Grandma the Prophetess

Things my grandmothers said that I hold on to:

“You’re going to be a great man one day,” Mother said after mom told her I was an alternate for the school’s Math Counts Team. We all call my mom’s mother “Mother.” Most of us call my dad’s mother, Grandma. Although she and my mom used to say emphatically that I called her “grandmother.” I hold on to this prophecy hoping that through my trying to fit in with the crowd, half-hearted attempts at excellence in high school and college, and personal mis-steps and short-comings that I still have a chance at being a useful vessel. "And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make." (Jer. 18:4)

“Children always come looking for their father.” Grandma said not speaking to me.
“You think so,” I interjected in a conversation that wasn’t mine.
“Well yes, children are curious to know their fathers,” she replied. I only had one son at the time, and I saw him almost everyday. So I’m not sure why I decided to remember this.
Last week, I left work and decided to go visit my hometown. I couldn’t find my key to Dad’s house, and when I drove by it looked like no one was home, so I went to the next block where my grandma lives. I talked to her for a little while. Then who walks in the door, but my cousin and the son he hadn’t seen for about 12 years. Now that I have a son that I haven’t seen for two, I’m even more inspired to make attempts to communicate with him. A relationship is the goal.
Grandmothers don’t lie. They don’t have to, and they don’t believe in it. There have been times when I figured they don’t understand the situation or don’t know all the facts. But they possess a mysterious insight and wisdom I can’t quite explain.