"Words strain
Crack and sometimes break, under the burden
Under the tension, slip, slide, perish,
Decay with imprecision, will not stay in place,
Will not stay still...
Words move, music moves
Only in time; but that which is only living
Can only die. Words, after speech, reach,
Into the silence."
- excerpt from The Four Quartets: East Coker by T S Eliot
Last night as I lay in bed for hours waiting for my mind to rest, it occurred to me that my grandfather would be dead before I awoke.
And I was correct.
After a good, short fight with Leukemia, it got him. 89 years. He was my age in the heat of WWII.
My granddad was a good man. Born in South Africa - i think - he became a missionary in Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and finally Rwanda. I remember him visiting us in South Africa as he left the continent and made the UK his home. The genocide had just started and he had lost over 200 personal friends to tribal prejudice.
Even after he retired, he never stopped serving his Creator and mankind. Till this morning, he was in charge of an orphanage in Romania. He knew people everywhere in the world. Anywhere he traveled, even on vacation, he would run into close friends who would have him preach at their church that very weekend. And he always had something worthwhile to share with them.
But I seldom saw him in this respect. He was always just my granddad, who loved me a lot. I was his youngest grandchild, named after his son who died at 19. I got to see him every three or four years. I remember visiting him in England when I was 9, a couple months before moving to America.
One day the only memory I'll recall is him chasing me around his house with shaving cream on his face, trying to kiss me.
And then one day we'll be reunited.
"For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words." - Paul to the Thessalonians
But for now he rests. "The living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing." - Ecclesiastes
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5 comments:
My heart is with you.
what beautiful a beautiful memoir of your grandad. sounds like a great man to be able to follow after. I'm sorry for your loss my friend.
memories are a most treasured gift. especially with such great people in your life. i'm clinging to that. my gramma's sick so i def feel you. . . my prayers are with you. and i wish you some good comforting holy spirit hugs. you'll know when you get em.
Wow, Bruce. Thank you for sharing during such a hard time. I love the pictures you scrawled in my mind of such a loving, relational man after God's own heart. I wish I could've known your Granddad.
beautiful, bruce. you have such a gracious spirit.
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