A Few Thoughts on My Grandma

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(I wrote this at the end of a long day, the day of the funeral for my Grandma, March 5th, 2020.)



Today was hard. My family and I laid to rest the body of my Grandma. It was both a sad and a joyful time. I’m so sad that she is no longer with us, but I’m joyful that she is finally home and truly in complete peace and rest.


As we passed by the casket for the last time I paused for only a short time. I looked on the face that I knew as my Grandma’s. But I only looked for a moment. This wasn’t her. She was gone. As she was in the hands of our Father and our Savior Jesus Christ here on earth, she is now embraced in the arms of our God.



For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.
— 2 Corinthians 5:4



This verse has been running around in my head over the past few days, after I got to read this passage (2 Corinthians 4:16-5:10 specifically) to her on this past Saturday.


The part I keep thinking on is that last section. “...so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.” In a way, Paul doesn’t even refer to this moment we have in time as life. What comes after is life. This mortal “life” is swallowed up by life. We don’t even know what true life is in our time here on earth. True life, true living comes in Christ in eternity. And that is what my Grandma hoped for and what she is now experiencing for the first time. That is something to be joyful in.


As my mom remembered her, and her thoughts on eternity, my Grandma had said, “I will be flat on my face before God”. She truly knew (and now fully knows) the holiness of God, and of her complete unworthiness and unholiness before Him. Outside of Christ, out of being “in Christ”, she would never be able to stand and look into the face of God.


Now, by the grace of Christ, she is in the presence of her Savior. She has heard the words, “Well done, good and faithful slave”. This shell we laid to rest in the ground today is not her. She is home. That body will be raised to new life, but for now, it is an empty shell. 


And so I look forward in joy and earnest expectation for the day that I stand with her in the presence of our wonderful Savior. And it is only all of grace that I know I will stand there too.


All of life is all of grace.


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