Pure Love

I just got an email from my Dad that I wanted to share. It was tender to me for obvious reasons but also something that had great depth and spirit to it. I thought it would be appropriate to share, this being the Sabbath and all. Plus I wanted to have it on our blog for Ella to read one day.

Stake Conference was about to begin.  The chapel and overflow area was quiet and only a few late-comers were moving to their seats.  Suddenly my 2-year-old granddaughter broke away from her mother (one of the late ones) and ran down the isle to me with outstretched arm yelling, “Papa, papa!”  She almost knocked me off my seat as she jumped in my lap.  Several hundred people heard it.  The closest ones could also see as Ella pressed her head into my shoulder and hugged me for more than a minute.  My face turned red alright, but not from embarrassment.  She had me by the neck and she is strong.  I looked around and thought, “Eat your hearts out, brothers and sisters.  This is as good as it gets.”

My wife and I put Ella and her mother on a plane a few months later.  They were moving to another state where my son-in-law would be working on his PhD for the next three years.  I thought my heart would break.  I knew my relationship with Ella would never be the same again.  She would still love her “papa” but not so rambunctiously.  She would learn to hold back and be more “proper.”   By the time she was in Mutual, I might be lucky to get a handshake with eye contact… probably not even that if any of her friends were looking.

The rules for “being cool” in front of your friends were suspended at the Huntington Beach North Stake Youth Conference on August 2nd when 129 teenagers hosted a carnival for the Utah Down Syndrome Foundation (UDSF) at Bryant Elementary School in Salt Lake City.  The 14 to 18 year-old young men and women buddied-up to make a new friend whose unrestricted love, like that of a two-year-old, would change their lives forever.  These new friends ranged from babies to a few over 21.  None of these special children would ever outgrow their special gift of sharing with uninhibited enthusiasm the pure love of Christ.  

It went on about the youth's experiences with this great foundation but its lengthy and I thought I'd end it here.

I love my Dad's insight and wisdom and am grateful that he is just that, my Dad.