To my little grandson, Elijah--from Pops!
July 15, 2008 10 p.m. Eastern Time, Orlando, Florida
Dear Little Elijah,
It has now been six months that you have been here, and we have yet to meet since you came into this crazy world. But your mommy and daddy have kept me and the rest of your extended family aware of your growing, as well as the happiness of your little life. Even though I have yet to meet you personally, I feel like I know you already. I carry your smiley picture on my cell phone and show it to people all the time. And I’m sure that your big brother, Nehemiah, and your cousin, Eden have told you all about their Pops! I can’t imagine they haven't yet.
You might wonder why I’m writing you when you can’t even read yet. This is becoming something of a tradition for me, to write to my grandchildren when you are very small. Some day you will be able to read this letter. I hope that it will be one of the special things you will own—not worth very much materially, but perhaps worth something to you.
I just wanted to share a few thoughts with you about things that you might like to know, but maybe haven’t been told yet by anyone else. Some of these things, I'm sure you have because they are important. Other things, probably not, because most people don't think little kids understand such things. But I disagree. Little children start realizing things right away. People probably don’t say things very profound to you too often, though they should because as far as I can tell, you are a very bright young man. You are always happy, at least as far as I have been able to perceive, which means you must realize that this big world is a pretty cool place to be! Especially where you are in Colorado, there are beautiful, big, colorful, fresh and clean feeling things all around you like mountains, trees, brooks, fields, wild animals, birds, creepy crawly things, and lots of other stuff that little boys just love to learn about as they grow up. At night, you should be able to see way up into the dark sky filled with awesome stars that are really galaxies—billions of them out there along with the planets and the moon, when it is there. God made a wonderful universe for you to explore as you grow up. I’m sure that you and your big brother are going to have a blast learning about things around where you live. I know your dad and mom love to go and see what’s out there. I’m sure you are going to grow up to learn lots of cool stuff.
As you grow up, don’t forget that this world is made for you, so enjoy it. Your loving God wants you to appreciate it and learn how to be a part of it. Your parents want to teach you about Him too, and especially about Jesus who is the Son of God and King of the Earth and Heaven above, which you will get to see plenty of as you grow up. You will learn that He has done a lot for you and all of us to make our lives happier than it all would have been if He hadn’t done what He has done for us. What did He do? Well, first He made this world. Then He made us people to live on it and be His friends. We did some things that we shouldn’t have in the past and hurt Him. But He didn’t take it too personally. In fact, He figured out how to do something to fix the mess that we made. He became one of us so that He could take the burden of our badness and turn it into goodness, and joy, and hope, and happiness. I think that is why you are so happy—because your parents know all about this. And they help you to be filled with happiness every day. And you have reasons to be so, because Jesus Christ has made a way for you, me, and everyone else to be happy by loving Him. I’m sure you will learn all about this as you grow up.
Now, let me tell you a little bit about me, since we haven’t met yet. I’m a little bit shorter than your dad and a little bit taller than your mom. I have a pretty big mouth that gets me in trouble a lot. I sometimes do crazy things that get me into trouble too, and sometimes I don’t know enough to stop when others don’t agree with what I do. But I can tell you that I try to live in such a way that God is pleased with me, even when people don’t think I am doing that. That is one of the things that you will learn in life, Elijah. Sometimes people can misunderstand your intentions. Sometimes even when your motives are good as far as you can do them, and you know you did things for the right reasons, others may not understand. That happened to Jesus, you know. Now, please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying that we make perfect choices like Jesus did, even when we think we are doing that. But I’m saying that we are obligated by God to do our best to do that. He sees our innermost motives and understands our hearts. This is what He will judge us by—not by the appearances on the outside that people see. If it wasn’t for that simple truth, I don’t know what I would do. There are a lot of things on the outside that don’t look really good in my personal situation at the present time. But I know that in my heart, I’m doing what I know is right, and God sees that. I know by that how He thinks of me. That is one of the things we can know—what God thinks of us. You will have to learn that as you grow up. It is an issue of faith—of trusting God that you will learn, if you are a seeker after God as you grow.
I hope to get out to Colorado Springs sometime really soon, so I can meet you, little kid. I want to give you a big hug and tell you that I love you very much. You have a very special family who loves you and cares for you and wants to help you grow up to be a great man some day. Listen to your dad and mom all the time. Follow their example of love and faith and trust in Jesus. Those are good things.
As I close, I want to share something with you that I taught your daddy and your Aunt Bekah, and the rest of your aunts and uncles who are my children. I even teach it to the kids that I have in public schools because it is a set of truths that really help us understand what life is about a little bit. Just this week, I was able to share this with a security guard here at the place where I’m working. He thought it was so good that he asked me to write it down for him. I did; and he thanked me for it when I gave it to him. Pretty cool, huh?
This is what I thought up as the three things I hope my children and grandchildren learn from their Pops to take with them through life. I call them the three basic truths of life. They are just some things that might help you and me when things go certain ways, that’s all. Here they are:
1. Life is rude.
2. Ideas have consequences.
3. There is a God who gives us grace and mercy to intersect them both.
I hope you don’t experience too much of the first one. I’m sorry to tell you that you don’t have much choice. Ever since our first father, Adam, did the bad things that he did, the whole world has been filled with rude things. We fall down and skin our knees, or we bump our head, or do something else that we didn't plan to do, or happens to us through no fault of our own. I don’t think that was the way it was at first. Yes, we still might have fallen down, but I think that it would have been a lot harder to get hurt in the Beginning. Something changed, though we only have a glimpse of what was different that we learn through reading a really cool book called the Bible. I know you will be read it a lot as you grow up. Your Grandma and I read it to our kids, and you will read it too, I’m sure. That leads to the second truth. If you listen to your mommy and daddy, and think about what is in that book, the Bible, and the things that Jesus has taught us, you will continue to be happy. I know from the picture that I have of you on my cell phone that you think happy thoughts all the time. Keep that up! Think about the things that are really wonderful. Learn to do right things. Ask God to help you as you grow up. Love others as much as you can even when it causes you harm—God will see that and make a way for you. Try to learn what makes Him happy. And try to love the people around you the best you can. On the other hand, avoid doing mean and bad things to others or to think about things that are not good. That will possibly hurt you. In other words, if we think on good things, good things will follow; if we think on bad things, bad things will follow. That is true a lot. It’s not always the way things work, but generally it is so. Sometimes when we think we are doing the right thing, really bad things happen. Trust me when I say that because I have experienced it personally. But that is okay too. It’s okay because of the third truth which is really the most important of all. When we are hit by the rudeness of life and some of the ideas that we think and do turn out to not go the way we had hoped, God is there to give us His grace and show us His mercy. I can’t explain what it means except that you are able to have peace and strength to work through all of the difficulties. It doesn’t always mean that things are fixed overnight, or even in a few weeks or months, maybe even years. Sometimes things are never the same again. But somehow things work out some day. That is all because God gives us hope! And that is connected to His love for us.
And remember this as well. This is something that came to me just a few weeks ago, but it is becoming something I am going to try to remember every day because it helps me to know a bigger thought—every day we are one day closer to our Ultimate Adventure! For me, the Ultimate Adventure is probably a lot closer than it is for you. But in reality in the grand scheme of things, it is very close to the same time for all of us. That’s because our time here is so short when compared to the Eternity of time ahead of us. We who call ourselves Christians know that this life is just a sliver of what we have ahead of us. So that gives us hope too. That is something you will get to consider as you grow up too.
As I close this note to you, little Elijah, I hope you are having a wonderful day and will have a wonderful day every time you read this letter when you can read it on your own, without your dad or mom or brother or someone else having to read it to you a few years from now. You are lucky to be here because you are surrounded by a whole bunch of people who love you and want to give you hugs and kisses and lots of other good things. Some day those things will not be so important to you, because you are a boy and boys like things that are rough and tough too. That’s okay though; whatever way you decide you want things to be. Just remember this. That your Pops and your Grandma, and your other grandparents on your mommy’s side of the family, and your uncles and aunts and cousins and brother and your parents all love you very much. I will be praying for you many times in your life, like I do your daddy and mommy and brother too. But I want you to know how special I think you are and that there is a place in my heart for you all the time!
I can’t want to see you and hold you and play with you like I do all my grandkids. I hope we will have plenty of time to get to know each other down the road.
I love you, little kid. I hope to see you real soon too.
Your loving grandfather,
David “Pops” Callihan
Dear Little Elijah,
It has now been six months that you have been here, and we have yet to meet since you came into this crazy world. But your mommy and daddy have kept me and the rest of your extended family aware of your growing, as well as the happiness of your little life. Even though I have yet to meet you personally, I feel like I know you already. I carry your smiley picture on my cell phone and show it to people all the time. And I’m sure that your big brother, Nehemiah, and your cousin, Eden have told you all about their Pops! I can’t imagine they haven't yet.
You might wonder why I’m writing you when you can’t even read yet. This is becoming something of a tradition for me, to write to my grandchildren when you are very small. Some day you will be able to read this letter. I hope that it will be one of the special things you will own—not worth very much materially, but perhaps worth something to you.
I just wanted to share a few thoughts with you about things that you might like to know, but maybe haven’t been told yet by anyone else. Some of these things, I'm sure you have because they are important. Other things, probably not, because most people don't think little kids understand such things. But I disagree. Little children start realizing things right away. People probably don’t say things very profound to you too often, though they should because as far as I can tell, you are a very bright young man. You are always happy, at least as far as I have been able to perceive, which means you must realize that this big world is a pretty cool place to be! Especially where you are in Colorado, there are beautiful, big, colorful, fresh and clean feeling things all around you like mountains, trees, brooks, fields, wild animals, birds, creepy crawly things, and lots of other stuff that little boys just love to learn about as they grow up. At night, you should be able to see way up into the dark sky filled with awesome stars that are really galaxies—billions of them out there along with the planets and the moon, when it is there. God made a wonderful universe for you to explore as you grow up. I’m sure that you and your big brother are going to have a blast learning about things around where you live. I know your dad and mom love to go and see what’s out there. I’m sure you are going to grow up to learn lots of cool stuff.
As you grow up, don’t forget that this world is made for you, so enjoy it. Your loving God wants you to appreciate it and learn how to be a part of it. Your parents want to teach you about Him too, and especially about Jesus who is the Son of God and King of the Earth and Heaven above, which you will get to see plenty of as you grow up. You will learn that He has done a lot for you and all of us to make our lives happier than it all would have been if He hadn’t done what He has done for us. What did He do? Well, first He made this world. Then He made us people to live on it and be His friends. We did some things that we shouldn’t have in the past and hurt Him. But He didn’t take it too personally. In fact, He figured out how to do something to fix the mess that we made. He became one of us so that He could take the burden of our badness and turn it into goodness, and joy, and hope, and happiness. I think that is why you are so happy—because your parents know all about this. And they help you to be filled with happiness every day. And you have reasons to be so, because Jesus Christ has made a way for you, me, and everyone else to be happy by loving Him. I’m sure you will learn all about this as you grow up.
Now, let me tell you a little bit about me, since we haven’t met yet. I’m a little bit shorter than your dad and a little bit taller than your mom. I have a pretty big mouth that gets me in trouble a lot. I sometimes do crazy things that get me into trouble too, and sometimes I don’t know enough to stop when others don’t agree with what I do. But I can tell you that I try to live in such a way that God is pleased with me, even when people don’t think I am doing that. That is one of the things that you will learn in life, Elijah. Sometimes people can misunderstand your intentions. Sometimes even when your motives are good as far as you can do them, and you know you did things for the right reasons, others may not understand. That happened to Jesus, you know. Now, please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying that we make perfect choices like Jesus did, even when we think we are doing that. But I’m saying that we are obligated by God to do our best to do that. He sees our innermost motives and understands our hearts. This is what He will judge us by—not by the appearances on the outside that people see. If it wasn’t for that simple truth, I don’t know what I would do. There are a lot of things on the outside that don’t look really good in my personal situation at the present time. But I know that in my heart, I’m doing what I know is right, and God sees that. I know by that how He thinks of me. That is one of the things we can know—what God thinks of us. You will have to learn that as you grow up. It is an issue of faith—of trusting God that you will learn, if you are a seeker after God as you grow.
I hope to get out to Colorado Springs sometime really soon, so I can meet you, little kid. I want to give you a big hug and tell you that I love you very much. You have a very special family who loves you and cares for you and wants to help you grow up to be a great man some day. Listen to your dad and mom all the time. Follow their example of love and faith and trust in Jesus. Those are good things.
As I close, I want to share something with you that I taught your daddy and your Aunt Bekah, and the rest of your aunts and uncles who are my children. I even teach it to the kids that I have in public schools because it is a set of truths that really help us understand what life is about a little bit. Just this week, I was able to share this with a security guard here at the place where I’m working. He thought it was so good that he asked me to write it down for him. I did; and he thanked me for it when I gave it to him. Pretty cool, huh?
This is what I thought up as the three things I hope my children and grandchildren learn from their Pops to take with them through life. I call them the three basic truths of life. They are just some things that might help you and me when things go certain ways, that’s all. Here they are:
1. Life is rude.
2. Ideas have consequences.
3. There is a God who gives us grace and mercy to intersect them both.
I hope you don’t experience too much of the first one. I’m sorry to tell you that you don’t have much choice. Ever since our first father, Adam, did the bad things that he did, the whole world has been filled with rude things. We fall down and skin our knees, or we bump our head, or do something else that we didn't plan to do, or happens to us through no fault of our own. I don’t think that was the way it was at first. Yes, we still might have fallen down, but I think that it would have been a lot harder to get hurt in the Beginning. Something changed, though we only have a glimpse of what was different that we learn through reading a really cool book called the Bible. I know you will be read it a lot as you grow up. Your Grandma and I read it to our kids, and you will read it too, I’m sure. That leads to the second truth. If you listen to your mommy and daddy, and think about what is in that book, the Bible, and the things that Jesus has taught us, you will continue to be happy. I know from the picture that I have of you on my cell phone that you think happy thoughts all the time. Keep that up! Think about the things that are really wonderful. Learn to do right things. Ask God to help you as you grow up. Love others as much as you can even when it causes you harm—God will see that and make a way for you. Try to learn what makes Him happy. And try to love the people around you the best you can. On the other hand, avoid doing mean and bad things to others or to think about things that are not good. That will possibly hurt you. In other words, if we think on good things, good things will follow; if we think on bad things, bad things will follow. That is true a lot. It’s not always the way things work, but generally it is so. Sometimes when we think we are doing the right thing, really bad things happen. Trust me when I say that because I have experienced it personally. But that is okay too. It’s okay because of the third truth which is really the most important of all. When we are hit by the rudeness of life and some of the ideas that we think and do turn out to not go the way we had hoped, God is there to give us His grace and show us His mercy. I can’t explain what it means except that you are able to have peace and strength to work through all of the difficulties. It doesn’t always mean that things are fixed overnight, or even in a few weeks or months, maybe even years. Sometimes things are never the same again. But somehow things work out some day. That is all because God gives us hope! And that is connected to His love for us.
And remember this as well. This is something that came to me just a few weeks ago, but it is becoming something I am going to try to remember every day because it helps me to know a bigger thought—every day we are one day closer to our Ultimate Adventure! For me, the Ultimate Adventure is probably a lot closer than it is for you. But in reality in the grand scheme of things, it is very close to the same time for all of us. That’s because our time here is so short when compared to the Eternity of time ahead of us. We who call ourselves Christians know that this life is just a sliver of what we have ahead of us. So that gives us hope too. That is something you will get to consider as you grow up too.
As I close this note to you, little Elijah, I hope you are having a wonderful day and will have a wonderful day every time you read this letter when you can read it on your own, without your dad or mom or brother or someone else having to read it to you a few years from now. You are lucky to be here because you are surrounded by a whole bunch of people who love you and want to give you hugs and kisses and lots of other good things. Some day those things will not be so important to you, because you are a boy and boys like things that are rough and tough too. That’s okay though; whatever way you decide you want things to be. Just remember this. That your Pops and your Grandma, and your other grandparents on your mommy’s side of the family, and your uncles and aunts and cousins and brother and your parents all love you very much. I will be praying for you many times in your life, like I do your daddy and mommy and brother too. But I want you to know how special I think you are and that there is a place in my heart for you all the time!
I can’t want to see you and hold you and play with you like I do all my grandkids. I hope we will have plenty of time to get to know each other down the road.
I love you, little kid. I hope to see you real soon too.
Your loving grandfather,
David “Pops” Callihan
posted by David at 10:10 PM
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