Word:
It’s 2011 and it’s bitter cold outside. Christmas just passed a few days ago but it sure doesn’t have the normal holiday feeling as past years. See just a few days before Christmas my grandma who had been battling cancer for the third time collapsed on the way to the restroom. Thankfully my grandfather and mother were both with her at the time. An ambulance came and rushed her to the hospital, she was stable for the time being. As the chain of phone calls were made to update the family on the latest it was an unspoken reality. This would be grandma’s last hospital visit. Two years earlier granny was diagnosed with this last cancer for the third time in 20 years, unlike the cancer before it this bunch had spread throughout her body, clearly and devastatingly making it terminal. As I think back to this time my appreciation for who my grandmother was has grown. Not only was she a strong, kind, loving wife mother and grandmother. She was human. She had struggles like anyone else. She had fears and short comings and lord nose didn’t always make the right decision. But despite her humanness she never stopped trying to grow into the person she knew God designed her to be. And looking back how sad it was to watch her suffer through the cancer but what a beautiful example she was and still is to me of someone that knows who is in control even when the circumstances seem out of control. A time all always remember was a few months before she past myself and an old friend went to pend some time with my grandma one Saturday evening. She couldn’t get around to well and when we got there she was laying in her bed watching TV. So we each lay on each side of her and just visited. We were there for hours. Watching terrible lifetime movies, eating bologna sandwiches and laughing, oh how much we all laughed that night. Its funny to me that I couldn’t tell you one thing we talked about that night but I will always remember the way pending the time with my friend and grandma made me feel.
It’s the morning of day eight since we’ve been in the hospital. Granny’s motor skills are 95% gone and she can barely hold hands let alone lift her own head at this point. Grandpa went home last night to sleep; it’s mid-morning now so we expect him to arrive soon.
This moment I will never forget. I was sitting on the couch in the hospital room with five of my family members. They were all visiting and watching TV when the door opened and in walked my grandfather, immediately something about his demeanor caught my attention. It was as if he didn’t even notice any of us in the room, and even stranger is that no one else seemed to notice him either. As I watched my him walk toward my grandmother he said something to her in French, my jaw dropped, I had no idea my grandfather even spoke French. Grandma lay in her bed asleep, yet as soon as he spoke her eyes opened and her gaze met his. He took her hand, and leaning in, his face so close to her’s, he softly spoke words with such emotion that they both began to weep. As I sat there watching this it was as if the room had stopped and all I could see and hear was them. Jay and Kay, two souls united, declaring the love they had for one another. Thanking the other for sharing their life till death do them part
Meal:
Anytime I would stop over my grandparents’ house my grandma would make me a bologna sandwich on white with mayo and mustard.
Music:
Celine Dion, My heart will go on. Outside of Celine I’m not sure if my grandma listened to anyone else
Prayer:
Father thank you for who you are. Thank you for all the emotions that you’ve given us to use in relationships. Lord please teach me how to use them well and in alignment with your example.
Time:
Life can be dark. Circumstances can be overwhelming but only if we close our eyes. This week, if life is crazy or even if it’s going smoothly I challenge you to stop for a moment and look for God in the details. I assure that you’ll see Gods beauty in the most common parts of your day.