by Janet Stobie
This week, with school beginning, my focus is on my grandson, Ben, beginning second year at Lakehead University and grandson, Tim, entering first year at Fanshawe College. When I was their age, I remember thinking our beautiful world would last forever. I expected a job would be waiting for me when I completed my education. If I worked hard, that job would provide promotions and increased pay until retirement.
Today’s world doesn’t offer Ben and Tim such certainty. Even if they find work in their field when they finish school, there is little security. Downsizing or technological change could wipe out their precious job. Headlines about global warming tell us that even our world might disappear. Like young people going off to war, Ben and Tim face an uncertain future.
As a grandparent, I would like to smooth out the road ahead for them. I’d like to wave a magic wand and give them the world I entered in 1961, but that world is not mine to give.
Already our family has given Ben and Tim our best gift. We have loved them. When they were little and scraped their knees, we picked them up, dried their tears and patched their broken skin. As they grew their falls and mistakes had larger consequences, we stood by them, offering our support. We have cried with them in their pain, and we have celebrated their every success.
Today we can only trust that the love that has surrounded them since their very beginning will give them the strength to face tomorrow. Families are wonderful, but in the end we have to let go and trust God with our precious children.
I’m sure, if they could have, Jesus’ family would have kept him safe and secure. In order to fulfil his purpose in this world, he had to walk his own road, and make his own choices.
The Bible tells us that Jesus said, “Into Thy hands I commend my Spirit,” while hanging on the cross. (Luke 23:46) The humanity in Jesus trusted in God, and God brought him to the joy of resurrection. We too need to give God our children’s Spirits, trusting in God’s Grace for the gift of new life.
