Loss Is Never Easy

Dear Friends,
I come to you with a saddened heart, with a heavy heart, but yet a comforted heart.  Yesterday I found out my mom’s dad, my 90 year old grandpa passed away. No matter how old they are, it’s still a process isn’t it?  You still don’t want to admit their age, or the inevitable one day, you fight just as hard for them when they are in the hospital with ever bit of hope that they make it out this time, you cringe every holiday season that passes  hoping this isn’t the last they are with us, but then the day comes when all those thoughts become reality and you believed in your mind that “I will be ready when the time comes” yet it hits you.

He was quite a character–he loved the Lord, he was wise, he was a very hard worker, (after all he had 7 daughters and one son) he was a fighter and he was a jokester!  He had a way about him where he could find humor in just about anything–you couldn’t be around him for five minutes without laughing about something he observed or something he said.

Last night before drifting off to sleep, I thought, “he’s walking on streets paved in gold; he’s with my other grandparents; is he teasing Jesus about something or the other; I’m pretty sure he is teasing my grandma (his wife) and I bet he’s eating all sorts of desserts and showing her how he can finally eat it all without her worrying!”
But while my heart is sad and while I feel the grief for my mom, aunts and uncle I am comforted in knowing that he is in a better place, he is no longer in pain, he is no longer suffering, he is happy and healthy and completely whole–he is with the King of Kings!
I leave you with grandpa’s favorite verse which is found in John 14:1-2, “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”