Appropriately Honored

Today is the two year anniversary of when my Grandpa walked through those Pearly Gates. Two years ago today he breathed his last laboring breath after a brief battle with lung cancer. I had intended to stop by the cemetery where his ashes were buried, but time ran out ahead of me and I failed to catch up with it. But as the evening progressed, and my commitments met, I realized that the way I ended up spending my evening would be much more honoring of my Grandpa and the way he lived his life.

Grandpa was almost constantly serving others in ministry. He spent countless week hours at nursing homes holding Bible studies and singing old hymns. During the last years of his life, he also began serving at the Open Door Mission, the local homeless shelter. He would sing in his usual style, with his banjo, harmonica or guitar, and preach the sermon before the men and women would be served their meals. Grandpa was passionate about telling others of Jesus' love and forgiveness, and the Open Door was a ministry he supported wholeheartedly. And this evening, exactly two years after he passed into Glory, that was where I spent my evening. The community group that I attend Bible study with, had arranged to help serve dinner at the mission, and we spent a couple hours there scooping hot meals onto plates. This was a much more appropriate way to honor my Grandfather, much better than a flower on a gravestone.