Adventures with Grandpa Ole (05/08/2025)

As I’ve mentioned before, as a child I lived down south (Texas and Georgia), but many summer we’d travel north to the Midwest to visit with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. My mother’s family was around Sioux City, Iowa. And we’d usually stay with Grandma Lola and Grandpa Ole in James. I looked forward to those times and my adventures with Grandpa Ole.

I had a habit of being about as useful as a cowlick, or so Grandma Lola used to tell me. My older sister was “helpful.” My younger brothers needed tending to. But I just seemed to always be in the way. Usually by 9 in the morning, Grandma Lola or my mother would suggest I go find Grandpa Ole at the store next door. Truth be told, I may have contributed to my being sent somewhere else because I really liked hanging out with Grandpa Ole.

At the store, Grandpa Ole had a way of giving me things to do that I enjoyed like dusting the shelves with the neatest feather duster or washing the counters or even sweeping around the rocking chairs for shoppers and visitors who wanted to sit and visit for a while. But my greatest delight was when Grandpa Ole would take me on an adventure in his gas tanker to deliver gas to the area farmers.

Grandpa Ole taught me the word “adventure.” He’d smile and say, “Shall we go on an adventure?” He’d get me settled in the cab of his truck and off we’d go into the Iowa countryside to farms with dogs and animals and usually children running about in the yards. I always found something to do while Grandpa filled the farm tank and visited with the owner. I noticed that people always smiled and waved when they saw Grandpa Ole enter their property with his tanker. And I noticed that Grandpa Ole knew them all by name.

I remember asking him on one of those adventures if he was having fun. He laughed at my question, but then he answered, “I do. I can’t think of anything more fun than helping another by bringing what they need.” It took me years and several recollections before I realized he didn’t just mean the gasoline. Grandpa Ole had a way of seeing the good in others. He was kind right down to his socks. It didn’t matter who you were or how you dressed, Grandpa Ole greeted you, welcomed you, tried to help you, and somehow one always felt seen when they were with Grandpa Ole.

I must admit that my life has turned out to be one adventure after another. And I never set out on “adventure” that I don’t think of Grandpa Ole. And I take with me the two gifts he gave me while we were together – the joy of bringing another what they need and the desire to see the other along the way.

As we continue on our adventures of life in Christ, let us commit to being disciples who seek to bring to others the love of Christ that fuels us on “the Way” and share it with them so that they, too, might discover the fullness of adventures in Christ. And let us commit also to “see” the others we encounter knowing that they are loved by our Savior just as we are.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.