Image by Angelo Esslinger from Pixabay
After her conversation with Gracie Trent, eight-year-old Edwina Ludlow went inside the house to do what Gracie was doing on the other side of the street: finding (Grand)Dad to give him a hug.
There was an unspoken rule in the Ludlow household around Capt. R.E. Ludlow's home office: under no circumstances was anyone to go in but Mrs. Ludlow if the door was shut tight, but any child might come in with her at any time, and if the door were gapped, anyone might come in with any pressing need.
Edwina had a pressing need to hug her grandfather and kiss him and share with him what she and Gracie had talked about: the theology of knee problems.
“So, I was thinking people didn't pray because they had knee problems, but you don't have knee problems so you get to pray all the time, but then Gracie and her dad helped me understand that you don't need knees to pray, but just to make a decision not to try to be a god, but to just serve God and be led by Him, every day. You don't have knee problems and you made the right decision today!”
Capt. Ludlow turned his computer off for a moment, and the process of putting it to sleep gave him a moment to collect his thoughts.
“May I tell you a secret, granddaughter?” he said.
“Sure!”
“I am very ashamed of it, but if I tell you while you are young and have the question, you will live a happier life than mine.”
“I'm listening and I won't tell.”
“I had knee problems when I was younger, in the sense that you think of it. I did not realize the wisdom that Sgt. Trent and Gracie has shared with you until I was near Sgt. Trent's age. I suffered much for not knowing I did not have to live as god, and made years and years of bad decisions.”
Edwina saw huge tears in the corner of her grandfather's eyes just like they were trying to get out of hers.
“The problem with knee problems: the correct word for them as you understand them is pride, Edwina, and pride will have you destroying your time to learn and grow and receive assistance from both God and man. I thank God daily that He had mercy on me and humbled me, and led me and gave me the strength to do enough so you had time to get here.”
“Humbled?”
“God has no difficulty making a stubborn heart bend if it belongs to Him, Edwina. He knows exactly what to do to take our pride from us, and if He needs to do it, He can lay it even with the ground – or even six feet under it.”
For there Robert Edward Ludlow Jr. and his sister Anne lay, six feet under … their father's grief would never end on earth, but he took it as the chastening and the encouragement necessary for him to live a holy, humble life before his grandchildren.
“I know that you, and Robert, and Grayson, and Amanda, and George, and Andrew, and Eleanor are all watching me. I refuse to have bad habits any more, and to pass them on to you. There is no way in the world that I can think of everything that needs to be done for just you, much less seven of you, because we don't know yet all that y'all can do and be. My head is just not that big to hold a brain that large.”
“Your head is plenty big, Grandpa.”
“Not that big, Edwina. But when you follow the Lord, He will share what you need to know with you. Now, I do have to know a lot and always keep learning, but I don't have to know it all. I serve the One Who knows it all, and is God, and that basically keeps my head from exploding.”
“I do notice that you don't seem to have headaches as much, and Eleanor says you haven't needed an angina pill in months.”
“Y'all track all that, huh?”
“Like you said, Grandpa, we are watching you, and we are Ludlows, just like you.”
“You most certainly are, my dear – which is why, knowing us Ludlows, I can't afford to have knee problems.”
A snuggle and a kiss between grandfather and granddaughter, and Edwina said goodbye and ran off while Capt. Ludlow returned to his work.