Remembering Papa

My dear grandfather, Papa, passed away on Saturday afternoon after a decade of cancer and recent heart and lung problems. His death was not a surprise to any of us, but death is still hard whether you are expecting it or not. My dad told me that he was very peaceful at the end and there was no struggling; he took two deep breaths and that was it. Thankfully, he is now with Jesus and reunited with my grandmother, which were the two things he wanted most.

What makes his death so hard for me is that with his passing, I no longer have grandparents. My grandmother died on August 14, 2007, exactly one week before Thomas was born, and my grandfather died on August 16, 2008. Their deaths leave a sadness in my soul because two people that have been around my whole life are no longer here. No longer can I call their house and talk to my Papa for five minutes about the weather, Josh, or Thomas and then he give the phone to Grandy and I talk an hour to her about everything - marriage, pregnancy, church, my relationship with God, etc. Oh, how I miss them!

Thankfully, I have sweet and precious memories of them and will one day be reunited with them. I wish more than anything that Thomas could have grown up to know them as I did, but the Lord's ways are better than mine. While I know that death is a part of life, I also know it is not the way it is supposed to be. We weren't created to die, but sin brought death into the world. So, death reminds me of the ugliness of sin, but also that Jesus has defeated sin and death! And I eagerly await when Jesus returns and there is no more sin and no more death!

"O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?"

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:55-57

Papa and Thomas (8 days old)