Grandma's Work
We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and his mighty wonders.
Psalms 78:4 NLT
This isn’t the first, nor the last, time I’ll bring up my grandma Olajeane, or Jeanie as most people knew her. Today’s artwork isn’t my own; it’s Grandma’s. She was an artist. I don’t know that she would have called herself that, but she was.
It’s easy to put someone like your grandma on a pedestal, but I want you to know I was and am aware of my Grandma’s imperfections. I think it’s important to say because I don’t look at my Grandma the way I look at Jesus. But I do look at Grandma and recognize how she used her gifts to show Jesus to others.
Grandma was dedicated to her art practice, as a means to showing her dedication to those in her life. For example, Grandma sent me a handmade card every single week from the time I started college in the fall of 2004, to my graduation from grad school in the spring of 2010.
I’m not kidding. She did not miss a week. The cards were varying degrees of elaborate. Sometimes she had a lot to say and sometimes it was a simple “I hope you’re having a good week” scrawled on the inside. But it was ALWAYS there!
Grandma loved to create, but for her it wasn’t just about the artwork. The cards she made were a physical reminder that you were on her prayer list, and probably written somewhere in her notebook or in her Bible; I have a few to prove it!
Olajeane’s legacy is in the love she showed others. Her artwork is the physical reminder of that love that’s been left behind. Grandma’s been gone now for 11 years. Living in the home where she lived, surrounded still by so many of her flowers and a few pieces of furniture, makes me think often of the legacy I’m going to leave behind for my own children and grandchildren someday.
I hope someday they’ll be able to look back at the artwork and writing I’m doing now and know that I was a mom just trying to do her very best with the gifts God has given. That’s really all any of us can do- Recognize our gifts and put them to use.
What gift from God are you using in this season of life?
At the beginning- A birthday card for Aunt Leah, 1997.
Here- A birthday card for Aunt Leah, 1970.
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