A Year Later

It has been a year since my grandpa died…I realized it late last night when I couldn’t sleep and I pondered a strange dream I had had the night before. I had dreamt that my family told me I had a great grandfather I had never met who was still alive in a nursing home somewhere. I asked to be taken to meet him immediately. My mother told me I would see him ‘sometime’. I said, “He’s 99! He could die anytime! I need to meet him now!” So they took me to a nursing home, where I found an empty bed with no one in it. I said, “He’s not here!” They told me, “Yes, but imagine it like he was here. I’m sure he’ll turn up.” As I thought on that image of the empty hospital bed, I suddenly realized my grandfather’s passing had taken place a year ago, and I had even taken the same day off of work (Wednesday) that I did last year when he died that I did this year because I was sick. I hadn’t even realized.

Last year, Easter came early, so he could celebrate with us, a blessing from the Lord, because any other year and he would have been gone before it came. Like the empty tomb in the scriptures, the hospital bed in my dream was also empty. Search as I might, I will not find my grandpa here with us, but he is not dead. His earthly body may be gone, but he will be given a new body by my Lord Jesus and one day I will see him again at my Lord’s side. In the meantime, pray for my family if you are a praying person. The trouble with truly loving one another is it causes true grief, which can be a painful, though precious, burden to bear.