My son Ben and I spent a day in Grand Rapids last week while
my husband was out of town for a conference. We began our adventure at the
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, a great way to close out our history
studies this school year. As enjoyable as that was, the highlight of our trip
was going “junking” all afternoon. We don’t have many good thrift stores here in
northern Michigan, so having the opportunity to search GR’s multitude of resale
shops is always fun. In the past, Ben has found Lego sets, Nerf guns, and even
an RC helicopter.
Much to his disappointment, we came up empty that day. Well,
mostly empty. I found a cute summer purse for a couple bucks. He found a few
old Lego instruction booklets for a quarter apiece. At our second to last stop,
Ben did his usual scan of the toy section, saw nothing of interest, and was
ready to go. I said I wanted to look around for a few minutes and see if there
was anything interesting.
As I walked along a row of shelves containing assorted picture
frames, my eye landed on a vintage 1970s frame on the bottom shelf. It contained
a single typewritten page titled “Prayer for My Children” and translated from
Dutch to English by Dr. John Timmerman. I teared up as I read it. Dr. Timmerman
was one of my mother’s professors at Calvin College back in the early 1950s,
and I had met him a number of times when I was growing up as my dad was the
resident auto mechanic for all the classic Calvin faculty.
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| Photo from the 1952 Calvin Prism |
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| English Faculty--1953 Calvin Prism |
The last time I saw Dr. Timmerman was at my dad’s retirement party in
1998. He came with fellow English professor emeritus Dr. Richard Tiemersma, who
once, while waiting for Dad to finish changing the oil on his car, instructed
me on the subject of divine right of kings in Shakespeare’s history plays. But that's another story...
Anyway, the words Dr. Timmerman translated are a treasure,
and I had to have them. I did a quick search on my phone to see if this
poem-prayer is out in cyberspace somewhere. It’s not.
I took the frame to the checkout counter with my unusual
request: “I would like to buy this piece of paper, but I don’t want the frame.”
The guy at the cash register chuckled, then proceeded to slide the back off the
frame. Hidden behind the paper was a photo of a young man—probably his senior
picture from high school, and judging by his hair style and the cut of his
suit, mid to late 1970s. (I know this because it matched the style of my
brothers’ high school photos—sorry y’all.)
Though I didn’t recognize the person in the photo, I couldn't help wondering…how many times had his parents prayed this prayer over him? Had Mom and Dad prayed this prayer over me and my siblings? And I got all choked up. The clerk probably thought I was nuts, and he graciously charged
me 50 cents. I gave him a dollar and said to keep the change. Such a small price to pay
for such priceless words.
Now I pray them over my own child. If you’re reading this, I
hope you’ll pray them over yours.
“Prayer for My Children”
Translated by Dr. John
Timmerman from an old Dutch tile
I place the
names of
My children
in Your hands
Engrave them
thereon
With
inextinguishable script
That nothing
or no one
Can burn
them out
Not even
when Satan presently
Shall sift
them as flour.
Hold my
children tight
When I must
let them go
And ever let
Your strength
Stand over
their weakness.
You know how
measurelessly
The world
shall hate them
When they do
not join
In the order
of the world.
I do not ask
You to spare
My children
all grief
But be ever
attentive
When they
are lonely and afraid.
For Thy
Name’s sake preserve them
In your
covenant
And never
let them be estranged
From You,
never, during their entire lives.
I place the
names of
My children
in Your hands. Amen.
