GRANNY

On Monday, February 4, my Grandmother stepped from this temporary home, across the threshold and entered the place God had prepared just for her. All of her grandkids, great-grandkids, and great-great grandkids called her Granny. She was only 37 years old when I was born, 13 years younger than my current age. I remember her as a stately, gracious lady with gorgeous silver hair, who had beautiful slender feet in shoes that always matched her handbag. Maybe that is why I go crazy over great shoes.

Granny was so much more than my vision of her. She married very young and bore 9 children. I’m sure there were times in her life when she “didn’t have it all together.” I remember going to her house at Thanksgiving and Christmas. It was always crowded with aunts, uncles and cousins. On my 16th birthday, Grandpa and Granny took me out for dinner, while Mom was putting together a surprise birthday party at home. I didn’t appreciate it as much then as I do now that I am a grandmother. They were able to visit me in Saginaw one time. I was so very proud to sit once more with my grandparents in church.

As a child, I cannot remember going to church without Grandpa and Granny being there. I am a 4th generation Pentecostal and I am so thankful for the legacy that has been handed down generation after generation; currently we are on the 6th. Yesterday, Uncle Jim read me something Granny had written in her well-worn Bible. She stated that she wanted that particular Bible to be given to me upon her death. In the Bible, she had written the names and birthdays of all her children and grandchildren. Uncle Jim said she would hold the Bible and pray for each one by name. That legacy also has been passed on to me. I have been given the charge to bring each one before the throne of God, as she did.

Granny, this is not goodbye, it’s “see you later.” Because you believed in a loving Savior, we do not grieve as those who have no hope. Until we meet again, we will be comforted by I Corinthians 15:51-52: Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

For us that remain, I Thessalonians 4:16 -17 reminds us: 16For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord.