Ewww yuck.

"My dad is the boss. . .until Grandma comes over. Then he’s just one of us."

--a child in Kid’s Say the Greatest Things about God

     God's timing is amazing. Today I went to a cousin's family reunion. I have felt alone lately, not sure how to come out of it and then God brought me to a place where I felt a part of. A group of people who resemble me. They don't comment on my thick hair, because most of them have thick hair. Nobody kids about my nose, because a lot of them are wearing it on their face too. Years ago a couple got married and we are all fruit of that union. Years ago our parents all played together in the yard, laughing teasing, fighting and playing tricks on each other.
     I heard stories I didn't know like grandpa keeping caramels in the glovebox of his old red truck. I have only one memory of grandpa before he passed, but I remember the old red truck parked in the back shed. There were stories of grandma telling my cousins they made Jesus cry because they ate the grapes she had told them to stay out of. They raised 11 kids together. The funniest story was grandma telling cousins that all grandpa had to do was drop his suspenders and she would be pregnant. There was a lot of Ewww, yuck. Grandparents are first on the list of people you don't want to know they have sex. As I get older these people become more important to me and I want to know them better.
     On the way I home I finished listening to a CD on the "Indwelling of the Holy Spirit." It was interesting and as I listened occasionally I would think of moments from the day. Then I realized something quite obvious, life is all about relationships. Without them, we have nothing. God wants us to be in relationship with him first. But he wants us to be in relationships with each other. He made a wife for Adam for a reason. Babies aren't delivered by storks for a reason. The relationship begins at conception. Our interactions, our relationships introduce unbelievers to Christ.
     I'm not very good at relationships. On the outside, for protection, I may seem distant, judgmental, and quiet, but on the inside I love people. We all have our experiences that make us who we are. There is a bond with people who share the same experiences. There is a bond formed between people who sat on the same grandparents laps, ate the same brown bread, and searched for 4 leaf clovers together, knowing grandma would be the person who found one and she would keep it in a little vase with the toothpicks.
     God knew I needed to feel "a part of" today. He timed that perfectly. Years ago we were all running around underfoot and though we all have a little gray in our hair and a few wrinkles we didn't have then we are those same kids. It felt a little like going home. It makes me wonder if walking into that group and hearing people call my name was anything like it will be the day I walk through the gates of heaven.

     Will grandma be sitting in her rocker tatting?  Or listening to high school basketball on her little radio, Billy Graham on the TV she rarely turned on, or listening to Paul Harvey, "Good Day."

"The family should be a closely knit group. The home should be a self-contained shelter of security; a kind of school where life’s basic lessons are taught; and a kind of church where God is honored; a place where wholesome recreation and simple pleasures are enjoyed."

--Billy Graham, “My Answer,” syndicated newspaper column