According to the back of the bulletin for September 12, 2021, that Sunday is designated as Grandparents’ Day. As a special day on the calendar, it does not have the cachet of Mother’s Day or Father’s Day. As a grandparent myself that really doesn’t bother me. Every time I am with my grandchildren it feels like Grandparents’ Day. At all the stages of their lives so far, they have treated their grandmother and I with affection, love and respect. They delight in our stories of the past, indulge our jokes and forgive our mistakes. I know that not all grandparents and grandchild relationships are so positive, but when I talk to most grandparents, their love and pride in their grandchildren is self -evident. We are fortunate in our time of longer life spans to know our grandparents and even at times our great grandparents. Often when families are separated by distance there are substitute grandparents who families informally adopt who are dear to the children. They may be called Aunts and uncles or just family friends, but they also extend the circle of trust and love for children as they grow. Often those relationships are life long parts of our lives. Fortunate is the child who has four grandparents and several other grandparenting friends. We don’t read much about grandparents in scripture in terms of their relationships with grandchildren. Perhaps this is just assumed by the culture of the time or perhaps life span issues are the problem, but we can be sure that there was loving relationships between grandparents and grandchildren back to the very beginning. They didn’t have a specific Grandparents’ Day, but like now they did not need it. It was enough to just be someone’s grandparent.