I Corinthians 16:14 ESV
Years ago I met an older couple who were pleasant and caring. We went to the same church and they lived just down the street from us.
I was 33 years old when I met them. Little did I know they would change one of my son’s lives forever.
When we moved to the town where they lived my son was six years old. We lived near them for ten years; he was 16 years old when we moved away.
They were retired, loved gardening, and she was a terrific cook.
Soon after we moved there they adopted one of my sons as their honorary grandson. I learned very quickly that I didn’t have to wonder where he was at or what he was doing. He was always down at their house.
They fed him almost daily. Once, I was a little embarrassed about that and the couple assured me he was welcome at their table anytime.
The older fellow and my son became a dynamic duo. They did almost everything together.
Over the course of ten years he taught him how to garden, he helped him start his own business when he was around ten years old, he taught him everything he knew about humor, and really he taught him about life.
I’d say they were much more than friends. My dad passed away not long after we moved there and this gentle loving man more than filled in the gap for my son.
They were actually more like Batman and Robin than grandfather and grandson. The two of them were often “in trouble” for their shenanigans when the older fellow’s wife would catch them creating some new contraption or shooting BB guns.
Now, mind you nothing they did was illegal. They stayed on the right side of the law, but they were definitely creative. I do remember they got in trouble more than once (by the fellow’s wife) for making too much noise swinging their Ninja Turtle creatures in church.
They always had fun.
My son was very bright and creative and that fed into the older fellow’s day just fine.
Over the course of the ten years we lived there I’d say my son spent around two to five hours a day at their house (especially during the summer).
The summer we moved away my son was in his mid-teens and he announced that he was going to get a job in our new town.
I didn’t think anyone would hire someone who wasn’t quite sixteen, but I thought interviewing would be good experience. Evidently, the older fellow taught my son how to interview and sell yourself into a job. The very first time my young son interviewed for a job he walked out beaming. He told me he starts immediately.
Okay. Alrighty then.
I knew we weren’t scheduled to move for a few weeks and our new town was an hour away. I told my son I would drive him to and from work even before we moved there. I figured why put a damper on his enthusiasm?
The couple stayed in touch even years after we moved away.
They knew when he graduated from high school and college. They knew he went to graduate school. They knew he married a wonderful girl he met in college.
While they always had fun, my son was always well fed, and he learned a lot of business principles from the older fellow, that wasn’t the most important gift they gave him. The older fellow had been a very successful businessman before he sold his business and retired.
What he taught my son was important but even more important was how much he loved his young friend.
He loved him well. Both the older fellow and his wife loved my son well.
They really really loved him.
1 Corinthians 16:14 tells us, “Let all that you do be done in love.”
I can say absolutely everything they did for my son was done in love.
They changed his life with their love.
Years later when my son and his wife lived five hours away, they traveled back for the funeral. We had not lived there for many many years. My son said they didn’t recognize a lot of the people there. But my son had the opportunity to say goodbye to his buddy…maybe the best buddy he ever had.
Even though there was 70 years between them, they did love each other well.
At the time we lived there more than once I thanked them for loving my son.
I know they are both in the arms of Jesus and periodically I think of them and I ask Jesus to give them a squeeze from me.
Their love for my young son blessed me more than I can say.
Today my son is a successful businessman.
He is in the people business.
I’m not sure how much my son learned from his 70 year old best friend, but I’d say the foundation of love was the gift that just keeps on giving!
Spiritual Practice: Give Love
Love someone well today. You never know how it will change their life!
In God, Deborah
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