Dear Grandkids,
Today is my birthday. My 60th birthday to be exact. And as I celebrate today I am reminded of how blessed I am to be your Pop Pop and to get to spend these years in my older age with you. I am also reminded of a prayer that I began praying when your parents were about your age now. It is what I have come to call my Hezekiah Prayer.
2 Kings 20:1-6 says this about King Hezekiah, who was about 39 years old at the time.
In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.’” 2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying, 3 “Now, O Lord, please remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. 4 And before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him: 5 “Turn back, and say to Hezekiah the leader of my people, Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord, 6 and I will add fifteen years to your life.
When I was about 32 years old (1990), soon after Tucker was born, I began praying that the Lord would allow me 50 years of life. You see, my dad had died when he was only 42 so I was hoping to live for more than 10 years. I wasn’t trying to be greedy so I only asked for 18 more years. My thinking was this – in 18 years I would turn 50 and Tucker, our youngest, would be 18. By that time I would have had the majority of influence on my kid’s lives as they would be out of the house and making their own decisions by that time.
Fast forward to June 14, 2008. 18 years later. My 50th birthday was an awesome day. Not only did I celebrate half a century of life but I also walked Christy down the aisle to marry Chad and then officiated the rest of the wedding. And then 5 years later on November 17, 2012 Grayson was born. It was at this point that I began to get greedy. And my level of greediness elevated every time that one of you was born in subsequent years.
So here I am at 60 years of age. The Lord has already given me 10 more years than I originally asked for. And for that I am grateful. And my hope is that I still have another 20 years of good health so I can watch all of you grow into young men and women and so that I can write a lot more Pop Pop Epistles along the way.
But none of us are guaranteed tomorrow. And if I should anytime soon be “absent from the body but at home with the Lord” just know that I have been incredibly blessed and am incredibly grateful for all the years the Lord has given me. But if the Lord should choose to give me another 20 years then I hope that we can create lots of fun memories and that I can demonstrate for you a life that honors God and finds deep satisfaction in Him.
And by the way, never ever forget that you are very loved,
Pop Pop
You have an enormous Christian testimony! You are tremendously blessed with your family and ministry. We are thankful to have you as one of our ministers at RBC! Big Happy Birthday, Shay!
Shay, what you have just written to your grand children is exactly what I have prayed through the years to be able to see my girls go to college and then have a good home that they could have. Then when my grand children came along, I prayed the same thing—to live to see them grown and in college. Now my grand daughter is entering her senior year at UGA and will graduate with her masters. Her brother is beginning his college time at U at N. Ga. Now I am getting greedy and asking God let me see them finished with school and marrying.
You have just put into words so elegantly what I have had on my heart. for so many years. I enjoy your letters to your grandson. Have a very happy birthday and enjoy your years to come.