Sorry to make my first post in a while a somber one, but I haven’t been quite sure what to write about these last few days. My Grandpa passed away tonight after a very short fight with cancer. I am thankful he is at peace now and no longer in any pain. Here is what I wrote last night after calling my grandparents house and talking to him for the last time.
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“Ok, I’ll see you later.”

Those were my Grandpa’s last words to me. I called and spoke with my dad for about 15 minutes tonight and very briefly with my Grandpa. Dad thinks there is a good chance Grandpa won’t make it through the night. He is in a lot of pain and discomfort from the bleeding in his stomach. Dad broke down a couple of times on the phone, I cried when I hung up. You know, I haven’t been sure how to feel until now about my Grandpa dying. I don’t want to start talking about how it isn’t fair or anything like that, but Grandpa has had so much pain and such a lower quality of life for the last few years I am grateful that he is just days away from being eternally free from pain. I kind of knew at Christmas that would probably be the last time I saw him but I don’t think any of us knew he would go this fast. I have been doing a lot of reading lately about what it means to be a “Calvinist” and what tools of faith it provides me with. One of those “tools” is the Heidelburg Catechism and I want to close with the First Question.

“Q: What is thy only comfort in life and death?

A: That I with body and soul, both in life and death, I am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Savior Jesus Christ; who, with his precious blood, hath fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth to live unto him.”

Goodbye Grandpa, I’ll see you later.

Filed under: life by Jonathan Assink