We recently spent the weekend with my husband’s grandparents in northwest Arkansas. We enjoyed spending time with them and introducing them to their new great-grandson. At 83, Casey’s granddad is the oldest of all of our grandparents; he has lived a long, full life and could spend hours telling stories of all that he has seen and done.

As I watched him hold Caleb, I thought of the people that must have surrounded him when he was a baby. I thought of his parents, grandparents, siblings, and aunts and uncles. I wonder if his mother looked forward to his birth just as I did Caleb’s. I wonder if his family laughed as he cooed and smiled and enjoyed watching his every move. I wonder if they tried to decide who he looked like and what he would do when he grew older. I wonder if he was surrounded with the same love and hope that surrounds Caleb. And I wonder if his great-grandfather ever held him with the same gentleness and peace that I saw in his face as he held Caleb.

Now he is surrounded by an entirely different group of people. His children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren have replaced the parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents of his childhood. And now he is part of the family that has welcomed Caleb into the world. Here he stands, on the other edge of life, as Caleb’s only connection to the ancestors that he will never know, and I can’t help but wonder if he thinks of the people that will fill Caleb’s life in eighty years.

It is my prayer that Caleb will also live a long and full life, just like his great-granddad, and that someday he will sit with his great-grandson in his arms and think of all of us who went before him. I pray that he will see the legacy that we will never see and that he will be amazed by God’s faithfulness that continues long after we are gone.