He passed recently while we were actually on vacation in VA to see my in-laws. Before the trip, I had contemplated trying to drive up from VA for a quick visit since he had not been doing well but it was pretty much too late anyways - let alone the fact that I was in the midst of a unanticipated project for my mother-in-law which I couldn't leave for her to complete. So many hard decisions in life end up tangled in competing regrets.
I will miss Grandpa dearly, he was a kind man who was always in good spirits. He was a wonderful Christian role model and it will be hard to follow in his footsteps.
I am happy though that he is with Jesus and my Grandma whom he lost too early.
A song that will always remind me of both of them is a blue grass song by Ralph Stanley - "Daddys Wildwood Flower".
I hope everyone that reads this knows the love and gift that Jesus offers to all or you know someone that is wiling to share the knowledge of that gift so that the future tears that will be shed over each of us might be tempered by tears of happiness in the knowledge that we are all with Jesus and not lost forever.
John 11:25 English Standard Version (ESV)
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.[a] Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,
John 3:16 New International Version (NIV)
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
