Grandblessings Alert!

At about 11 a.m. this morning, while I was meeting with some friends to help plan a memorial service, my wife called me at my office with the news that our youngest and only daughter's twins had arrived. Needless to say, we were ecstatic, along with their father and our grandson, age 6, all joyfully welcoming 7 lb., 8 oz. baby boy, and 7 lb., 6 oz. baby girl into our grand-family. They join their little Yoder cousins ages 6, 4 and almost two.

What a juxtaposition of events, I thought. One life, that of a 51-year-old former student of mine, remembered for all of the good gifts she brought to her family and many friends, and now new life was breaking out 400 miles away, a sign of hope and promise of more grand things to come.

Such is life, the bitter and the sweet mingling together, beginnings and endings overlapping each other. We are continually blessed by how precious each life is, and then mourn because all, like the wild flowers and grass of the field, wither and fade away. But life goes on and love gets passed on, one generation to the next, a part of a continued story. The best is always yet to be.

Our daughter was the youngest grandchild of both my parents and Alma Jean's, the last of dozens of cousins in her generation on each side of the family. It looks like her latest births may actually mark the last of the next generation of cousins in both clans as well. We've been told, at least, that our own number of grandchildren will likely remain at six, a fine number indeed.

One never knows for sure, of course. Thirty-five years ago we were quite certain we would have no more than two children, our sons. Then miracle daughter came along, without a doubt the very best mistake we ever made :-) !

Without her, we wouldn't be celebrating this grand event, and with twins, we feel doubly blessed.

Thanks be to God.