On Friday, March 25th my Great Grandma passed away peacefully and with family in a hospice home. I'm thankful and Praise God that she knew and had a relationship with Jesus and the peace and comfort that came from having that confidence. I'm thankful to have had a Great Grandma in my life and to have enjoyed that relationship for the 25 years of my life. Great Grandma was 89 and she was ready. One thing that fills my heart with JOY and I will always remember is how the last day she was fully coherent, my Gma said she spent about an hour just talking to God, praying and singing old songs as though He was right there in the room with her. She would tell Him how she was ready and ask Him to help her with the pain and she just didn't want to leave behind her babies, she wanted to know that her children and grandchildren would be taken care of and be alright. I don't really even shed tears over the fact that Great Grandma is gone, because I know she is well now - sin and death are defeated! But I well up with emotion thinking that in the final days of her life, her one remaining concern and anxious thought would be that of a mother for her family. WOW! She had 11 children and I can't even count how many Grandchildren and Great Grandchildren and even some Great Great's that she had, but it just blesses my heart to know that in that state of life, her thought wasn't on fading away, it was that we would be okay. :') The experience of being there with her the final 2 weeks of her life, back and forth from visiting hospice, God used it to teach me so much about life. I understood more of how these bodies we live in really are just temporary homes, we move on though. I understand more of how in this fallen world, we are forced to give so much of our attention to things that never satisfy yet are necessary for life on this earth (like food, water, shelter, clothing, etc), but at the end of life you start thinking in the eternal and those things mean less and less to you and being in the presence of the Lord means more and more. I understood more about death being defeated because in this flesh we daily are at war, but that war is no more when we finish this race of life. In the word it says our life is like a vapor and literally, my Great Grandma lived 89 years, but at the end of life, I'm sure 89 years seems like a blink. She was born, she lived, then she died...all like that. We all do. There are so many things in this world that jock for our attention and some of which we just have to tend to while living "this life," but there is a life to come - PRAISE GOD! The funeral services were beautiful for Great Grandma and I was thankful for the boldness in witness my cousin, Great Uncle and Great Grandma's pastor had in preaching the truth to our family at the funeral. It was GOOD! I think about a flower and how a flower's pollen blows and takes root and produces other beautiful flowers like itself and I started thinking about my Great Grandma like a flower. She loved Jesus. Going to the funeral I could look around and see these precious and sporatic flowers scattered within my family that are growing and blooming to love and serve the Lord. AMAZING! It blessed my heart so much and I was filled with even more hope at the thought that it's not it, there are more flowers in the works, just waiting to bloom and turn their faces to Jesus!
John 12:24
Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.
1 comment:
Really missing you tonight Great Grandma. :(
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