October 26,1996
Dear Tommy:
I woke up early this morning about 3:30. I have been thinking about you recently, so I decided to use this time to write to you. I enjoy the early morning hours. They are quiet and it gives me an opportunity to think and pray. Do you know the scripture that says “I laid me down and slept: I awaked; for the Lord sustained me.” Psalms. 3:5. It is God who gives us sleep and it is He that awakens us. And you thought your mother or the alarm clock woke you up each morning.
Tommy, we have such a wonderful God that He never forgets to wake
us up each morning. I love Him and I hope you do also. As I grow
older, I realize just how wonderful He is and how much He cares
for me. God is a father to all of us: both boys and girls and
mothers and dads.
When I was young, my father wasn’t very kind to me, he was
too busy being a minister. Each Sunday morning, I would listen
to him preach (I had too go to church, my mother and father made
me do it) and then each Sunday afternoon, when he came home for
lunch, he spent the entire afternoon watching football or baseball.
How I missed my dad on Sunday afternoons and every other day of
the week. He was always busy with church and visiting people.
He never seemed to have time for me. He never played with me,
he never taught me how to fix a car or do other things that fathers
and sons do together. Perhaps it was because I couldn’t see
very well. I think this bothered him and he didn’t know what
to do with me, so he did nothing.
I would often ask myself, in my childish way, Dad, does God need
you today, can’t you spend some time with me? Tommy, he never
did spend enough time with me to satisfy my needs or desires,
but God isn’t like my dad, he has all the time I need and
he enjoys spending it with me.
God is a wonderful father. He loves each of us, you and me. He
is never busy or in a hurry and he will never leave us, for he
has promised, in the Bible, “I will never leave you nor forsake
you.”
When I grew up, and became a father myself, I found it difficult
to talk to God, because I thought of Him in the same way I thought
of my dad. Since dad was not interested in me and did not have
time for me, I thought God was the same way and I didn’t
want to spend time with someone who didn’t care for me, either.
He has feelings, He really does like me and you, and He isn’t
anything like my dad was. (My father died about twelve years ago.)
Our heavenly Father is kind, ever ready to listen to us, but I
did not know that as I grew up. I remember one morning, when I
was about eight years old, mother and dad sent me to a Christian
camp for children. (I did not want to go, but, as usual, they
made me attend.) It was a bright sunny Sunday morning, and several
boys and the camp leader, an older man, and myself were sitting
on the lake shore discussing the Sunday school lesson. It was
suggested that each we for ourselves, so all the boys, except
myself, went out onto a dock to read their lesson, but, because
I could not see well enough to read the lesson, I was left behind.
I felt quite lonely and left out, until the group leader, I just
mentioned, invited me to go to another dock, where he read the
lesson to me. He understood that I could not see well enough to
read it, and, because he was kind, like God, our father, he helped
me, and read it aloud, so I could understand and discuss it with
the other boys. This was the first time I realized that men could
be kind and thoughtful, and I learned something about God on that
dock in the lake that morning. God is loving and considerate,
for if this older man was that way, then certainly God is like
that also.
But how do we get to know Him. The best way is to talk with Him.
This is usually called prayer, but I call it just talking. You
can talk to Him anytime and anywhere, but the best way is to talk
out loud, just as you would talk to a friend. People might think
you are strange if they hear you talking to someone neither you
or they can see, so I suggest you talk to him when no one is around.
Go to your favorite place, maybe it is your bedroom, or under
a tree in the back yard, or just walk down the street. He loves
to hear young boys talking to him and He will answer you. Tell
him anything that’s on you mind. Tell him about school, talk
to him about your sister, tell him how you feel today, He wants
to hear about it. He’s never too busy to listen. He’s
always interested in what you have to say, and He will never laugh
at you or think you are silly or stupid for thinking or talking
about the things that interest you.
He may not talk to you in a voice like other people, but I assure
you that you will hear Him. He loves you, Tommy, and He delights
to talk with you. He converse with us all the time but we are
too busy to listen to Him. He is talking to you right now, stop
reading for a moment and listen to what He is saying and then
talk to Him.
I’ve must stop writing now, because I have other people I
want to write to, but I will write again. Your heavenly father
loves you.
Grandpa