As Man Lives...

On Father's Day 2013 the earth lost a man, but heaven gained a treasure.  My grandfather, Charles David Barnett, left this world...taking his last breath as my grandmother sat by his bedside.

When I got the news, I didn't know how to feel.  We all knew his time to die was in the near future - he had been slowly degenerating over the span of two years.  But, no one can ever truly be prepared for a moment like this.

As I drove home from work a couple of days later, I listened to Hengilás by Jónsi...

My mind was racing, my heart was pounding, and tears began to collect in the corners of my eyes.  I still don't know why this song was so cathartic, but it triggered a need to explore all of the emotions surrounding the loss of my grandpa.

After I got home, the house was quiet and I began to write.  I wrote furiously; carefully choosing each word.  While most people reminisce about the good times of a person's life, I felt compelled to expose his trying moments and damaging habits as well as his triumphs and restoration in Christ's saving grace.

The following is a story celebrating a man who had lived a difficult life, but found peace and joy in a loving Savior and is now dancing in Glory...
_________________________________________________________________________________

God created Man and it was good.  God created the soul and it was good.  God created individual choice…an opportunity for harmony that soon witnessed a disjointed existence. 

Man is born.  Man matures.  Man stumbles.  Man experiences happiness.  Man experiences heartache.  Man is set apart, poised for greatness; a greatness that is often left demanded and unfulfilled.

As Man lives…

Lies separate.

Fear arrests.

Relationships strain.

Habits destroy.

Work consumes.

Time escapes. 

All things are full of weariness;

a man cannot utter it;

the eye is not satisfied with seeing,

nor the ear filled with hearing.

What has been is what will be,

and what has been done is what will be done…

As life afflicts, batters, and crushes, the Son of Man never strays.  His loving arms stretch wide.  His wounds…

Join. 

Set free.

Alleviate.

Heal.

Calm. 

Endure.

His salvation, grace, and overwhelming goodness relentlessly pursue.  They are reflected in people and nature; the condition of Man’s existence.  Every son, daughter, and grandchild.  Each gust of wind, mighty mountain, rushing stream, and ocean tide.  Each new hunting dog, herd of deer, and school of fish.  All are testaments to His love, gentleness, and power; the Son of Man’s vast strength.

He has put eternity into Man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end…

At a given point on the continuum of time, Man concedes, relinquishes, surrenders to something outside his own will.  With this overwhelming love, lives are changed.  Forever.

Memories of the past still linger…anxious to spoil, tarnish, and ruin.  But let them not devastate so.

May we all rest easy when at last we stand in Glory, when we see His face.  And there we will serve our King forever, in that Holy Place. What a day that will be, when angels come to take Man from this treacherous place.  What a privilege to enter the heavenlies.  When Man may breathe deeply, live freely, worship incessantly, rejoice abundantly, and love the Father without inhibition.  May we, as those remaining in this finite place, not mourn, but celebrate in the moment when the soul is finally able to whisper, “It is well.” 

Love you, Grandpa.  You will be missed.

xoxo -- Erin Lately