The past few days and weeks, I’ve been spending a lot of time over at Grandpa’s house. Earlier this year, he was diagnosed with spinal cancer. Right now, he’s engaged in a rigorous program at home—diet, exercise, and several different treatments. And deep down inside, I know there’s a selfish reason that I keep going over to Grandpa’s house. It’s not just to serve him (though I wish it were). No, I have been blessed.
You see, there’s nothing like sickness to wake you up to the fact that life is short and that every breath is precious. All of us hope and believe the best for Grandpa, and that’s why we’re working and praying so hard to see him well. But there’s still that prompting that pain brings—a prompting that reminds that the wisdom of the gray head is something to be sought after. Proverbs exhorts us to search after wisdom as a hidden treasure, and in some small sense, when I make Grandpa salads and hand him his water and help him with his machines, those little deeds are my gateways to wisdom.
The other day, someone asked me if Grandpa was a believer. The first thing that came to mind is still the best answer I can give. Yes, he is a believer—a faithful and heroic one who has endowed our family with a legacy of faith. And for that, I am filled with gratitude.
Grandpa’s always been a teacher, and yet there’s something in his fighting spirit that lends wisdom even to those who just find themselves in proximity to him. A few days ago, I walked outside to see grandpa strolling around with his walker. I was just taking him a drink, but he stopped me for some conversation.
“Never stop making yourself a person of value,” Grandpa began. And his wisdom continued, “Follow those open doors that God gives you. And each open door will lead to more open doors. But there will come a time when there will be so many open doors that you’re gonna have to do some serious praying for wisdom about which one to go through. But never stop moving forward.” Grandpa told me that in the few months he’s been battling this cancer, he’s read twelve books and firmly believes that “as soon as you stop growing, you start dying.”
That’s what I love about Grandpa. His vision is always up and always forward. It’s that Philippians 3 perseverance to the end. So I was glad Grandma was waiting on the porch for me, or Grandpa would’ve seen tears drop from my welled up eyes.
But it’s not easy to keep emotions at bay when you look at Grandma, either. These are the days when I witness fifty-year vows of “in sickness and in health” still kept. And it’s all for the sake of a still higher calling.
As I helped Grandpa set up one of his machines the other day, he got a phone call from an old friend asking how he was. His answer brought more joy and caused me more conviction. “John,” he told the friend on the phone, “even since this affliction started, I’ve seen more power in my witness. I start to share the gospel with people and I watch their eyes fill with tears. (Had he seen mine after all?) So I know that in whatever state I find myself, the gospel is preached.”
So today, I’ll spend my hours gleaning wisdom from this pillar of faithfulness. And tomorrow, well . . . I hope to be like Grandpa someday soon.
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