This evening I got a call telling me my grandfather had passed away. He plowed behind a mule as a boy, learned to drive in a Model T, served his country in World War II, farmed and welded and did odd jobs to support a devoted wife and a bunch of great kids, told some pretty good stories, and kept working long past the days he needed the money, well into his 80s. I will never be as good a man as he was.
Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do. Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun—all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.
That's a good way to live.
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
12 comments:
I will never be as good a man as he was.
I had the same feeling when my grandfather died, and again when my father did. I'm sorry for your loss, but not for your having had the opportunity to feel such loss. It is our honor to know such men.
I'm so sorry for your loss.
Such spare and perhaps even trite words, but taken for exactly what they are, no less true for the lack of flourishes. I am missing my Dad very much this morning.
I hope your good memories of your grandfather will be a comfort to you, and a light along your path. That's a wonderful legacy to leave those you love.
Deepest condolences. May his memory be strong and blessed.
He was a good man. The gift he gave you will never go away.
I'm so sorry for your loss.
Thank you, everyone.
Grim, indeed, it is an honor. I am a better human being for it.
Grim and Cass, it's hard to imagine the loss of a parent right now. If how I feel about the loss of my grandfather is a foretaste, that's going to leave a big hole. Makes me feel a stronger sympathy with you.
Lars, he drove an Allis-Chalmers.
"I will never be as good a man as he was."
I am convinced that as fathers, we want desperately to teach our children to be better than we were, and yet ironically, if we've done our job properly, the sentiment they'll have is exactly that. It means we conveyed the right and good things, and that you feel such is indeed a tribute to the man.
One of my grandmothers lived until I was 39. She was the grandparent I got to know the best, and of her grandchildren, I knew her the best. I am much the richer for the experience. As I said at her funeral, she was the best judge of character I had known, and provided examples to support that. We didn't agree on religion or politics, but so what?
So very sorry for your loss
I'm very sorry, but at the same time glad that you had such a grandfather, and the opportunity to know and treasure him.
Bless his memory and his role in forming your life and character, which are part of his legacy.
Thank you all for the kind words.
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