I have in past months included posts expressing appreciation for my late paternal grandfather, Clifton F. Healy. There are many reasons for having posted thoughts on my grandfather. I am his namesake. His strength of character showed through the imperfections he, as all of us, had. His Midwestern rural values inform my own present ones, especially since such values are in bold contrast to those of the city where I currently dwell. I love Grandpa Healy, and miss him.
But one should not get the impression from my relative silence about my maternal grandfather, Everett D. Thompson, that I love or respect him less. I am also Grandpa Thompson's namesake, sharing my middle name, Daniel, with him. His character strengths are different, in some respects, than Grandpa Healy's, but they are no less important. Nor do they any less inform my own present values.
I'm thinking about Grandpa Thompson today, because I had the honor of sharing with him and Grandma the good news that Anna and I are having another child. Grandpa served most of his adult life as a minister among the Restoration Movement churches in which I was raised. He mostly served small, rural congregations. He and Grandma had six children (three boys and three girls), whom they raised on the pittance that ministers of the Gospel receive. I happen to be the eldest of their grandchildren, our daughter Sofie, one of eleven (soon to be twelve) great-grandchildren.
I pray for Grandpa and Grandma each day in my morning prayers, and when I think of Grandpa I think of such characteristics as endurance, faith, and integrity.
My grandfather was a Quaker before he became a member of the Restoration Movement churches. But as an adult, he considered the claims of the Restoration Movement churches, and decided, in light of his study and conviction, not only to become a member of this brotherhood of churches, but also to spend his life serving them in a vocation of ministry. One cannot, it seems, have a more solid example of integrity.
My grandfather has lived his faith in Christ in the midst of struggle and not a little suffering. One of his sons, my uncle Mark, died as a young man. The family history with which I grew up had had hopes for Mark that he would go into ministry as Grandpa had done. This promise, however, was not fulfilled. My grandfather raised a large family on a meager income. Grandpa could have sought a different occupation—and he often needed to supplement his income in other ways (bus driver, piano tuning, and so on). For a time he managed a nursing home, but eventually went back into ministry, once again in a small rural town. Every family has their own crises and pain, and Grandpa has had to watch and pray over the struggles and hurt of his children. Yet, he endures in his faith. Just last night, as I spoke with him on the phone, his voice was filled with excitement and justifiable pride in the ministers and service of the congregation where he and Grandma worship. A life lived with little worldly acclaim or wealth may well discourage the best of us, not less so when it is coupled with deep tragedy and sorrow. Yet Grandpa still finds joy and excitement in the service of God.
But perhaps most of all, of all his qualities, my grandfather's faith stands out to me. Both my sets of grandparents instilled in me the faith I now carry, but particularly since Grandpa Thompson served as a minister, and since I grew up in the group of churches in which he served, I have a lot of church memories when I think of Grandpa. I still have a children's New Testament given me by my grandparents as a gift in 1975 (taped together, true, but still useful), and will be reading from it to Sofie when she gets a little older. When I decided to go to Bible college to serve as a minister, Grandpa was unsurprisingly proud. Visiting my grandparents for school breaks or in the summer I was regularly and unostentatiously inculcated in the Christian faith.
I am no longer serving in ministry. But I have not left the faith in which I was raised. I no longer worship in the churches in which I was raised, but in the same spirit of integrity, of study and conviction, that my Grandpa has exhibited, I have found a way to live the faith in which I was raised in a new setting. And although my tragedies have not been of the depth my grandfather has experienced, his example of endurance has, in part, been used of God to keep me present in the grace of the Holy Trinity.
Due to my current location, my job and my studies, I do not get to see Grandpa and Grandma much. I heard the longing to see us and our daughter when I spoke with them last night. We are the poorer for not seeing them more often. And though our daughter is too young to have a conscious understanding of the qualities Grandpa exemplifies, she does not need it. She will grasp those qualities by merely being around him more.
I most definitely want my children to have the character traits of their great-grandparents. Grandpa Healy's characteristics will have to live in family story, and in me. So, too, will Grandpa Thompson's. But they need also to be received in the ministry of presence. God grant us the time to make that so.
Posted by Clifton at November 16, 2004 12:01 PM | TrackBack