Dear Byron,
Last evening GGMa Sylvia and I were looking at some old VCR tapes (ever hear of those?) of our grandchildren, former Christmas gatherings and a trip to Alaska—all over 20 years ago. My, my, how we have all changed. And what wonderful memories came flooding back, a few of the benefits of living into one's senior years.
But what youngsters we are compared to how long people lived before the great Flood. Adam lived 930 years, his son Seth 912, Jared 962 and Methuselah 969 (Genesis 5:1-32). That's a long, long time. My father lived only a few months past his 78th birthday. I'll probably outlive him. I've already celebrated my 78th birthday and am considered an "old man."
Out of curiosity I asked myself what the world might have been like if I had been born 950 years ago. Given my lack of any noble ancestors—at least to my knowledge—I would have been born in a peasant family in a feudal system in Europe, maybe even England. My father might have been skilled in some trade and I would apprentice to learn the same. We would owe allegiance to some Lord and be expected to pay taxes to him.
In the eleventh century, in my youth, people would still be talking about why the world did not end in the year 1,000 as so many had predicted, much as we now hear people predicting some similar disaster in the year 2012. We would also hear many stories about William, former Duke of Normandy, and how he became William the Conqueror and King of Britain.
By the time I would be 15 years, Pope Gregory VII would declare the Papacy as being over both the church and the state—in fact the entire world. This didn't sit right with the Emperor, but eventually the Pope prevailed.
So much for the brief history lesson. I'm trying to imagine what it would have been like to live on through the middle-ages, as they were called, the Renaissance, the Reformation era, the discovery of America, the rise of scientific thought, etc., etc. It is overwhelming.
And then I'm wondering how you, GGMa (assuming she also lived this long) and I would ever keep track of our children, our children's children, their children and so on for what, 36 plus generations. We surely couldn't have them all over for Christmas dinner and we wouldn't have video tapes of what that great multitude had done, where they had gone and how many children they'd all had.
Regardless of how long you live, remember that family records, photos and memories are very important. Obviously Noah took all those records of his ancestors with him as he, his wife and his three sons and their wives boarded the ark. Many are the lessons available to us as we ponder our past, many are the blessings.
You find out soon enough, Byron, that it is easy enough to be overwhelmed with worry and anxiety at all stages of life—even when you are quite young. Looking back helps us to gain perspective, but looking back particularly on the recorded history of God's people in the Bible is extremely helpful. Looking back helps us to look ahead with confidence and faith in our loving Father. Psalm 77 helps us worriers to gain perspective.
I will remember the deeds of the LORD;
yes, I will remember your wonders of old.
I will ponder all your work,
and meditate on your mighty deeds (Psalm 77:11-12).
Dear Grandson, remember the importance of what I say. And keep looking back so that you will have the courage to face today and the hope that tomorrow will bring.
With love,
GGPa Al
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Thursday, August 5, 2010
What's In Our Basement?
Dear Byron,
Not sure if you read comic books. I know they've changed a whole bunch since I was a kid. I know you can still buy them to read about those super-heroes. Here's a story about a family that was about to lose their home because they couldn't make the mortgage payment. When they dug around in some old boxes in their basement they found an old Superman comic book that was very valuable to collectors, worth a cool quarter million bucks! They sold it and were able to make their mortgage payment and save their house: Cool-O-Rama » Superman Comic Saves Family Home From Foreclosure
This is the stuff that we who write novels love to use. At the last possible moment, just as disaster is about to come down upon the family, an unforeseen hero drops in, a strange twist of events happens and the bad guys go away, everything turns out right.
I have a friend who has collected and saved his Superman comic books for years. I don't recall him saying he has any first editions. I hope he does. He can use it for his retirement fund. Of course, knowing him, he probably won't want to part with the comic books themselves.
What's in your basement—or your attic if you don't have a basement? Let me put it another way. What do you know about your family history, about your heritage, about all those people who lived and sacrificed, laughed, celebrated, prayed and passed on what you and your family have today—your basement?
The Gospel of Matthew opens with the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. That recitation of Jesus' "basement" is critical (Matthew 1:1-17). It points to the careful working out of God's plan to rescue His people through His exalted Son through generation after generation, working forward from Abraham through David to Jesus with a stylized (three fourteens) legal line of descent. All of God's promises are now fulfilled.
The Gospel of Luke goes in another direction, tracing Jesus' genealogy all the way back to Adam, thus relating Him to all nations (Luke 3:23-38). Luke names the actual ancestors of Joseph's branch of the family.
What's in our family's basement? Something far more valuable than a Superman comic book. That's what I want to share with you, Byron, in the posts that will follow. I want you to know a little about me, your GGMa and all those other people who lived before you. But above all, I want you to know that Jesus has brought us all into His great and wonderful family. And I want to celebrate with you and the rest of the Jesus Family in our heavenly Father's house forever and ever.
All my love,
GGPa Al
Not sure if you read comic books. I know they've changed a whole bunch since I was a kid. I know you can still buy them to read about those super-heroes. Here's a story about a family that was about to lose their home because they couldn't make the mortgage payment. When they dug around in some old boxes in their basement they found an old Superman comic book that was very valuable to collectors, worth a cool quarter million bucks! They sold it and were able to make their mortgage payment and save their house: Cool-O-Rama » Superman Comic Saves Family Home From Foreclosure
This is the stuff that we who write novels love to use. At the last possible moment, just as disaster is about to come down upon the family, an unforeseen hero drops in, a strange twist of events happens and the bad guys go away, everything turns out right.
I have a friend who has collected and saved his Superman comic books for years. I don't recall him saying he has any first editions. I hope he does. He can use it for his retirement fund. Of course, knowing him, he probably won't want to part with the comic books themselves.
What's in your basement—or your attic if you don't have a basement? Let me put it another way. What do you know about your family history, about your heritage, about all those people who lived and sacrificed, laughed, celebrated, prayed and passed on what you and your family have today—your basement?
The Gospel of Matthew opens with the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. That recitation of Jesus' "basement" is critical (Matthew 1:1-17). It points to the careful working out of God's plan to rescue His people through His exalted Son through generation after generation, working forward from Abraham through David to Jesus with a stylized (three fourteens) legal line of descent. All of God's promises are now fulfilled.
The Gospel of Luke goes in another direction, tracing Jesus' genealogy all the way back to Adam, thus relating Him to all nations (Luke 3:23-38). Luke names the actual ancestors of Joseph's branch of the family.
What's in our family's basement? Something far more valuable than a Superman comic book. That's what I want to share with you, Byron, in the posts that will follow. I want you to know a little about me, your GGMa and all those other people who lived before you. But above all, I want you to know that Jesus has brought us all into His great and wonderful family. And I want to celebrate with you and the rest of the Jesus Family in our heavenly Father's house forever and ever.
All my love,
GGPa Al
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Why I Started This New Blog
Dear Byron,
I'm sure you've heard from your parents or your Grandparents that I wrote three novels are about one young couple, Tillie and Albert Freitag. The series is called The Spiral Bridge Mysteries. One day soon I'll tell you more about the real Spiral Bridge. You may even be able to find my novels in ebook format.
In my novels Tillie and Albert fall in love, get married and have their first child, Louise, a beautiful little girl. My readers meet their families and friends, discover their thoughts and feelings, their doubts and fears, their joys and sorrows. That, of course, is why we read novels. In them we learn to love, like, admire, hate, fear or despise the characters—or not.
In this Blog I'll take you back at times to some of the events portrayed in my novels, but only to illustrate. My aim is to help you as you face the same kind of experiences Albert and Tillie encountered way back in the days of the Great Depression of the 1930s. Yours is a very different world, eighty years later. Yet in many ways it remains the same. People still quarrel, fall in love, have babies, grow up, try hard to make good grades in school, struggle other kids, get married, fail at marriage and divorce one another. They cheat, steal, celebrate birthdays, attend funerals, lose their jobs, go on trips, find new challenges and on and on. That's also what I'll be writing about in these blogs. As you grow up, Byron, you'll face the same kind of things, even though your world has outwardly changed very much.
One thing never changes: God's Word, the Word recorded in the Sacred Scriptures and proclaimed across thousands of years. I'll be drawing from that Word also as I ponder with you about the challenges of growing up, getting married, living in a family and learning how to trust God and His love for us all. I pray that you will receive many blessings by pondering that Word as you too grow up.
And please, Byron, be assured that I'll be praying for you, both during the days remaining to me on this earth and then in the great and wondrous hills and halls of heaven.
—Your loving Great-Grandpa Al
I'm sure you've heard from your parents or your Grandparents that I wrote three novels are about one young couple, Tillie and Albert Freitag. The series is called The Spiral Bridge Mysteries. One day soon I'll tell you more about the real Spiral Bridge. You may even be able to find my novels in ebook format.
In my novels Tillie and Albert fall in love, get married and have their first child, Louise, a beautiful little girl. My readers meet their families and friends, discover their thoughts and feelings, their doubts and fears, their joys and sorrows. That, of course, is why we read novels. In them we learn to love, like, admire, hate, fear or despise the characters—or not.
In this Blog I'll take you back at times to some of the events portrayed in my novels, but only to illustrate. My aim is to help you as you face the same kind of experiences Albert and Tillie encountered way back in the days of the Great Depression of the 1930s. Yours is a very different world, eighty years later. Yet in many ways it remains the same. People still quarrel, fall in love, have babies, grow up, try hard to make good grades in school, struggle other kids, get married, fail at marriage and divorce one another. They cheat, steal, celebrate birthdays, attend funerals, lose their jobs, go on trips, find new challenges and on and on. That's also what I'll be writing about in these blogs. As you grow up, Byron, you'll face the same kind of things, even though your world has outwardly changed very much.
One thing never changes: God's Word, the Word recorded in the Sacred Scriptures and proclaimed across thousands of years. I'll be drawing from that Word also as I ponder with you about the challenges of growing up, getting married, living in a family and learning how to trust God and His love for us all. I pray that you will receive many blessings by pondering that Word as you too grow up.
And please, Byron, be assured that I'll be praying for you, both during the days remaining to me on this earth and then in the great and wondrous hills and halls of heaven.
—Your loving Great-Grandpa Al
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