my grand parents have lived in the same house since they were married almost 58 years ago. it is a precious house that i always dreamed about living in with my family one day. my grandfather, being the great handyman that he was, built on a second story (with his father-in-law's help, i think), added on a family room and back porch, and created almost an infinite amount of storage space for my sweet grandmother, the queen of packrats. i love the built in bookshelves in the dining room and the dresser in the wall upstairs! hardwood floors creak as you walk from room to room, and the garage has the best "mechanic" smell from my grandfather working out there all those years. my brother and i stayed with them for a month at a time during the summer when we were little. i remember sitting on my favorite kitchen stool waiting for granddaddy to come home for lunch. he'd eat a sandwich while watching "this old house", and my grandmother would be cutting up a canteloupe for us to eat. i remember how she'd save the rind and all the seeds for the birds. to this day, i still can't cut a canteloupe how she did... i end up with a big mess, so i just buy the slices at publix. (this is what's wrong with our generation!!) i remember swinging on the tree swing in the front yard and swimming in the creek running through their back yard. ryan and i would play husker du with granddaddy and go visit grandmother at her kindergarten. they always had the most beautiful flowers in their yard, as well as hummingbirds and "red bluebirds" as i called them. we also spent most of our christmases at this house. i have always loved the drive from the interstate to their house, but it is especially beautiful at christmastime... all the lights on these grand houses seem almost magical. there was always the anticipation of "will it snow??" from us southern kids, but it never did... until the next week when we had gone home. as i grew older, new memories were made. i will never forget backing out of their long, narrow driveway to go home.... my grandparents always stood on the porch to watch us drive away, and to this day it makes me nervous. :) i remember my grandmother hanging aol cds in her big bay window because she liked how the sun reflected off of them. :)
after 58 years, my grandparents can't live there anymore. an old house requires maintenance that my granddaddy just can't do. his eyesight and his back aren't what they used to be...they're not much at all anymore. they have moved into an assisted living home just down the street from their house. it's really a beautiful place and is just enough space for them. they get to visit with the other residents during meals, and my grandmother has found several people she knows there (i guess that's where i get it from!). it is slowly becoming home for them.
as we visited their house for one last time, it was easy to be sad. i found myself just wandering around the house, trying to soak in every detail. i wanted to cry, thinking that i'd never again get to watch wheel of fortune with my grandparents in that den with the glittery ceiling or pilfer through the dishwasher to find something to eat for breakfast (yes, you read it right...the pantry overflowed to the dishwasher!). though these gloomy emotions came over me, i found peace in the fact that this house is just a house. all this stuff that i've grown up loving and visiting is just....stuff (and a whole lot of junk!). one day, this house will be destroyed. everything will be destroyed, but my grandparents will have another home, a permanent dwelling not made with hands. one day they will live for eternity in a mansion in Heaven, and there won't be junk and there won't be dust. Matthew 6:19-21 says,
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
i am thankful that i have Hope in more than a sweet little house surrounded by beautiful trees. i am thankful that i have Hope in my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He causes my heart to be filled with joy instead of sadness, and He has given me a treasure greater than i could find in the endless storage at my grandparents' house. praise God for His gift of grace and mercy that allows me to look past the momentary trials of this life to the glory of our eternal God.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
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