I lost my ring last night.
I will replace it if I can. Otherwise, I will survive.
I lost my Grandpa 2 months ago.
Him I cannot replace.
I will survive without him too, but only because 1) God is good and sovereign, and 2) I don't have a choice.
My main way of coping lately, I'm afraid, has been to distract myself and try to ignore the severity and magnitude of the loss.
He was the most important person in my life. If I were married, that person would be my husband. If I were closer to my friends, it might be one of them.
But it was my Grandpa. My best friend. The center of my little universe.
And now he is gone.
It was a sudden loss. He hadn't particularly been declining, not fast enough to "warrant" his death that soon anyway. I hugged him goodnight the night before he died in his sleep. He just seemed a little more tired than usual.
It was his birthday when he died.
That makes it sweeter and sadder all at once.
Isn't death a crazy thing? Isn't it so jarring? I wouldn't know - well, I know now - this is only the second death that's been this impactful to me. No, the first. The other death was Grandma's, 7 years prior to Grandpa's. But I wasn't near as close to her as I was to him. So hers was the first really hard death, and his was the second hard one but the first hardest death.
I think his death is jarring especially since it was so unexpected. Yes, he was an old man, but out of the blue on a Wednesday morning, he was dead. None of us saw it coming, not yet. Not that soon. Not that quick.
I also mourn because of my regret - regret that I only got there the night before to say goodnight and not to visit with him before he went to bed. Regret that I spent less time with him this past summer than I did the previous few summers. Regret that I didn't spend even more time with him, do even more odd jobs for him, love him even better...
I know that regret is basically useless because it can't change anything and will only make me feel awful. So I try to let it go.
But regardless... I still really miss him. I know I always will.
I wasn't ready to say goodbye.
I had a dream about Grandpa last night, finally. It was nice at least to see him there. I had no control over when he would die, and I have no control over my dreams, so in a way, I find it to be a sort of mercy that God would let me be with Grandpa in a dream. It was good to see him again.
I will never get my Grandpa back.
(I may never get my lost ring back either.)
I suppose I am finally really learning that nothing is forever down here - not lives, not possessions, not states of being, etc.
That is a good thing.
It points me to the only thing, the only One, who is forever, who is unchanging, who is all I truly need.
What is also good is that Grandpa's death reminds me of my own mortality, which causes me to reevaluate how I'm living and how I ought to be living.
And it very obviously serves me the wonderful reminder: this is not truly goodbye. This is not truly the end of Grandpa's life - it is the end of his mortality, the beginning of his life in eternity.
There is life beyond this life. We exist for a purpose and a hope and a timeframe far greater than the bounds of this human body and this crazy planet and this earthly lifespan.
It matters how we live now, both for the finite present and for the eternal future.
Grandpa showed me that in his life and reminded me of that in his death.
I exist to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
He by His great love and mercy has saved me and made me His child - forever.
And that's the one thing I can never lose. 💚✝️