Out with the Old, In with the New

Maybe a crude title, but that’s what I’m writing about.  The death of the old and the birth of the new.  For those of you that may not know, my great-grandfather passed away Friday morning.  It’s not a real sore spot, so it’s easy for me to talk about, but it’s still hard when a family member passes.  So where does the new come in?  Well, on that same day, two good friends of mine gave birth to a son, Grayson James Boyd.  I am extremely excited for them, and look forward to seeing their son grow into a young man.

So big deal right?  A guy died and a boy was born.  What’s so special about it?  Well, this whole thing got me thinking.  I’ve witnessed the “circle of life” this weekend.  My Papa Kirby was 91 years old.  I can’t even fathom what it will be like if I make it that long.  What’s more than that, he smoked for probably 80% of that time.  And when I say that, I mean he was still smoking on his death bed.  How did he make it that long?  I have had two other grandpas die before the age of 75, due to lung and throat cancer, from smoking.  It was the cancer that got him as well, but why did he get over 15 more years than they did?  That I can’t answer, but I can take a stab at why I believe he lived so long.  I think God was using this as a tool to work on my life.

You know, it’s amazing how much you discover about people after their death.  There was so much about this man that I never knew.  The most shocking thing that I discovered was that he had fought in WWII.  How could I have gone 21 years with this man as my grandfather and never heard this piece of information.  What hurts most about someone dying though is when you hear about the bad things in their lives.  I was talking with my mom about his life yesterday and she told me about a short conversation that she had had with him before he died:

Mama: “Papa, you’ve lived a long, good life.”

Papa: “Well, I have lived a long life, but it sure hasn’t been a good one.”

This astonished me.  I was curious as to why he would say this and my mom told me.  He hadn’t always been the adorable old man that I had known and loved, and gotten a dollar from every time I saw him.  He wasn’t proud of the things he had done by any means.  Alcohol and abuse.  These things controlled my papa for the better part of his life, but by the grace of God he was able to get right, and leave his sinful ways.

This talk with my mom got me thinking: What am I going to be able to say when I’m lying on my death bed and one of grandchildren tell me that I have lived a long good life.  Will I be able to agree with them, or will I have to correct them and explain to them why my life went wrong.  I pray that God would continually guide me and that I never stray from that path which he has laid out before me.

So where does young Grayson come in?  That’s simple.  He’s innocent.  He’s free of sin.  He’s practically incapable of sinning at his ripe old age of four days.  When I think about this young child and then I think about the early years of my papa, one thing comes to my mind.  How can we stray so far?  How can we go from this innocent, sin-free creation, to practically living with Satan.  I can’t explain it, but I will say this, though we can’t remain innocent throughout our lives, we can strive to stay as close to it as we can.  We’re going to come to road blocks in our life and we’re going to stumble every once in a while, but there is no reason why we can’t make our way back to that path, the “right track.”  We must simply pray constantly, remain in God’s word, and surround ourselves with a good crowd with whom we can remain accountable.

So I end with this: When you’re old, lying in your deathbeds, many years from now, what will you be able to tell your kids and grandkids about your life?