Serving God's Purpose - Happy 100th Birthday

Today I have one of the sweetest but very rare opportunities in life! My Grandad turns 100 years old today. What a privileged family we are for God to have shared him with us for this long. My heart is full and overwhelming as I write this tribute and consider the challenge of today. I share a few thoughts with you today on my Grandad’s 100th birthday. Today, God grants him his 36,525th day.

Consider the Changes

I can only begin to imagine 100 years ago. My children can’t even begin to imagine what the world was like 100 years ago. This century has seen many changes.

The world was just getting over the last great pandemic of 1918 when he was born. Woodrow Wilson was president. At age 9 the stock market crashed and the Great Depression began. Grandad describes how tough times were then. He was old enough to remember all that was done by people to make a living during those days. His family (my Great Granddad) owned a shoe repair shop among other things.

Shortly after, he and his brothers went off to fight in World War II. He entered Europe as part of the D-day invasion. He was on the third wave of fighters to storm the beach. He still prefers to not talk about all that he saw and experienced there. Over the years, he had minimized what they did for all of us as heroic. He simply says they did their duty.

After arriving home from the war, he was married to my Grandma in Richmond, Virginia. My dad was born during this time and they moved back to Kentucky shortly thereafter. He has lived in Bowling Green, Kentucky ever since.

God’s grace included keeping my Grandad alive throughout WW2. It wasn’t until 1950 that his brother talked him into going to church with him. He was saved on May 14th of that year. This one decision changed the direction of his life – and now countless lives since then.

Since that day in 1950, my Grandad has faithfully served his Savior, Jesus Christ.

The world has changed even more since 1950; however, I rejoice in the grace of God when I say that my Grandad has changed as well to become more like Christ. As the world has even gotten crazier and in so many countless ways less righteous, my Grandad has not. Today on his 100th birthday, he is more like his Savior than at any other point.

God radically changed him. He kept his family in church, taught a Sunday school class for almost my entire life, became a deacon, and has shared Christ over and over and over again. You can’t be around him for when he is telling others about Christ. In God’s grace, two of his three sons became pastors and the other son has served Christ faithfully in his own church. All nine of his grandchildren are in church with their families. Of his twenty-six great grandchildren, all of them old enough to follow Christ have done so.

Two things: 1) First and foremost – God’s grace! Nothing less my friends than the grace of Jesus Christ! 2) A man who chooses daily to follow Christ without compromise. Jesus is the most important person in His life. God has graciously provided His blessings to Grandad’s life.

Consider This Too…

The psalmist David wrote:

¹I will extol You, my God, O King;
And I will bless Your name forever and ever.
²Every day I will bless You,
And I will praise Your name forever and ever.
³Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
And His greatness is unsearchable.

⁴One generation shall praise Your works to another,
And shall declare Your mighty acts.
⁵I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty,
And on Your wondrous works.
⁶Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts,
And I will declare Your greatness.
⁷They shall utter the memory of Your great goodness,
And shall sing of Your righteousness. (Psalm 145:1-5)

Today I stop as a grandson, brother in Christ, and committed follower of Christ to say with a loud voice, “Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable!” I do this as one who has been impacted by the grace of God because my Grandad praised God’s works to my dad’s generation and the two of them to my generation. I rejoice because in life my Grandad continues to tell of the greatness of the Lord to the next two generations as well. He continues to tell of God’s mighty acts.

Today I Rejoice in God and am Grateful for My Grandad

As Grandad turns 100 today, he will be grateful for all the ways people demonstrate kindness to him. But, I predict with almost certainty, he will point people to Jesus and God’s grace throughout this day. Why? Because as much as he loves all of us and we love him, today his heart longs for heaven, to be with his Savior, and to be reunited with my Grandma.