24

October 8th, 2013

irises-1889

Dear Kaylee,

Today is your Great-Grandma Hanson’s birthday. She will receive flowers from Nana and me today. Irises. Her absolute favorites! My mommy used to have irises bordering our yard, irises at our cottage on the lake, irises at their townhouse after I moved- Irises and more irises.

They are beautiful flowers and when I see one I instantly think of my mommy. That’s how it is with beautiful things. Beauty always points us to something beyond ourselves. Flowers are amazing, because in every culture that is capable of growing flowers, they have grown flowers. Who doesn’t like flowers?

People are just like bees and bunnies. They looove flowers!

And how wonderful that flowers come in so many gorgeous shapes and sizes, and especially, O, the colors!

This is just another reason I know how much God loves us. God could have just given us drab looking plants, and there you have it. Instead God is a thoughtful artist who uses all the paints on his palette.

Hey, Kaylee, guess what is my favorite flower? Iris.

And one of the funny things that some men like grandpa like to say? We call the women we love, flowers. When you put a bunch of flowers together, it’s called a bouquet, so let me tell you about my bouquet.

My most special bouquet is centered around your Nana, the most precious flower, worth more than the rarest orchid in the world. Then there is the Kristina flower, who is the the woman I love more than anyone except your Nana. She has a strong stem, with the gentlest of petals. Your Great-Grandma Lindgren is in the bouquet because she loves me lots, and she raised your amazing Nana. Then surrounding the whole bouquet is irises, because my mommy showed me how much God loves me by just being my mommy.

“But, what about your Kaylee flower?” I can hear you say.

Well, because you are new in my life, I have to admit, I think about you more than any of my other flowers. So, for now, you are my little boutonnière, closest to my heart. The rest of the bouquet won’t get jealous, though, because…they feel the same way!

Love,
Grandpa

Grandpa Diary #23

October 8th, 2013

BB greet

Dear Kaylee,

It was your uncles’ birthday yesterday. Uncle Greg and Uncle David are 22 years old. This made me stop and think. This means that the last time Grandpa changed diapers was over 20 years ago!

It doesn’t take long to change you. We used cloth diapers for your uncles and that meant diaper, pins, and plastic pants. Now we use disposable diapers and its “Zoop, clean, zoop, ready to go!”

By the way, I call you “frog” when I am changing you because you kick your legs back and forth as I am getting down to business. We are getting pretty good at the routine. I am thinking about promoting synchronized diapering for the next Olympics. Grandpa and Kaylee can be in the “senior” division.

One thing you are learning about your uncles that you will grow to appreciate. They are both hilarious. They will be fooling around with you all the time, just like they do with your mommy and daddy. Uncle Greg said he wanted to teach you a bad word for your first word.

“Crap.”

So, your mommy said if he does that, y’all are going to call him “Uncle Crappy.” Sure, enough, your mommy sent a birthday picture yesterday to “Uncle David and Uncle Crappy.”

Don’t worry, Grandpa will make sure to put a stop to this particular shenanigans. We’ll teach you a different nickname for Uncle Greg that starts with the letter, “G.”

Uncle Goofy!

Love,
Grandpa

Grandpa Diary #16

September 4th, 2013

Dear Kaylee,

I just got back from a weekend spending time with young men who are in prison. This was a wonderful time to share God’s love. I made sure everyone had a chance to see a picture of how precious you are! I told them how much your mommy and your daddy and the rest of us love you. I used you as an example of what a gift it is for God to give me such a beautiful granddaughter!

A lot happened over the weekend. What a joy it was to see these men transformed right before our very eyes into people of hope! They couldn’t resist God’s love that kept pouring out from us, and his love was pouring out from them towards us and towards each other.

It was a sad weekend, too. It would be hard for you to understand how mommies and daddies might hurt their children. But, it happens. It would be impossible for you to understand how mommies and daddies might not want their children in their lives. But, it happens.

If you can imagine the worst things for a child to experience, that’s what what most of these young men experienced growing up. For some, no daddies in their life. For some, daddies who hit mommies and hit their children. For some, no mommies or daddies to take care of them. For some, they had to take care of themselves when they were 10 or 11…

No birthday parties.
Never hearing, “I love you.”
What must that be like??

You won’t know what that will be like, Kaylee. This will be something you will never experience. You are our own precious Kaylee, and we will protect, provide for, and love you with all of our hearts.

And that’s what is so amazing about God’s love! Growing up in that kind of love, makes it possible for you to share this love and watch it pour out to others.

Who knows, maybe some day you will join me, reaching out to young men or young women in prison, letting them know that God is their Heavenly “Daddy”- who will never let them go. Maybe someday, you will be God’s messenger who declares,

“There is freedom in Jesus!”

Love,

Grandpa

Grandpa Diary #15

August 27th, 2013

Dear Kaylee,

We spent much time together this weekend. I saw  you Friday, Saturday, and Monday. One interesting thing that happened is your eyes changed in only a few days! It seems all of a sudden, they are much bluer. I could look into those eyes all day.

I wonder what goes on behind those eyes? You are taking in so much of the world and processing it for the first time. Every time you see something for the first time, it creates a new world for you. Same with sound, same with touch, same with smell; you are a living, learning human being.

For example, your backyard is being changed at your house. New landscaping, electrical wiring being put in, lights being put up, even a whole cement slab was torn out. When all this is going on, there is a lot of noise. It doesn’t seem to bother you, but I wonder what happens when the work is done? Will the quiet be different for you? I guess we could could hook you up to some instruments and measure your stress level, but I don’t think that is necessary.

Babies go with the flow. What you are learning quickly is you can’t control what is happening around you, but you can work on how you respond. You seem to be doing well. You sleep when you are tired and you eat when you are hungry. Mommys and daddys, grandmas and grandpas, we don’t always do so well on those two simple things. We don’t always sleep well, even though we are tired, and we don’t eat so well; we skip meals, grab easy, but not-good-for-you meals, we might even not have an appetite, or we eat way too much!

A lot of this has to do with worry. It does us well to stop and think about babies like you, Kaylee. You don’t worry about things like sleep or what you eat. You just do it because you know the people who love you will take care of what you need.

You expect it.

The one who takes care of all of us is God. What if we live our lives like you, expecting that the one who loves us will give us what we need?

Sleeping and eating? No, problem…

Love,
Grandpa

How To Be A Christian Without Being A Jerk

Faith in real life