April 5th, Granky Day: A Celebration of Life, Love, and Laughter
If everyone knew what a few of us do, April 5 would be a national holiday. We would call it “Granky Day.”
Granky Day would be a celebration of all the precious women who have lived holy lives, but refused to be “holier-than-thou.” It would be a day to celebrate a woman who exuded radiant beauty and modesty in equal parts. It would be a day to celebrate a woman whose femininity was only matched by her untiring work ethic. It would be a day to celebrate a woman whose laugh could make you laugh, even when the joke made no sense at all.
April 5th is my maternal Grandmother’s birthday. Her name is Nova Dean Henager. She would have been 84 this year had she not died a few years back. She celebrated in a place where they don’t mark birthdays because no one grows old. I celebrated in a quiet place in my soul, where I remembered how blessed I was to have such a guileless, beautiful person influence my life.
When she passed, one of my aunts asked me to write a piece for the commemorative brochure that would be given to all those attending her funeral. It was a great honor to me to be asked to do that.
Here is what I wrote…
And (Jesus) said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. ~Matthew 18:3
She was a wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and great-great grandmother. She was a pastor’s wife, counselor, teacher, and friend— especially to those who most needed a friend. Not many called her Nova or Nova Dean. A few called her Mrs. Henager. But everyone who knew her, who really knew her, called her Granky.
The world is full of wonderful grandmothers, grannies, and grandmas. But, as far as we know, there has only ever been one Granky.
What is a Granky? A Granky is a grandmother who never let the child inside her die. A Granky is a woman with an indomitable spirit, an insatiable thirst for godliness, and an untiring devotion to God, His church, and her family. A Granky tells her famous “monkey stories” to kids, while adults gather in the shadows to listen, laugh, and remember how good it feels to be a kid. A Granky makes the world’s greatest rolls (and cinnamon rolls).
A Granky loves Christmas and summer youth camps as much as any child. A Granky is a woman of timeless beauty and simple, childlike faith. A Granky may grow old, but she doesn’t have to “grow up.” She may grow tired…and fall asleep…
But when she finally does, she wakes, refreshed, forever youthful…in the arms of her Jesus.
Happy birthday to my Granky…and to every godly woman whose life and love is a legacy your children will always revere, thank you.
Happy Granky Day.
Fly Right — A Devotional
Dead flies putrefy the perfumer’s ointment…
Even when a fool walks along the way, He lacks wisdom, and he shows everyone
that he is a fool.
Ecclesiastes 10:1a,3
Getting his strut on
Here’s another fly Solomon found in the ointment: the hypocrisy of a fool. The foolish person wants to seem self-sufficient, like he’s got it all figured out. He won’t ask for directions. He doesn’t need any one’s advice. He won’t seek input, even in the big decisions of life. In his mind, he convinces himself that he looks pretty smooth. He doesn’t know how transparent he is. He doesn’t know how foolish he appears.
I like the way the New Living Translation records verse 3: “You can identify fools just by the way they walk down the street!”
You can almost see the fool strutting in those words, can’t you? Putting on airs. Pretending to be what he isn’t. And maybe the only one he really fools is himself. How wretched the aroma of the hypocritical life! Just read how Jesus addressed such people in the gospels. He pulled no punches, calling the Pharisees “whited sepulchers,” pretty on the outside, but full of dead men’s bones.
God demands and deserves honesty. Let’s avoid the hypocrisy of fools.
A Prayer for Today: “Father,I am not everything I ought to be. I am probably not everything many people believe me to be. But I pray that the one thing I might be is honest. I commit to living honestly and openly before You. Amen.”
NOTE: This is part three of a four-part series:
Part One: Flies in the Ointment
Part Two: Shoo Fly, Shoo!
Devotional: Flies in the Ointment
Dead flies putrefy the perfumer’s ointment, and cause it to give off a foul odor; so does a little folly to one respected for wisdom and honor. ~Ecclesiastes 10:1 [NKJV]
Imagine presenting your lover with the gift of the latest, most exquisite perfume on the market. Imagine the look of anticipation as she tears the wrapping paper away to reveal the ornate bottle of precious ointment. Imagine as she squirts a bit of the precious liquid onto her neck, expecting the sweet, scintillating aroma to waft on the air.
Imagine, instead, the horrid stench of death, the foul odor of decay. Imagine her trying not to puke. Imagine the sudden change of expression. Imagine you grabbing the bottle and holding it to the light…only to discover the ointment is filled with a hundred dead, decaying, dirty little flies.
I can’t help but wonder if the royal apothecary had not suffered just such an indignity. Perhaps he had toiled away for months— maybe years— perfecting a new scent, one fit for the wealthiest and most glorious king on the earth. He may have waited weeks to gain an audience with the king and present his new fragrance. But when the box was opened, rather than the sweet scent of his triumph filling the air, there was a foul, putrid odor.
Somehow, after taking such care to perfect his perfume, the silly apothecary left it unattended – with the lid off! It must have been some time before he placed the lid on the box. And he must have done so without checking to be sure all was well with the ointment. Such a careless act for such an otherwise careful man! And now his great achievement was ruined. What ought to have been the sweetest scent in the kingdom instead had become a putrid substance, destined to be tossed out with the rest of the garbage.
Solomon drew the comparison to the damage a little foolishness can do to the life and reputation of a person otherwise respected and honored. He didn’t have to look far to illustrate his point, either. All he had to do was remember the circumstances of his own birth.
Solomon’s father David was Israel’s greatest king. He was a man who loved and served Jehovah with all his might. He was a famous warrior, poet, musician, and leader. But one great act of foolishness brought destruction to his home and dishonor to his life. His tryst with Bathsheba caused such sorrow and suffering for himself, his family, and even the nation he loved and led.
It is remarkable – and sobering – how one moment of foolishness can taint a lifetime of honorable living. But it can. I speak from experience. I know how a little folly can foul the fragrance of a life. I know how the greatest accomplishment of one’s life can so easily become his bitterest failing.
So, I urge you: Be on guard against the foolish whims of the flesh. Guard with care the sweet-smelling ointment of your lives, the perfume you are perfecting to present to your great King.
A Prayer for Today: “Father, I know that I have been foolish many times already. I am so grateful that You are a loving, forgiving and gracious God. I pray that I will be cognizant of how important and weighty my actions and words really are. May the things I do and say, the places I go, the way I conduct myself today bring honor and glory to You. Amen.”
¡ʇɹɐɔ ǝlddɐ ǝɥʇ ʇǝsdn
Now Eliab his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and Eliab’s anger was aroused against David, and he said, “Why did you come down here? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and the insolence of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle.”And David said, “What have I done now? Is there not a cause?” 1 Sam. 17:28,29 (NKJV)
In this cartoon I saw once there was a teacher standing before a Sunday School class. He had written on the chalkboard the words, “The first shall be last and the last shall be first.” One of the students had his hand raised and was saying, “I don’t want to be first or last: I want to wallow somewhere in the middle.”
On the sitcom, The King of Queens, the main character, Doug was being encouraged by his wife to give his “big boss” a card congratulating him on twenty years with the company. Doug complained that none of his co-workers were doing that. She thought that was the perfect reason to do it, to which he responded, “You see, you want me to stand out from the crowd, while I, on the other hand, want to get lost in that very crowd.”
Eliab, David’s older brother, was apparently that kind of soldier. He did not want to do anything to draw attention to himself – especially during a crisis such as Israel faced with the taunting Philistine giant, Goliath. He was mad at David for speaking up.
“Keep your mouth shut, kid! You don’t know what you’re doing. You are in over your head,”was his essential message to his kid brother.
Eliab was happy to wallow about in the middle. If his younger brother was willing to take chances he wouldn’t, how would that look?
Things haven’t changed much in the past few thousand years. Those who are too frightened or comfortable to do anything, those who are satisfied with mediocrity and the status quo are still trying to douse the flames of ambition in others.
“Don’t work so hard. Don’t achieve too much.”
“Don’t raise the bar too high.”
“Slow down, kid. You are going to make the rest of us look bad.”
These are the politics of the unmotivated.
I hope you are not buying what they are selling.
If working hard is upsetting the apple cart where you work, then upset it. It is obviously filled with bad apples anyway. If your “A” destroys the curve in Psychology, then flatten that thing. If you have the rock that can bring down the giant, then sling it! Whatever you can do, you ought to do.
God never asked of anyone what he could not give. But he does expect of everyone his best. A can-do attitude is a Christian trademark. (See Phil.4:13.)
Be humble. Be kind. Be understanding. But by all means, be the best that you can be!
A Thought for Today: “The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can’t be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.” -Elbert Green Hubbard (1856-1915)
A Prayer For Today: “Father, give me the boldness and the courage to stand out from the crowd. Make me a giant killer. Help me to seize the opportunity to do something great – and then give you the glory. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”
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The JourneyMan by D. Gene Strother is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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