It is from him I learned a love for history.
It could have been the stamp collection he helped me start or perhaps it was because of his love and involvement with antiques.
Whatever the reason I find myself today with a plethora of books and old documents which I have collected, appreciated and more importantly learned from. I also learned the importance of gentlemanly good grooming from this man.
When I was barely old enough to be enamored by watching him shave he took an old razor, removed the blade, bought me my very own can of Colgate shaving cream and bottle of Aqua Velva cologne. He then stood me on a chair next to him beside the bathroom sink so that I could shave like papaw. He displayed for me other gentlemanly characteristics by among other things, always opening the door for my grandmother, a trait which he displayed until she passed away after 69 years of marriage.
Grandpa was my buddy, a man who’s responsible for some of the greatest memories I possess.
Now that I find myself being a grandpa and thinking about my own it occurs to me that I want to be a grandpa like that!
I remember reading what children thought grandparents were. And I quote, “Grandparents don’t have to do anything except be there when we come to see them. They are so old they shouldn’t play hard or run. It is good if they drive us to the shops and give us money.”
Also, “When they take us for walks, they slow down past things like pretty leaves and caterpillars.” “They don’t say, ‘Hurry up.” “They can take their teeth and gums out.” and, “When they read to us, they don’t skip. They don’t mind if we ask for the same story over again.”
A 6-year-old boy was asked where his grandma lived. “Oh,” he said, “she lives at the airport, and when we want her we just go and pick her up. Then when we are done having her we take her back and drop her off.” Don’t you just love how kids think!
I remember hearing Dr. Dennis Kinlaw share “He wants to dwell within us. In the passage at the end of the 17th chapter of John, Jesus said, I don’t pray for these alone. I pray for the ones who shall believe on me through their word. He is praying for you and me… that they all may be one, Father, as we are one. As I am in you and you are in me, so that they will be in us and we will be in them.
God the Son wants a relationship with me with an intimacy similar to that which He has with the Father. He lives in the Father. The Son wants me to have that kind of relationship with Him.
Jesus wants an identification to take place. If I’m there, He’s there. And if He’s there, I’m there. Then He says, When the world sees that, they will know that the Father sent Me.
How is the world going to know about Christ? They will only know when you and I have reached the point of identification.”
The fact is that we do resemble someone. I have heard for years that I’m the spittin’ image of my Grandpa Henson. Folks would often ask me if he was my dad.
Why? Because of the resemblance.
Why the resemblance? Because we are related that’s why!
On a wall near the main entrance to the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, is a portrait with the following inscription: “James Butler Bonham — no picture of him exists. This portrait is of his nephew, Major James Bonham, deceased, who greatly resembled his uncle. It is placed here by the family that people may know the appearance of the man who died for freedom.”
No literal portrait of Jesus exists either.
However, the likeness of the Son who makes us free can be seen in the lives of His true followers.
I believe that if we are related to Jesus, we’ll remind others of Him.
One of my favorite accounts of the New Testament church is found in Acts chapter four, where Peter and John are hauled before a religious council to answer for the healing of the lame man who lay by the temple who was healed by God’s power.
After a brief message by Pastor Peter the reaction of this astute group revealed three truths about Peter and John that should be evidenced in our lives as well. “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.”
What really speaks to me is the line, “they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus”
May that be what you and I want more than anything else in life… to be like that!

Tim Throckmorton is the Midwest Director of Ministry for the Family Research Council.