A father’s death brings forth thanks for well-tended legacy

Editor’s note: This is one in an occasional series of letters from Paul Graves to his grandchildren .

Dear Katie, Claire and Andy,

It has been almost three months since your great-grandfather (Papa), my father, died unexpectedly. We all miss him very much, don’t we?

In a few weeks, we will be together to celebrate Thanksgiving, and we will certainly thank God for giving us Papa. But before we say “thank you” to God, let’s spend a few minutes thinking about why we are thankful for Papa.

“He was a good man.” That simple statement was said by one of Papa’s and my long-time friends. We agree, don’t we?

I think Papa was a good man because he tended his “legacy seedbed.” It was planted a long time ago.

Papa’s parents (your great-great-grandparents) and their parents (your great-great-great- grandparents) “planted seeds” in their children. They hoped these seeds would produce people who would be strong, caring, productive and “good” when they grew up.

Papa was like a great many men and women (including Granny) from his generation. They had values that were planted and nourished so many years ago like we plant real seeds and bulbs in seedbeds, then water and weed those beds in hope that something good will grow.

I’m talking about seeds we could label “respect for others,” “honesty,” “loyalty,” “compassion,” “decency,” “determination,” “dignity,” “honor” and “humility.”

There are many other value-seeds I’m sure you can name, too. Maybe we can do that around the dinner table on Thanksgiving Day.

Do you know why I call this seedbed a “legacy seedbed”? Legacy is a word that means “something you pass on to other persons, other generations.”

So the values we talk about – and most importantly, try to act out every day – came to you through your daddy and mommy, who got them from their parents, who got them from their parents. And back through many generations.

You have a legacy of goodness and decency that I hope you are proud of, and want to pass along to your own children.

But having affirmed the values our family believes are important, I also think it is important to admit that it is sometimes hard to stay true to those values all the time.

I’m reminded of that when I read the short story in the Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke where Jesus denies that he is “good.”

A rich young man addresses Jesus as “Good Teacher.” And he responds, “Why do you call me good? There is no one good but God alone.”

When you read the fuller story, as in Luke 18: 18-27, you’ll find much more to think about than whether Jesus was good or not. But for a long time, I’ve wondered about why Jesus would say such a thing to the young man.

As I think about the legacy seedbeds that we inherited and still work on, I wonder if Jesus might have been talking about the legacy seedbed God began when the world was created. We call that seedbed the Garden of Eden.

God’s “goodness” was planted in that garden, and yet human beings have never been able to fulfill the promise of that garden. So in that sense, kids, we have never been as “good” as God.

I have no idea if Jesus was thinking that way when he said “no one is good but God.”

Fortunately, we do have Jesus as our model of goodness. He was a flesh-and-blood reminder of the goodness we are capable of living in our own lives.

God’s love we see in Jesus is part of our legacy seedbed. Live the legacy!