Grandmother's Bible
CBN.com The spindly legs on the dark walnut coffee table shuddered as Grandmother plunked the large print King James Bible onto it for her nightly reading. There, with light from a floor lamp, she sat for the next hour, leaning over the book. The tome in front of her appeared to counterbalance her small frame.
“Grandma, why do you always read that book every night?” I said with child-like wonder.
She looked up and gently said, “It helps me stay close to the Lord.”
“Gee, Grandma, it looks like you’ve had it for a while. How many times do you need to read it?”
“That’s an interesting question no one has ever asked me before. I have no idea how many times I have been through it, but I learn something each time I reread it. You know, reading the Bible is not a marathon but more like a slow walk with a true friend. Have you ever thought of that before?”
I thought to myself for a moment, then said, “Nah, Grandma, I don’t know about friends like that, kinda like a make believe friend?”
Smiling, she said, “No Gregory, it is definitely not a make believe friend, come, sit next to me, and let me show you what I mean.”
I moved next to her on the couch. This was the first time I saw her Bible up close. Its pages were tattered from years of turning but the faded notes written in pencil in the margins were legible enough to make out Grandmother’s handwriting.
“Here, let me show you this passage,
‘He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled.’ Do you know what it means?”“No I don’t. Sounds like some sort of wedding.”
“That’s right; the church is the bride of Jesus and when we accept Him as our Savior we become part of the church. You did this several years ago in your church at home. Since you are part of His church, Jesus is the kind of friend who will never leave you or reject you. Did you know that?”
“I like the fact that he is a friend who won’t reject me.” I said as I felt the pain of my Dad telling me I had to spend the summers on the farm, as he did not have time for me.
During the day, I helped my grandparents, working either in the fields or elsewhere around the house and property. I would either drive the tractor or ride in a wagon while working with whatever crop was being harvested. When not doing that, some other to-dos were cleaning chicken coops, weeding gardens, or feeding the animals. The first summer I was there, I complained a fair amount about the heavy work and the long hours. After listening to this for two weeks, my Granddad said, over breakfast, that we should have a talk.
“This is what we’re going to do today. When you finish your breakfast, I want you to get a couple of the folding wooden chairs from the mud room and meet me by the large oak tree in the back.”
Since it sounded like a break from the chores, smiling, I said, “Okay.”
When I got to the backyard with the chairs, he set them up next to a hole in the ground where ants were leaving their nest to forage for food.
“Do you know what those ants are doing, son?”
“Well, it looks like they’re going out to get food for the rest of the nest.” I said, somewhat dumbfounded that I was watching an anthill.
“Yup, but we’re going to watch them a little while longer to see what else we can learn.”
We sat quietly, observing the comings and goings of our ant colony. I didn’t wear a watch back then, but judging by how the sun moved during our time in the backyard, I guess we were there an hour or more. Granddad finally broke the silence.
“Okay son, what else have you learned from these ants?”
I knew I wanted to get this right and hoped it wasn’t a trick question, “Well, they took leaves and stuff into their nest. They also took an injured ant in there. That’s about all.”
“That’s good. I’m sure you saw how fast they move, as if they have a purpose. People who study ants say the worker ants bring their stuff, drop it in the nest, then turn around and head back out to find more stuff. We can’t tell that for certain, since they’re all wearing the same uniform. There’s a verse I want you to think about, ‘The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer.’ The ants know that the season of gathering is rather short in Ohio. Our growing season here is maybe six months if the rains hold off. So, we have to work very hard to cultivate, plant, weed and harvest when we can. We need every hand to help, including yours, to do all that. Once we get the crops harvested and sold, then we can pay the bills. Once the bills are paid, we can relax and enjoy the winter. It’s a tough life, but I’ve had the other kind and I much prefer this way of life. Do you understand what I am trying to tell you?”
"Yeh, Granddad, I do. Whatever you need me to do, I will do it, gladly. Thank you.” As we got up to begin our workday, I now had a better understanding of what we were doing and why we were doing it. I also had a greater understanding of ants.
When I wasn’t working in the fields, I would help with whatever chores needed to be done. Grandmother’s garden was a favorite place, covering almost one-quarter of an acre with abundant wildlife. One day, while helping Grandmother gather some of the many crops, I came across some of that wildlife.
I rounded the corner from one row of corn and began to head down another when I stopped instantly. There, less than an arm’s length away, was a large spider web. It was a symmetrical spiral, beautifully woven with the sunlight glinting off the silk strands; the web sparkled with blue and silver hues. In the very center was a large garden spider with the same colorful blue and silver hues. Grandmother saw me stop and came over to see what had caught my attention.
"Oh, that’s a beauty, isn’t it?” she said.
“Yeh, it’s so neat; I just wanted to look at it for a while.”
“Of course, when you’ve finished looking at that, let’s take a break. Come over to the picnic table for some lemonade. I have something I want to tell you about that spider.” Grandmother moved briskly to the picnic table, depositing her basket of corn before going inside for those glasses of lemonade. When she reappeared, I had settled myself at the table.
“A favorite verse of mine, especially here in the garden and especially after an encounter like we just had is , ‘The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in king’s palaces.’ Would you like to know the importance of that verse?”
“Yeh, I would, but I didn’t know spiders had hands and how do ya know that was a girl spider?” I said, at a loss to interpret the verse.
Grandmother chuckled as she said, “Well, no they don’t have hands but I am guessing by the size of that spider it’s a female. But that’s not why I quoted the verse. Spiders are very agile because of their eight legs; they are able to spin and anchor their webs between various uneven points, and still produce amazing symmetry and beauty. The importance to you is to know everyone has ups and downs in their lives, Greg, not just you. It’s this unevenness in life that we all have to get over or around. Spiders do this every day, producing a web that is a thing of beauty. That’s the key to life, to be agile enough during the uneven parts to maintain your balance and produce beauty. The last part of the quote talks about being in ‘king’s palaces’. If you master what it takes to have balance in your life, you can do great things with your life. Does this make sense to you, Gregory?”
“Yeh, Grandma, it does. Is your way of getting balance reading the Bible every night?”
“Yes, reading from my King James each night keeps me focused on what is important. Why don’t you look again at that spider and her web? It will be a good reminder of the verse we just discussed. You will need to remember that as you go throughout your life.”
I did go back to see the web and the spider, it was all still very beautiful. Grandmother wrote down the verses she discussed with me on 3 by 5 cards so I could keep them. More than anyone, she knew the obstacles I would have to get over or around to be successful in life. Anyway she could contribute to help me accomplish that would be rewarding.
As a young boy, Greg's father banished him to his grandparent’s farm for seven summers. The novel that he's now writing about those seven summers shows how his Grandmother’s large print King James Bible was instrumental in helping him cope with life. God turned into goodness what was meant for punishment. His stories are some examples of God working through his grandparents, their devout Christian lifestyle and their KJV Bible to reshape a broken young boy into a responsible, productive, and successful adult.
