Fill Your Life with Moments of Grace

As I alluded to over a couple of posts recently my family has shrunk a bit. It has been through these losses that true grace has been revealed.

Anyone that watches as their parents or in my case grandparents as they lose their ability to care for themselves knows it is hard. No longer do you see them the same. No longer are they the same. Their true self shines through almost child like.

My grandmother passed away a couple of weeks ago. She had changed from the steadfast strong lady I once knew. Her life began to dwindle with her memory. One moment she knew me, the next I was a stranger.

I pray that the loving woman, full of joy and grace the last I saw her. I pray that was the real grandma I happened to never really know. We had our differences. We could go quite some time without even speaking. Now that she is gone, I pray the way she was the last few months. I pray that was God’s way of shining through her to speak to me.

A couple of weeks after her passing at the age of 98, I lost my sweet beautiful cousin at age 33. My heart was devastated. Why would God take her so soon?

In reflecting over the times we spent, my cousin was living a life full of grace. Her life was so full you could not help but be changed by her presence.

Although her life was taken suddenly and what we all believe to be too soon. It is her faith in His design that I find comfort in her passing. I miss her dearly and always will until the day we are together again.

As we celebrated my cousin’s life it became obvious that I was not the only one better for knowing her. Friends and family shared similar stories about her life. Her knack for calling things like they were. The way she smiled and laughed no matter the situation. Such a gentle spirit touched and full enough with God’s grace. A grace she shared with everyone she met.

Even Christ himself dreaded death and wept. However it is through his death on the cross that even death be defeated. It is in him and through Gods grace that I know and seek comfort in the loss of my grandma and beautiful cousin.

Faith is what brought them home when God called them from this life.

It is is the loss of a loved ones that many Christians are faced with a choice. Some turn to anger out of hurt and lack of understanding. Others draw closer to the cross in hopes that that their loved ones await them.

I speak from personal experience as in the past anger overwhelmed me and drew me away from God. It is through my new found relationship with my adoptive heavenly Father that I joyfully celebrate my relatives homecoming. I miss them but know in Christ I will see them both and many others once again when He calls me home.