Day 19: My grandmother … plus one

I visited my grandmother today -- on orders from my mother. This is a hard time for our family, and grandma had tears in her eyes when she came to the door. Two weeks ago, my aunt – her daughter – was killed in a motorcycle accident.

So it was a time of talking, of finding ways to make her smile. She said she was convinced that my aunt and my grandfather, who died several years ago, were together again in heaven. And grandma says she’s holding onto the good memories. But it still is hard, and tears seemed to come at barely the thought of it. So we prayed together for comfort.

That was in the morning. Hours later, across town, I was sitting across the table from my new case manager in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. She was the mother of five mostly grown children, and was just returning to the workforce after spending decades as a stay-at-home mom. It took her nine years to earn her college degree. But while she said she had been nervous about it, she had relatively little trouble finding a job. She was thankful for that.

As we were wrapping up our meeting, I posed my question to her. She immediately agreed, telling me she was a Christian. I had figured that already. So we prayed about this new challenge in her life. “Thank you. I’m going to need that today,” she said as we parted ways.

It was reinforced to me that life doesn’t stop. There’s always something else. And we may hurt for a while, but God is calling us to more. He gives us comfort, heals our wounds and sends us out to serve others.

Scripture of the day: “’Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.’ The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.” -- Psalm 46:10-11.