Grandchildren

 

My grandsons were off school for two weeks for Christmas break.  The public schools call it “Winter break,” but we all know it’s Christmas break, so I’ll call it what it is.  I’m just old and cranky … and I don’t like to ignore Someone’s birthday.  So, I took Bennett (fifteen years old) to work with me for two days and Greyson (twelve years old) for one day.  They were a help, sort of.  I was installing a six-foot wooden fence for a friend, and there was a creek behind the house.  Both boys enjoyed playing in the water much more than working with granddaddy.  I recall sixty-five years ago going to work with my papaw.  I enjoyed his plumbing tools: cutting pipe threads with the big pipe dies and pouring liquid lead into the cast iron drainpipe joints.  But mostly, I enjoyed fishing in the lake behind the new house where he was working.  Does that sound familiar?  And King Solomon must have played in the water while hanging around with David, his grandpa too, because he said in Ecclesiastes 1:9, “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.”  Things are new today and much different than they were for Solomon three thousand years ago.  But then again, they are also so much alike.  Cars, Computers, and the internet would be unfamiliar to Solomon, but grandchildren playing in the water is timeless.  Hey, spend time with your children and grandchildren this week.  David and Solomon would agree with me: they grow up so fast.