Going through old letters, I came upon this treasure. You could call this a guest posting, written by my beloved Grandma, Nell Aileen Nichols, fall, 1980. Included with the letter were newspaper clippings and coupons she accidentally included in the envelope. She loved to clip her papers!
"Debbie Doll,
That’s what I say when I pass and notice one of your portraits. 'Hi! Debbie, Doll.' Nothing new since we had such an enjoyable talk with you last week.
To church yesterday and heard one more of John’s good, good sermons, on John 12:17-26. He is really phenomenal in his ability to show over and over that there is no end to what one can see and hear in any passage of Scripture – no matter how familiar it is to us. Sometimes just by the inflection of John’s voice or the emphasis given to a phrase in a verse will bring me to started attention and almost aloud sometimes I’ll say, “I never saw that before!” Twice yesterday.
Makes me think of a pastor’s wife we had back in the 40’s. One time rather peevishly, she said, “Why do you and Mrs. Ingman always seem to want to teach out of the Old Testament? I know all there is to know in the New Testament, but I don’t get a bit of sense out of the Old.”
Can you believe that? A pastor’s wife and admitting the O.T. part and bragging about the N.T. part? They were not new in the ministry either — they were grandparents.
Sometime in the 50’s her health failed and she was in bed for a long time. Once I was able to visit her and she had dozens of books stacked around where she could reach them — mostly devotional type ones and when I commented on some and asked about others she said, “Nell, I never look at my books and think of what I’ve learned in the last 10 years without thinking of you and being ashamed.”
Well, that was news to me so I waited and she went on, “I hope you’ve forgotten, but I haven’t, that awful self-righteous, ignorant remark I made to you one time years ago in Douglas about teaching in the O.T. and how I didn’t need that, because I know all about the New T.”
Well, she said a lot more — evidently the Lord did a job on her while she was down and it took, but it also taught me that no one dares to even think, let alone say, that their capacity for learning has been filled.
The question in my mind then was what made her remember that old remark and for so many years. They left us shortly after that.
Now why did I write all that above? Oh! Well! as Marcie would say.
Nice letter from your dad Sat. Written earlier in the week. Cozette wrote much more than usual. Sounded happy.
Windy & coolish to-day. Very sunny, blue skies.
Hope Enterprise is the same.
Love,
Grandmother"
This post was originally published on June 17, 2010.
