Lessons from the Cottage

It's funny the things you remember when you lose someone you love.  My grandpa passed away a few months ago.  Some of my favorite memories of him was the time we spent together at the Cottage.

When I was younger, my grandparents had a cottage on a lake in Northern Michigan.  I used to love going up to the cottage.  My grandma would make chocolate covered marshmallows and my grandpa would spend his days keeping us happy.  He taught us how to fish and how to clean the fish.  I was so proud as a 9 yr old girl that I could scrape the scales off the fish I had just caught and clean out the guts as I sat alongside my dad, my grandpa and my big brother.  I thought I was the luckiest girl ever!  I am sure some of my friends would not have felt so lucky at that very moment of gutting a fish...but I was the only girl there.  My mom and Grandma were inside the cottage while we were out in the garage getting messy.  I remember when we were done with the fish that my grandma had the pan all ready to fry them up!  My brother and I were so proud as we sat down to our fish fry that we had caught some of those big 3 inch pieces of fish at the table.  I think we even pointed them out and made sure we had "our" fish on our own plates to eat. 


At the cottage, one of the games Grandpa liked to play was called "Shark".  There was a floating dock a few yards away from the shore. We would swim out to the dock and basically play "tag" around the floating dock.  We would swim and look for Grandpa to try to catch him. We would have it all planned out and He would always get away with a giant grin on his face.  Sometimes, we would search for him and he wasn't there.  As we got older, we figured it out...he was ducking down in the water to swim under the dock to the other side...he had been there the whole time!


We played this game with Grandpa as long as I can remember.  Always splashing and laughing together.  Grandpa never treated me different because I was a girl.  He taught me everything he taught my brother.  I remember feeling like I could do anything I put my mind to.  He always encouraged me to try something new - or more difficult - like slalom skiing (one ski, not two!). 


My grandpa taught me to try new things, to get messy and enjoy life.  I think that is what God is trying to teach us too...He wants us to try new things, enjoy life and laugh.  Life will get messy sometimes, but He is always there for us.  Even when we feel like God is missing and we can't find Him...He is there waiting for us.  When we finally look away from our problems and look to Him, we will be able to see that He was there with us the whole time.