Grandpa's Birthday

“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.” - Pericles

The older I get the more I reflect on my father’s father. He was born in Orebro, Sweden on May 7, 1880. He would have turned 140 this week – had he survived!

He emigrated from Sweden with his family as a one-year-old child. The records are sketchy; his naturalization papers list an unknown ship from an unknown port arriving in the United States at an unknown destination.

I lived my first five years next door to him and my grandmother; later we moved a few blocks away. But his influence grew throughout my childhood and youth. Fishing, bonfires, writing, history, and baseball were some of his loves that I inherited.

The Psalmist reflected on his advancing years and the importance of reaching out to the next generation. He wrote, “Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come.” (Psalm 71:18)

Our relationship with God is never for us alone. Whatever our age, we have a responsibility to declare what He has done for us to those following behind and to share what we have learned with the next generation. 

Dan Bolin

President

Refueling in Flight Ministries