Devotion for Tuesday, September 4, 2007

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"For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open." Luke 8:17 When I was growing up, my grandparent’s yard was well known around town. Their house sat on a corner lot, and you had to pass along two sides of it to go past, because the road made a sharp turn to the left, and followed the edge of their yard. Once he retired from the railroad, Grandpa took pride in his landscaping. He spent 10-12 hours a day outside; mowing, pruning, hoeing, and digging. He cultivated beautiful roses, marigolds, azaleas and daffodils. He even tried his hand at cross-breeding tulip bulbs. I remember one Easter, we had an entire flower bed of these really awful colored tulips, that were more brown than orange or red. All the grandkids raised their eyebrows and made faces when we saw them, but after a frown from Grandma, nobody said a word. From that point on, he simply bought the bulbs in the colors that he wanted to plant. His garden was bountiful with more vegetables than he or my grandmother could eat. Every time we would visit, even after Mike and I got married, he would send home potatoes and corn and okra. My kids grew up eating tomatoes, whole from the garden, with a bit of salt on them. I don’t think Grandma ever bought a can of green beans or peas from the store. She simply went to the pantry or the freezer and pulled out a jar or a bag. The grandchildren were allowed to run free in the yard. We could play on the picnic tables, throw the ball over the garage to the cousin on the other side, roll down the big hill at the back of the house and into the bottom garden site or pretend to fish in the hole that the washing machine drained into. We were not allowed near Grandpa’s prized possessions: his hedges, which ran around the parameter of his property or his pecan trees. If you’ve never seen a young pecan tree, the branches grow very close to the ground, and are very close together. It is a tree-climbers paradise. It seemed to call to each of us time and time again. “Climb me! Climb me!” And we all did. Knowing that we were going to get in trouble, every last one of the 10 grandchildren and dozens of cousins climbed into those trees at least once. And even though we sometimes did it when he wasn’t home, Grandpa always seemed to know that someone had been up in the pecan tree. Probably had something to do with the leaves and nuts that we knocked to the ground and were too dumb to pick up and dispose of! What I remember most about the moments that followed us getting caught, was not the punishment, because Grandpa never laid a hand on any of us. But the look of disappointment on his face was enough to make the boys hang their heads in shame, and the girls burst into tears. And then we got “The Talk”. I’m not sure why we called it that, because it only consisted of 7 words. “You know God sees everything you do.” And with that, he would walk away. I think I’d rather have had the spanking! My grandfather went home to his heavenly Father in 2002. But to this day, when I do something wrong, and want so desperately to cover it up, and pretend it didn’t happen, I still see the disappointed look and hear those words. And instead, I must bow my head in shame and burst into tears…and ask forgiveness.