Grandma looked like a spider crab moving as she grasped chairs, knobs and doorways to pull her weight in the wheelchair. I was seven and visiting her for a week during the summer months off of school. I sat across from her at the kitchen table; her head drooped over a plate of dry cake soaked in warmed coffee. Her hands were unsteady and as they shook, the crumbling cake fell onto the old china plate. After her snack, we went into the living room and she pulled out an old photo album. It was a normal routine for us to go through her life in pictures while I visited. I always had new questions for her since she enjoyed sharing. Her dry leathered hands, scarred and crooked cupped each black page with tucked black and white pictures.
She showed me a picture of her sisters Louise and Mary. Mary had become a nun and her name was changed to Sister Benigna. She had to shed all things from her life when she became a nun in 1923. She wore a black and white long dress and a similar hat covering her entire head accept her face. Her face was round and pleasant but my grandmothers nose crinkled when she talked about her.
“She was favorite because she was called by God,” she would say in her Dutch German accent. “But my sister Louise was favored because she married rich and got a pew in the front of the church.” She would drop her eyebrows as she looked at the picture of her sister and turn the page. “I sat in the back with the others who have nothing.” Grandma would look sad until she looked up.
I climbed into her lap from my stool and her soft lap comforted me as I hugged her tight. “But Grandma, I’ll sit with you!” She closed the book and put it aside and said, “Yes, and that’s special.” She smelled of menthol, and lye soap but she always made me feel loved.
Sometimes our lives are full of tragedy, sorrow, struggle, and countless other small challenges that seem to overwhelm our thoughts. When we recount our lives, it is easier to recall those things that really test our faith.
In those times that you feel unimportant or overwhelmed, remember that God has already given you the greatest gift; the gift of unconditional love through the sacrifice of his son on the cross.
Matthew 18:3 “ I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
sherrystruthtofiction 