90 Years!

Today my family (on my mom's side) all got together to celebrate my Grandpa Alberts' 90th birthday. My mom has three sisters and a brother, so there are quite a few of us! There are four generations now, and my grandpa has 10 great-grandchildren.

We had a great time looking at old pictures and listening to my grandpa, mom, aunts, and uncle tell the stories behind them.

I would love to be able to go back in time and see my grandparents when they were younger. They were married in 1941, and my grandpa was a sergeant in the Army during World War II. There were so many pictures of them together where you can just see my grandpa looking at her with so much love in his eyes. My Aunt Nancy told me today that my great-grandmother was never kind to my grandma, but that my grandpa took good care of her.

My grandma passed away in 2005 after a long battle with dementia. She had been in a nursing home and didn't remember any of us. When I watched the movie The Notebook a couple of years ago, it reminded me of my grandparents. I thought it was a beautiful picture of a husband's love and commitment to his wife, even through those painful times when he was just a stranger to her.

I love my grandpa, and the more I learn about him, the more I love him. When I was looking for a gift for him, not sure what to get a 90-year-old man, I found a picture of him with our boys two years ago at Christmas. Then I found a frame that had the word "Generations" engraved across the top, with this verse down the side:

"For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations" (Psalm 100:5).

When I looked at my family that was gathered there today, I could see evidence of God's love and faithfulness through the generations. My uncle is a kidney transplant survivor. My aunt is a cancer survivor, as is my grandpa himself. My cousin didn't think she would be able to have children, but God blessed her and her husband with two.

Most importantly, God's faithfulness to my grandpa is evident in the fact that his children and grandchildren know and love the Lord. I am grateful for grandparents on both sides of my family who loved God with all their hearts and made sure He was first in their homes. Their faith has indeed been passed down from generation to generation, and I am the woman I am today because of it.

My grandpa has seen a lot of change in 90 years' time. But God's love and faithfulness have never changed. And they never will!