The picture is of my grandpa & his sister (Doris Gregory) singing a song their father used to sing when they were kids called "God's Amazing Grace".

A few Saturday's ago I was fortunate enough to attend a family reunion. I hated family reunions when I was younger, and still almost bailed on this one, but maturity won. (I've noticed this maturity thing affecting my decisions as of late - not that I am in any way, fully matured, but I seem to at least be making a step towards it)

Among many of the stories told that day, one was told that was new to me: the story of how my great-grandfather became a Christian. When I was growing up, my great-grandfather was the most spiritual man I knew. It's not that he even talked about God that much, it just oozed out of every pore of his being. Apparently though, Clarence was a bit of a wild one in his early days. He made "home brew" and gambling/card games were a normal part of a weekend at their house. One weekend after word got around that homes were being searched and arrests were being made, Clarence decided to box up the home brew making supplies and gambling paraphernalia and dump it way out in the woods. Sneaking through the woods, he froze in his tracks when he heard a loud voice say loudly, "Clarence Allen!" He made a few more steps and heard it again, "Clarence Allen!" He picked up the pace a little but he couldn't run away from this voice. The third time he heard the voice cry out, "Clarence Allen!" he knelt there in the woods and repented of his wild ways. Grandpa came home telling his story about all this & when someone mentioned "Clarence is saved", Grandma Allen told the kids he was "crazy as hell" and would forget all about it "once he sobered up"!  He wasn't at all drunk & from then on, he never looked back.

Doris said Grandma Allen tested him out one Sunday morning to see if he was just foolin' with all this Jesus stuff by cracking open raw eggs into the pocket's of his dress slacks just before he got dressed to head to church. Grandpa turned his pockets inside out, dumped out as much of the egg out as he could, and without saying a word; proceeded to load up the kids and head to church.

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