When God had finished creating the blue sky and the white ocean and the little field mice and the big giraffe, and he had put his finishing touches on Adam and Eve, he sat down for a rest. But while he was in his recliner, a thought popped into his head. He jumped to his feet and told the angels, who are always nearby, “Oh, I have one more thing to make. Quick, bring me a piece of paper.”
So God sat at his big desk littered with lots of old drawings and he began to sketch out his plans with a pencil. “Let’s see,” God said, as he bit on the eraser of the pencil. “First of all, I need this person to be wise. So I can’t make him or her too young, because it takes a long time to become wise.” With that thought in mind, God colored in a few gray hairs.
“They’ll need patience also,” God said, “so let me give them a practice run. I’ll let them try their hand at raising a few children. They’ll make mistakes, but it will make them better at the job I have planned for them later on. They’ll learn what’s important and what’s not important.” So, God drew in a wrinkle or two on their foreheads.
“What else?” the curious angels looking over his shoulders asked God. “Well,” he answered, “I want them to smile a lot because my little children need to see lots of smiles on the faces that they see.” So, God put a big smile on the face and added a few more wrinkles because that comes with smiling. “Yes,” God said, “I like big smiles.”
“I think,” God said, “that big arms also are a must because they’re going to have to hold a child a lot in those arms. I better give them pretty good knees as well because they’re going to rock a little one to sleep just as often. A little padding wouldn’t hurt either,” God said, “because I want their laps to be soft when the little ones climb onto them.” So he drew onto the page the big arms and the knotty knees and the extra padding.
A few seconds passed as God thought on it some more. He was on a roll about now. “You know,” he said out loud, “on second thought their backs are going to have to last longer since they are going to bend down a lot to pick up my little ones,” So God added a muscle or two–not too many because he wanted them to stay cuddly and soft. And then he put a spring into their feet because he knew there would be times when they had to jump up and down as they played games with the little ones.
“Yes,” God said, full of excitement when another idea came to him. The angels jumped, so startled were they by God’s enthusiasm. “Let’s make the ears bigger because my little ones will be telling this person all kinds of things–funny things, sad things, big dreams, big secrets.” God drew the ears a little bigger than normal so they could listen all the better. “That will do just fine,” God said.
God put down his pencil. He scratched his thinning hair. “Okay. Another thing. Let’s make sure this one can sing a child to sleep.” So God drew musical notes coming out of the lips. “Nice,” the angels said out loud, because they were partial to music themselves. And he made a note that the voice should be soft, worn smooth from years of having to talk loud.
“The eyes still need more work,” God said, not completely satisfied as he erased part of what he had drawn already. “I want eyes that sparkle when they see one of my children.” So God sprinkled some glitter into the eyes of his work in progress. The glitter glowed as it reflected the light from God’s radiant face. In fact, the angels covered their eyes with their wings because it was getting so bright in the room.
God smiled because he was pleased with that idea. Then he added a dab of darkness over the eyes. “What’s that for?” the angels asked, bringing their wings away from their eyes now that some of the brightness had left the room. “Oh, I don’t want them to see everything. I just want them to see the good in my little ones.” The angels nodded their heads as if they understood, although they didn’t.
He stood from the desk and stepped back. He stared at the design with all seriousness. “Oh, how could I forget!” God said to himself. He feverishly started work on a big heart. “This person will need a large heart, a heart big enough for love, for forgiveness, for understanding, for kindness. I also have to make it strong enough to withstand a few broken places because a heart that loves gets broken.” He paused and then said softly, more to himself, “I should know.”
Then he placed his drawing on an easel and looked at the grand scheme. “Too much hair,” one of the angels said, so God took away some of the hair. “Anything else?” he asked. “I like the freckles on the hands,” another angel said. God smiled. “Those aren’t freckles. I think I’m going to call them age spots. They’ll be reminders that time is precious.” The angels looked puzzled because they were not sure what time meant.
“So what will you call it?” one of the more eager angels asked God. “That’s a good question, Raphael,” God answered. He took another long hard look at his drawing, rubbed his chin, and then a smile came to his face. “I’ll call it a grandparent.” “A grandparent?” Raphael asked with a puzzled look. “Why grandparent?” “Because,” God said, “they’re like parents in many ways, but even grander!” The angels couldn’t help but clap a little bit at that idea.
“Well, that should do it!” God said as he glanced one more time at the details of his drawing. Then he bowed his head, breathed onto the drawing on the paper, and spoke softly, “Let there be grandparents!” And there were grandparents. And God saw that they were very good. And then he went back to his recliner to rest a bit before the seventh day ended.
— Jeremy Myers
Sunday Brunch 