Looking through the mirror of the generations, its reflection reminds us that the years of our grandfathers, fathers, children and grandchildren pass onto each other the similarities of their faces, their subtle mannerisms, what brings them delight and joy.
While many generations try to deny what the mirror reveals as truth, may the eye of the beholder embrace the family history in their smile, the way they stand, and all the answers to who they are in these reflections.
Remembering a time when my great-grandfather, both sets of grandparents and father were still alive and me as a grown daughter with children of my own, I regret terribly not taking those small moments with them to record the details of my lineage through their memories and follow these woven threads that piece together the fabric of my life.
I would have loved to know how my grandparents and father celebrated Christmas as a child. What where their dreams, disappointments, regrets? To my great-grandfather, tell me about the Depression Era or going off to war? Of course it would behoove me not to ask about love, weddings and marriage back in the day, or uncover my grandmother’s wedding dress hidden in her hope chest. Being known as a book of a million questions, I could cry for the history I didn’t discover while these matriarch and patriarch pillars were still living for me to ask.
As a mother and grandmother with four children and ten grandchildren, I can’t tell you the times when an act, movement or just a glance from one of them stops me with a thought,
“That was so like your father.”
I see that silly smile worn by my son and grandson; both who could easily pass for carbon copies of each other in their antics.
Their grins tell a hilarious story all by itself.
I’ve realized the way I stand has been inherited by my son and granddaughter. So many occasions while growing up my son would casually be browsing for a snack at the refrigerator and I’d see myself in his mannerisms. Now I catch my granddaughter from those surprise glances of my eye and pause,
“You are so like your father.”
I find it amazing that a child’s love for their father’s pick-up truck is passed on down like a family heirloom.
Even the thrill seeking adventure of my teenage son jumping curbs and rails stirring the pot of a mother’s hysteria,
has revealed itself in my grandchildren when in a child’s delight screams to their daddy while holding for life to their rope swing, GO HIGHER.
Don’t listen to Gaga. GO HIGHER DADDY!!
Yes, they are so like their father.
Lord, help me prepare as the real adventure is yet to come for my grandchildren as my son and “son of a different mother” I claim knows no limits to the life of a thrill-seeker.
Turning back the pages of the family bible, I wonder about the grandfather who passed on his trait for wearing suspenders to the young child in my husband. Being raised in his grandfather’s home, I’m sure their affection for each other was expressed in sharing this iconic fashion statement.
Through the generations, it’s fascinating that a father’s love for something is embraced in the bloodline of his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Baseball can be traced in four generations of my husband’s family. Many dreams of being discovered into the big leagues were dashed by reality, yet the innings still continue each summer when the umpire yells into the dugout, “Batter up!”
Even hobbies can be shared from generation to generation. My son’s great uncle passed on his square of the family quilt to his nephew and great-nephew through beekeeping. Imagine raising bees becoming part of your heritage.
Generations pass on those coveted traditions that fill in the memories of our childhood. We remember the joyful moments; the faces we long to see again; the days of old and relive them again through the lives of our children and grandchildren. Like a father witnessing that coveted milestone in his son’s first birthday, or a son sharing the same milestone when his father celebrates his sixtieth.
More than anything, you can’t savor the albums of the generations, reliving history captured through the faces stopped in time and witness with your own eyes without saying,
“You are so like your father.”
A father and son thirty years apart.
Dads being dads then sons growing up to be dads.
Dads taking on a new role as grandfather and great grandfather, and simply loving it.
Completing the picture framed and titled:
Family through the eyes of four generations
I can’t close the family bible without retelling the story whose image and likeness we were created, the reason we look like Him in our words, deeds and actions of heart and able to say,
“We are so like our Father.”
In the beginning,
26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness….”
Genesis 1:26 NIV
We were created in His image that his character in our love, patience, kindness and faithfulness be seen and embraced by others.
Oh that we be found acting like our Father in a secret act of kindness.
Oh that our patience in a hard situation make our Father proud.
Oh that our Father finds us faithful to the “plough” when others have left their fields and fallen asleep.
Oh that the fullness of our heart overflow onto others that they might be drawn to the Father who loves them best.
May it be sincerely said by the circle of influence that God has encamped around us,
“You are so like your father.”