How would you feel if you had just welcomed your 20th grandchild?

Well, he’s here.

Grandchild number 20:  “Caleb Matthias Stockstill.”

Sobering day.  Somebody’s getting older; it must be me.

Generational miracle.  Multiplication.

Ten boys and ten girls.  One of the boys, Jonathan Lawrence, is in heaven already.

It’s a great responsibility.  It’s great fun and joy.

Here are my thoughts as I reach this particular plateau of life:

1. Only God could have assembled such a family.

My six children have married a diverse family.  Two sons met girls in college from far-flung states.  Some were local girls from Bethany, our local church.

One daughter-in-law is already in heaven.  Another beautiful, creative, delightful daughter-in-law took her place several years later; now, 13 beautiful years have passed.

One daughter-in-law is a Hispanic beauty full of fire who came from a prayer room Bible college relationship.  Our only son-in-law has led his wife and five children into starting a new Bethany campus and is now doing mission work in Puerto Rico.

All of their parents are godly Christians.

Only God can assemble a family like this.  Just let Him do it and praise Him for His “endless diversity.”

2. Your children will need you your entire life and vice-versa.

Somehow, I thought that when the last child turned 18, our responsibility toward them would be over.

Blissful ignorance.

It was just starting.

They all have endless questions about parenting, personal financial decisions, challenges at work, etc. Our answers have given them a gentle pull upward.

We also need them.  We need them desperately through aging (I just made 70!), health challenges, and the challenges of a new generation’s leadership.

Only God can fuse the generations’ needs and insights to form a tapestry of godly examples for a lost world.

3.  No family is flawless.

People in families give up on each other too quickly.  

There will always be hiccups.  

Little things said, an occasional insensitivity, underlying pre-judgments and the flawed communication of text and social media are straining every family in the 2020s.

It isn’t easy to hang together.  Thank God for the commitment to live and die together.  Thank God for the Holy Spirit’s conviction when we are hard-hearted.  

Only God can keep a family together in love and unity!

4. There is nothing like a family community.

I asked a pastor friend if his grown kids and their children ever come over to eat supper.  He said, “At least twice a week!”  He even asked them, “Do you guys not have any friends?”

We have a “family community.”  We all pitch in a few nights a week with meat, sides, and dessert.  The kids eat chicken nuggets or our menu (if they like it).

We hang out in the living room and talk for hours afterward. Often, the grandkids spontaneously put on a skit or show.  It is “community.”

Only God could have envisioned something so wonderful.

Those were my thoughts when “number 20” showed up.

Only God could be so good.