Grandma Knows Why...

(1993) She was neat.

For almost a century she walked this earth; giving, loving, and sharing the joys of being a friend, a mother, a wife, a Christian, a grandmother and for a few like me, a great grandmother. In the last few years, she could barely hear, barely see and barely walk. Yet her lovable little body continually beamed like the little light of life that she always was. However, that life, which spanned a road over 92 years long, came to and end; an end that will leave many in tears and some asking why.

I guess I consider myself blessed to not only to have had a great grandparent in my life, but to have had a deep, fun, neat relationship with Grandma as well. I can remember days of going to visit her and talking to her about school, my job, or finding "Mrs. right". I remember the stories she would tell me of the Great Depression, or about her and Papaw getting married on a carriage, or even her talking about seeing him again one day soon in Heaven above. I can even remember discussing those good old Dallas Cowboys, as she would ask me if they were still winning and if "Tom" was still their coach. She liked Tom.

She was just one neat, smart, and lovable lady.

And though it's hard to let her go, I have to ask myself, who am I to keep her from the warm sun, the blue skies, and the gentle breeze of a nice heavenly day with the very Creator of our lives? For is that not the true goal our lives as well? To one day step into eternity, claim our prize and live in paradise with the ones we loved forever? How anyone could live without such hope I will never understand. How empty and pointless life must be.

Yet, even with this hope, death is still the most difficult issue we face. As we "lose" those we love or are faced with losing our own lives, death becomes a dark cloud over every emotion we bare within.

But in Christ and with God, there is victory. Though death seems so final and merciless, in reality it is the door to heaven. For as Christians, we have the assurance of knowing and saying, "Oh death where is your sting?" while claiming the victory that is ours. That is why Grandma lived and that is why Grandma died.

So now, when we find ourselves asking why, we can be assured of the truth we know and of the truth that she lived.

Like the little edge-burned plaque says, that I made for her when I was 14 or 15, Grandma would answer our whys like this...

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, and whoever believes in Him, shall not die, but have everlasting life."

That, my friends, is why.
Maude Speers...home, as of January 10, 1993.

“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.” I Thessalonians 4: 13-14


© 1993, J. Brady
“I say it as I see it and I make no bones about it.”