I lovingly called my maternal Grandmother, Granny. When I was 9 years old I watched her pass away. I remember sitting on her kitchen table afterwards, staring into the coals burning in the fireplace and crying hysterically while screaming that I hated God for letting her die.
This event was profound in my life not just for the obvious reason, but also because I had a true vision from God when on that night I woke up to what sounded like hysterical crying and sat up to see my Grandmother walking on top of the brass rail across the foot of her bed with her hands up in the air. She was smiling, looking up towards heaven, glowing and so joyously happy. My mother and great aunt were on their knees on either side of her bed praying and it was my mother's crying that I had heard. I laid back down in shock and started praying and thanking God. I was thrilled by it! She had the cast taken off her broken leg that day and I thought it was a miracle.
Her bed was across from the bed I shared with my mother so that she could be taken care of more easily during her recovery. But then I realized the sounds of screaming and crying that I heard coming from my mother and great aunt didn't seem to add up to what I had just witnessed and watched in astonishment. When I sat up again, I saw that she was instead lying in bed rolling her head back and forth. A blood clot had traveled from her leg to her brain. I ran to her side and she rolled her head to look at me. My mother said to her, "No! Momma please, you can't die!" She softly replied, "I can and I will." before closing her eyes for the last time. She was a profoundly good woman with a solid Christian faith. She was ready to go. But in sadness at that point I joined in on the hysteria that left me blaming God.
It took me quite a while to fully understand that I had been blessed when God showed me the REAL event prior to laying eyes on the worldly view of my Granny's death. When the shock of losing her wore off what could have been devastating for a child to witness became not just bearable but miraculous. There have been so many times since then that I have watched what appears to be a tragedy and wondered what true miracle I was missing by only being able to see the worldly view.
I'm so much older now and wiser to a degree. Finally, I've realized that if I blame God for all of the death and suffering in this world, including my Grandmother's or my own, then either I have an unimaginably cruel God or I've misunderstood God's role in our lives. I finally figured out that there is no guarantee of anything and that all we can ask for is to find the love of God to share with others who are in pain every chance we get, and for forgiveness of our sins. The material world has its attractions along with the pain, but the spiritual world that comes after where there is no suffering or death is what we as Christians are living for.
And on this day that we celebrate the rising of Christ our Lord and Savior after he died paying the price for our sins, I'm remembering the only Granny I ever knew, and how precious she was to me every day of my life up until that night and how even in her death she gave me something I will take with me until my own last breath. She gave me a glimpse of the reality of the promise God made to us all, that whoever shall believeth in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Happy Easter Granny!
And thank you God, for loving us so much that you gave your only begotten son as a sacrifice for our sins! May I be saved by your grace so that someday I will rejoice at beholding my grandmother and all of my beloved family and friends that have gone to heaven before me.
By Wanda Hope Carter http://inspirationmotivat... http://wandahopecarter.co...