Grandmothers

 

Grandma & Granbpa Emmanuel

I hope that everyone reading this have wonderful memories of your grandmothers. My family is originally from Wisconsin. The upper midwestern personality is unique and incredibly special. My grandparents lived in Merrill, Wisconsin.

My father’s parents lived a few miles outside of town and owned a family dairy. My grandparents were
the only farm hands once their children moved away, so our family vacation each year was going “up there” during hay season to help bale and store hay in the barn for the coming hard winter. I am sure that my cousins and I were more often in the way than help, but we thought it was all fun.

Grandma & Grandpa Krueger

My other grandmother was a widow in lived in town. She worked at the local IGA grocery store, in the meat market. She did not have the farm work to do, so there was time to do more of what we wanted. She had two great treasures which I still hold dear, a collection of Reader’s Digests dating all the way back to the’30s. Each summer, I read them all. I only wish that I would have claimed them as my own when she finally passed.

The other treasure was made up of my mother’s record collection, several dozen old 78’s from the 40’s and 50’s. These I do have, and I still love the music from that period more than any other style or genre.

The point is that the houses and our time spent at each house was quite different, but each was a magical, memorable time, that I continue to cherish almost 60 years after it is gone.

This brings us to the reading for today, Proverbs 9:1-6. The passage is a personification of Wisdom. Wisdom is like a wise grandmother, who takes care of her house, prepares the meals so everyone is fed, takes care of their needs so that they feel valued, listening to anything that is communicated so that all feel heard. I am sure that my grandmothers heard every 6-year-old story of our previous year at school. They voiced the appropriate concern over the wrongs we suffered, rejoiced with our elementary achievements, presented us with gracious gifts from the local dime store, and offered us a place to be ourselves while encouraging us to grow into something grand.

What they both offered in their own way was unconditional love. A grandmother’s love and wise guidance have an impact on the mind of the young. As the children grow up to face various adult trials and challenges, hers is the voice that comes from deep within reminding us of acceptance, guidance, and showing us, in a very real way, the divine love of our Creator.

Now I am a grandparent myself. I remember clearly all the time they both listened to endless stories and provided comforting words. My grandmothers were the personification of wisdom itself, each of them in their own way. I can only pray that I might do something similar in the lives of my own grandchildren.

Rev. Craig C. Krueger