A Little Green Swing in Heaven

The last week has been hard, but today is the hardest. My grandpa passed away this afternoon. Even seeing him minutes after his last breath, the cold reality of his absence from our lives didn't sink in. It wasn't any flashy moment that made it real--not while making phone calls or giving input with funeral arrangements; not while rubbing my mom's back while she stayed with my grandpa; not when my brother came. We were still waiting for the funeral home to pick him up, and I knew they were coming soon. I went back in the sun-room where my mom was with my grandpa, and sat down in his chair in the corner, where he always sat. I looked out at the fields and the hills and the beautiful yard with the little green swing my brother was sitting in. I've seen this view my whole life. This is the one place in my life I have always had to come back to, since I moved around a lot as a kid. And that's when it really hit me. This place that was such a huge part of my life was empty without the one who made it what it is, and loved his family so much.

Watching them take him away hurt a lot, knowing he won't be coming back here. What will this place be like without him? What will we all be like without him? He's a part of us, a part of so many memories, and all over this house and yard.

So often in the past week I've thought of Heaven. What a place that will be. Our Creator's fingerprints will be all over it, and I like to think He'll have hidden little corners--surprises that hint at special old places in our hearts. I wonder if there will be a little corner tucked away with a pasture and hills, and a green swing among a few trees. And maybe when we all get to Heaven, we'll be walking along some path and my grandpa might point it out and we'll have to think a little while about why it looks so familiar. And then Jesus will wink and say, "Where do you think you got all those ideas, Kermise?" And I imagine my grandpa grinning real big, with that same twinkle in his eye.