Monday, November 7, 2011

When grandma and grandpa die we get the cottage


There are things I said in the past I question what I said now.

My brother Zach and I were 11 and 13.

We were spending the whole week at our grandpa and grandmas cottage.

We were hanging out and having a good time, but once every while grandpa would tick us off.

One day he started working on an addition to the cottage.

My brother and I didn’t have any experience with that kind of stuff so we just tried to stay out of the way.

We were playing hockey or football when he yelled at us, “You stay at our place all week, eat all our food and enjoy everything we have but you can’t even help me out with this project.”

My grandpa was ticked and even after we started to help him out, he was a jerk to us.

As young kids often do, we were mad back at him and were pretty ticked.

So after a while we were driving off somewhere and Zach and I were talking in the back seat.

We decided to speak up to our grandpa in this way…

“Grandpa and grandma, we decided that when you die and we get the cottage, we are going to tear apart what you are building right now and most likely put up a ramp for us to skate on.  We are going to tear up your flower bed and most likely put a pool there because you never take care of your beach in front of your cottage.  We are going to make this place sweet.”

Other than sweet my grandmas jaw drop, my grandpa commented, “What makes you think you will get this place?”

We commented back, “We you will give it to our parents and eventually they will give it to us, but we want to make sure you know that what you have built we are just going to tear down about 15 years after you die.”

I really don’t remember what happen after that or what was said.  I know I did not get backhanded for what I said though.

We felt at the time we made peace with the situation and were fine with it.

Looking back at it now, I can’t believe our grandpa didn’t just beat the snot out of us.

Sometimes what we do and say look really bad when we look back with some perspective.

There was some interesting perspective with Jesus dying on the cross.

The people were dividing his clothes while he was alive.

John 19:23-24…

“When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining.  This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
“Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decided by lot who will get it.”
This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled which said,
“They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.”
So this is what the soldiers did.”

They divided up peoples clothes before he was even dead.

Man, I thought was I said was messed up and I look at this.

Not only does it go in detail what they are doing in front of a dying man, it fulfilled scripture in the book of Psalm written hundreds of years earlier.

This was pretty harsh what they did to Jesus at this time.

What my brother and I said to our grandma and grandpa was pretty harsh.

Sometimes we do things and not even realize what we do.

The Bible predict Jesus would get treated like this.

Sometimes we get treated bad and wonder why God would allow us to get treated like this?

We all face pain and trouble at times.

What makes us is not what we do in those situation but how we respond.

I couldn’t imagine what happened to Jesus happening to me.

Jesus sacrificed a lot for us.

He teaches me that there are times I have been very mean and wrong in the past and that influences me to show grace and forgiveness to people today.

Jesus did the same for us.

I am glad my grandparents showed me grace when I was younger otherwise I could really regret saying those things to someone I love.

How about you?

You ever say or do something you regret in the past and has that change who you are today?

Have a great day.