Death, Life, and the Red Sox

These past few months have been challenging. In the midst of the normal everyday busyness that a mom faces, my life has been struck with tragedy. On October 25th, my 93 year old grandfather was in a car accident while driving to the senior center he visits on a daily basis. Everyone in the other vehicle was fine, but my grandfather suffered broken ribs from the impact. He was taken to the hospital where the family was told he may not have long to live.

For the next week, my parents and siblings went to visit him as well as other extended family members. I wrestled with whether or not to visit him because I was sick with bronchitis and he was very susceptible to contracting pneumonia. After some conversations with my family and my husband, I finally decided to go anyway and simply take every precaution.

I had a very pleasant visit. My husband and parents came as well. I wasn't able to accurately compare his well-being to previous days since it was my first time seeing him, but my father said it was the best he's seen him so far.

He was awake for a majority of the time we were there thought not always fully alert. He answered questions mostly with nods or shaking his head, but a few times gave a very enthusiastic "great!" or "yeah!"
They brought him a full meal while we were there, though he couldn't likely chew and swallow well since he had just had a breathing tube removed. He had a couple tiny nibbles of rice that took a very long time to chew (especially since the nurse couldn't get his teeth in at the time).

My grandfather, an avid Red Sox fan lived to see the Red Sox win the world series. I'm sure God had a plethora of other reason why He allowed the Red Sox to win the world series, but I cannot help but think, that somewhere in the midst of His grand scheme, He cared enough to allow my grandfather that special blessing and joy of seeing them win before he passed away.

One of the special moments I was able to share with him was when my parents stepped out of the room to find a nurse. While they were gone I took the opportunity to tell my grandfather he was going to have another great-grandchild. I hadn't announced it to the family yet, which was why I waited until my parents left and my husband guarded the door. But for some reason it was important to me that he knew. He gave me a smile and nodded in an understanding way.

As the evening settled in, we put in a special order for him to have a rootbeer float (one of his favorite treats) and after a long wait, were able to witness him thoroughly enjoy it. As much as his throat hurt, the nurse couldn't feed it to him quickly enough. And afterwards he was exhausted, so we let him rest, and quietly slipped out the door to head home.

In the wee morning hours on November 5th, my grandfather went to be with the Lord. I am forever grateful to have spent those last few hours with him the day before and to have had him in my life for as long as I did. I will cherish the memory of being able to serve him, even if only in a simple way, by feeding him his jello earlier in the afternoon. What a blessing to know such an amazing man.

At his funeral last weekend, family shared special memories they had with him and how they remembered him growing up. It was bittersweet to know that he is no longer in pain and celebrating with his Savior, yet we miss him so much!

For any of you who has experienced the loss of a loved one, you know what it's like. There is nothing more comforting than knowing your loved one had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This makes their departure bearable. We know that earthly death is not the end, but rather the beginning of eternity with God. For it is because of these truths that we have the hope of seeing our loved ones again. Knowing that gives me joy and I look forward to that day.

2 Corinthians 4:8 "We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord."
Philippians 3:20-21 "For out citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself."

When Things Don't Go As Planned

So, my plan was to compose a blog post on a weekly basis. I had set goals for myself and worked out a scheduled. I limited my other commitments so I could make sure to set aside time to work on it. I had even worked on a few blogs in advance in case inspiration waned or schedules got busy.

I was excited and ready to go! For a few weeks I posted consistently, and then it happened... My computer got messed up. I still haven't figured out what actually happened. I simply was not able to access my blog site. It would freeze every time or every time I clicked on a page or post it would just ask if I wanted to sign in again and go back to reloading the first page. I couldn't click on any of my posts. After a few weeks (OK months) of trying to access it to no avail and finally able to have my husband take a look to see what was wrong, I'm finally back!

Sometimes things in our lives don't go the way we plan. As a busy mom, my life can be quite hectic. More often than not, things don't go as planned. Whether its not getting a good nights sleep, or a dirty diaper, or an unexpected phone call, or burning dinner because I was dealing with sibling rivalry or getting the kids ready to go somewhere only for one of them to spill something on their clothes.

Life is full of interruptions and circumstances WAY beyond our control. But it is in those moments, we have a choice of how we're going to respond. It is in those moments when the faith we claim to have, is put to the test. Do we really trust God? Do we really love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength? Is He really the Lord of our life, or are we going to allow our circumstances to be the dictator? We ALWAYS have a choice.  We can either run to God, or run from Him. We can either become bitter, or we can become better. We can respond in frustration and anger, or we can respond with grace. It is in those critical moments of the everyday interruptions and interactions that we prove to ourselves whether our faith is genuine or not.

1 Peter 1:6-7 "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, my be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ."