Grandma's Glasses on Her Head and Other Short Devotional Stories

My wife, Loretta, owns eleven pairs of drugstore reading glasses. On any given day she can find none of them, because at least one pair is sitting on top of her head. Here are a few stories from our house in Pruitt Valley, each with a lesson I picked up while watching her look.

The Freezer Was Next

Last Tuesday Loretta needed to read the back of a soup can. Her glasses were gone. She checked the counter, the windowsill and the junk drawer. She checked her purse twice, because the first time doesn’t count.

I was at the table with my coffee. Forty-four years of marriage have taught me a few things. One is to let a woman finish her search before offering information.

She opened the freezer.

“Have you seen my glasses?” she asked.

“Yes,” I said.

She waited. I drank coffee.

“Well, where?”

“About four inches north of your eyebrows.”

She reached up, found them and said, “You could have said something.”

I had just said something. It seemed early in the day to point out she hadn’t asked until the freezer.

The lesson: The help we go hunting for is often already resting on us. (Jeremiah 23:23)

Tucker Says Grace

Our grandson Tucker is six and spends Fridays with us. He watched Loretta search the living room for twenty minutes with her glasses on her head the entire time. He said nothing. Tucker takes after his grandpa. He waits for the freezer.

At supper she asked him to say grace.

“Dear God, thank you for the meatloaf and the green beans. Even the green beans. Please help Grandma find her glasses.” He paused. “They’re on her head. But it’s probably better if You tell her.”

Loretta reached up. Tucker said amen.

I said amen too. It seemed safest.

The lesson: God usually knows the answer long before we get around to asking. (Isaiah 65:24)

Wednesday Night Bible Study

At Wednesday night study at Pruitt Valley Chapel, Pastor Dale asked Loretta to read the passage aloud. She patted her pockets. She dug through her purse. “I left my glasses at home,” she said.

Three ladies offered spares at once. Mrs. Odom slid hers across the table. Then all three stopped and stared at the top of Loretta’s head, where her glasses were holding back her hair like a headband at a sock hop.

Pastor Dale cleared his throat. “Well,” he said, “tonight we’re in Acts 17, where Paul tells the folks in Athens that God isn’t far off from any of us.”

Loretta read it herself. Nobody said a word. Mrs. Odom quietly took her glasses back.

The lesson: We look for God in faraway places when He has been sitting with us all evening. (Acts 17:27)

The Chain Debate

After the Bible study incident, I bought Loretta a beaded chain so her glasses could hang around her neck.

“Those are for old women,” she said.

Loretta is seventy-three. I did not mention this. A man who has made peace with his own reading glasses still has to live in the house.

The chain sat in a drawer for a month. Then one Sunday she couldn’t make out the hymn numbers up front. By Monday the chain was on.

She looks very nice in it. She also still pushes the glasses up onto her head, so now she can lose them in two places at once. But she can’t lose them far.

The lesson: Pride keeps us from the very help that’s hanging right in front of us. (James 4:6)

The Pocket Incident

I like to think I’m above all this. I keep my readers in my shirt pocket. Same pocket for thirty years. That’s a system.

Saturday I couldn’t find them. I searched the truck, the garage and the bench where I tie fishing flies. I looked under the seat of the riding mower. I was about to check the freezer.

Loretta walked by, looked at me and tapped her own chest.

They were in my shirt pocket. The other shirt pocket.

She said nothing. She didn’t have to. She just patted the glasses on top of her head and went back inside humming.

The lesson: It’s easier to spot what someone else is missing than to notice what’s right in our own pocket. (Matthew 7:3)

Mabel and the Mirror

Our granddaughter Mabel is four, and she had a plan. “Grandma,” she said, “when you lose your glasses, just look in the mirror.”

Loretta thought this was very wise. The next morning she lost her glasses and marched straight to the hall mirror.

She checked behind the mirror. She checked the shelf under the mirror. She came back and said, “They’re not by the mirror, honey.”

Mabel put both hands on her cheeks. “Grandma. Look in the mirror.”

Loretta went back. This time she stood still and looked.

“Oh,” she said.

Mabel has decided to become a doctor.

The lesson: Some answers only come when we stop rushing and stand still long enough to see them. (Psalm 46:10)

Two in the Morning

A few weeks ago our son’s family hit a rough patch, and Loretta couldn’t sleep. At two in the morning she got up to read her Bible at the kitchen table. I know because I heard her not finding her glasses.

She didn’t turn on every light. She didn’t check the freezer. She just sat down, sighed and said, “Lord, I can’t even find my glasses.”

Then she reached up, and there they were.

I came out a while later to see if she wanted tea. She was reading the Psalms. “They were right here the whole time,” she said. I don’t think she meant only the glasses.

The lesson: In our darkest hours, the Lord is as near as a whispered prayer. (Psalm 145:18)

Pair Number Twelve

For her birthday I bought Loretta a twelfth pair of reading glasses. Tortoiseshell, with little rhinestones on the corners. The lady at the drugstore said they were very popular.

Loretta opened the box, thanked me and slid them on top of her head. Right next to pair number eleven, which was already up there.

She wore both through supper. She didn’t notice. Neither did Tucker, which tells you he’s coming along nicely.

I didn’t say anything. I’m saving it for the next time she opens the freezer.

The lesson: God keeps giving good gifts, even when we’re already wearing more blessings than we’ve noticed. (Lamentations 3:22-23)

If you need me, I’ll be looking for my glasses. Loretta says they’re in my other pocket.