{Our time in Michigan} ~ Back home some mid-way reflections

I always love being home,

stepping back into traditions and ways that

my family still has.

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I am still home at my parent's house right now,

I will DV publish this post later,

when I am back in NJ.

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I won't be able to be with my Mom, her sister

and my cousins for their Wednesday lunches because of how

it falls this year, so we may get together on my birthday,

something I had thought at first that I would just be doing with my Mom.

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It makes me realize again how 

hard it is for me to not have those things the 'same' when I return,

how everyone is getting older and how someday

nothing will be 'the same' and how hard that is.

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My Aunt had a wonderful 80th birthday.

20 phone calls and a nice restaurant meal the next day.

Everyone is getting older...

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I heard stories from my Grandma that even my Dad did not know

this past visit, things that come out that were just 

not talked about before;

not bad things as in scandal but more just the unexpected tragedies

and how they happened,

like my Grandpa's Mother fainting one day while my Dad was a baby

and she had my Dad on her lap...my Grandma had to quick grab him...
back then, in the early 1950s there were

no emergency calls or 911 and by the time the doctor came,

there was nothing to be done.

It was called a blood clot, what we would call a brain aneurysm today, and

at 53 years old my Dad's Grandmother was gone so suddenly.

My Grandpa and Grandma were at my Grandpa's parent's home,

practicing singing a song, a cousin named D. at the piano and my Grandpa singing

(he sang in churches for years and had a really good voice)

my Grandma quoted these two lines of the song from memory:

Is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid?

Your heart does the Spirit control?

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And as all this was going on,

with my Dad and Uncle being little kids of age 2 and 1 or so,

my Grandpa's Mother just fainted and never woke up.

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Such a shock, my Grandma's sister my Great Aunt P. took

my Dad and his brother to care for and their Aunt N. came over to help,

as my Aunt P had kids of her own too,

so that my Grandpa and Grandma could be at the funeral home.

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I find that I am always wanting these stories;

what happened and why or at least how;

and more over how did my Grandma and Grandpa's family live,

did they have kids and how many, what did they do;

I knew since I was a kid that my Grandma's father and Grandfather

loved God and His Word and as Protestants were looked to for 

advice/wisdom because of their knowledge of God's Word.

It was my Grandma's stories of them when I was a kid that made my

heart aflame for God's Word and to love God.

It is still her stories of how my family lived as Christians

that teaches me now

and that I am still looking to learn from.

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Thought I would post the song that my Grandpa was 

preparing to sing when he lost his Mother so unexpectedly.

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Is Your All on the Altar?

You have longed for sweet peace,

And for faith to increase,

And have earnestly, fervently prayed;

But you cannot have rest,

Or be perfectly blest,

Until all on the altar is laid.

Refrain:

Is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid?

Your heart does the Spirit control?

You can only be blest,

And have peace and sweet rest,

As you yield Him your body and soul.

Would you walk with the Lord,

In the light of His word,

And have peace and contentment alway?

You must do His sweet will,

To be free from all ill,

On the altar your all you must lay.

Oh, we never can know

What the Lord will bestow

Of the blessings for which we have prayed,

Till our body and soul

He doth fully control,

And our all on the altar is laid.

Who can tell all the love

He will send from above,

And how happy our hearts will be made;

Of the fellowship sweet

We shall share at His feet,

When our all on the altar is laid.

~Elisha A. Hoffman