Here I sit in a silent room of a nursing home. The sound of an oxygen machine humming behind my grandmother’s seat. She strokes my Grandpa’s hands ever so gently with more love today than when they were first married 66 years ago. Sixty-Six years – got that? 66 Years.
These are the final days of their marriage. Grandpa is in his last hours, possibly days. He never wanted it to end this way – in a nursing home. He always said that if he had to be put in a nursing home, he wanted a gun so that he could end it all. Thankfully we never gave him that gun and 4+ years after being admitted to the nursing home, that chapter is closing.
Also sitting here with us is my brother, Brian. We’ve been sharing memories most of the day. Memories of Grandpa’s stubborn nature. His compulsive neatness. The way he would wash paper plates before trashing them. His ability to fix just about anything. The TV he built (yes – BUILT) in 1977 after retiring from Ford Motor Company which still sits on the dresser in my Grandma’s room at home. The Grandfather Clock he built (yes – BUILT) still chimes in their living room. His quick temper that we now laugh about – Oh was he mad when we drove the pontoon boat over the dock at his summer home in Northern Michigan. His poor hearing – he always thought we were talking about him when he couldn’t hear us. Sometimes we were 😉 He loved bowling and golf. After moving to Florida, they purposefully moved to a retirement community with a golf course, bought a golf cart, and were VERY active within their community. They bowled 2-3 times per week on leagues.
When I retire, their lives are the model for my retirement. I don’t want to sit around and wither away – I want to be active and have a purpose in my retirement. Their purpose: Enjoy Life!
The coming moment is one that we all have been expecting for the last year or so. It just seems so surreal that the time is here. Hospice has been called. Relatives have been notified and now we wait.
The wait is hard – we don’t know when that moment will come. The wait is easy – we know that he will be in a much better place. The sadness we will experience is temporary. The memories are permanent.
That better place is really how I can be so comfortable. I’m not POSITIVE of his final destination – Heaven or Hell. (I am confident of mine) I’m not aware of a concrete, solid decision on his part to accept Jesus as his Savior. He grew up in church. He attended church. He served. BUT, those things do not assure you of eternal life.
In Luke 13, Jesus is asked if those who are saved will be few. Jesus answers in verse 24: “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.”
You see – the way to have eternal life is simple and often times overcomplicated. The narrow door spoken of in Luke 13:24 is described in John 3:16. I know, I know, I know that this verse is used over and over again, but it speaks volumes: John 3:16 says: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
Did you get that? Believe. All you have to do is believe in Jesus and the mission he was sent to Earth to accomplish. That mission? To live a Holy and blameless life and then sacrifice that life upon a cross, taking on the sins of the world and then conquering death 3 days later by rising from the grave to ascend into Heaven where he now intercedes upon our behalf to the Father God. All you have to do is believe that. Period. Done. That is the narrow road.
Will you believe? How will your life end? WITH CONFIDENCE that you are heading to Heaven? Or WITH DOUBT, saying “I hope I’ve done everything I needed to do in order to get Heaven.”
Again I ask, how will your life end? With confidence or with doubt?
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