Read Psalm 100:5

Grandparents. What remarkable gifts from God. Generation after generation He provides a fresh set of them...an ever-present counterculture in our busy world. Lest everyone else get so involved they no longer stop to smell the flowers or watch tiny ants hard at work, these special adults are deposited into our lifestyle account. They’ve made enough errors to understand that perfectionism is a harsh taskmaster and that self-imposed guilt is a hardened killer. They could be superb instructors, but their best lessons are caught, not taught. Their Christianity is seasoned, filtered through the tight weave of realism, heartache, loss, and brokenness.

Grandparents embody the words of the psalmist:

The LORD is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation. (Psalm 100:5)

Jesus is not only their Lord, He’s their Friend and longtime Counsellor. Like a massive tree, they provide needed shade, they add beauty to the landscape, and they don’t mind being used. They’re there. Even if not much is happening, they are there.

Why all this surge of what some would call sentimentality? Well, my life took on a new dimension some years ago. Another hat was added to those I was already wearing. It’s one that has become increasingly more significant as time passes, I realize. Ryan Thomas was born to our older son and daughter-in-law. A six-pound, eight-ounce grandson who provided my wife and me a chance to try again...only this time with a lot more to give and a lot less to prove. Stretching out in front of us were an uncertain number of years in which we’d be able to reinvest our time and energy, our treasure and love.

And even though Webster won’t acknowledge the word, grandparenting is ours to enjoy...thoroughly and continually.

Today, a prayer is on my lips as I look into the faces of the 10 who call me “Bubba.” I pray for each one of them as I did for their moms and dads. If you’ve been blessed with grandchildren, take time to pray for them today.

Devotional content taken from Good Morning, Lord...Can We Talk? by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 2018. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries. All rights reserved.

The full devotional can be purchased at https://www.tyndale.com/p/good-morning-lord-can-we-talk/9781414380681.