Finally talked my dad into sending me a daily attitude email to send out.

My dad (Jake’s grandpa) passed away February 18, 2022. He was 91 and he was ready for his eternal home.

With the passing of a parent, there is work to do to close out their affairs and distribute their possessions. If that person was a bit of a packrat and lived in the same home for 55 years there can be a lot of stuff!

Being born in 1930 and growing up in a family of 7 during the depression impressed on my dad the “waste not, want not” philosophy. He kept almost everything. While cleaning out the basement, I emptied a jar of springs labeled “miscellaneous springs” into a bucket of scrap metal and I mentally asked my dad, “why did you keep those springs dad?”.

Then I thought about the many things my dad had created over the years and looked over and saw the 2 presses he built that used little bottle jacks and 2×4’s to press down on old Bibles while the glue set on the new covers he put on them.

You see, he volunteered at a ministry called Love Packages in Butler Illinois which sends shipping containers of Christian literature and Bibles oversees. He saw all these Bibles without covers so he created the equipment he needed to put new covers on them. He also took partial bibles and put them all together so whole Bibles could be distributed to those who wanted them.

I concluded that if you can make something of anything then everything has value. I’m sure my dad would have found uses for all of the things he saved if the inevitability of slowing down with age had not overtaken him. As human beings we all have chips and cracks and need little “repairs”. Fortunately, our Father in heaven can make something from anything because everything has value to Him.

Ken Davis

Packrat, tinkerer, and Grandpa extraordinaire