Like He Lived

This morning, approximately a few minutes past 8, Ralph heard Fathers voice one more time. We all rejoiced that he was now free of all that was robbing him of being fully alive. We all choose to remember him fully alive...eyes wide open. Wide open to bless us so generously. Wide open to see and make opportunities to invest in the grandkids. Wide open to follow His unique calling and consuming passion- crafting words into stories of truth and the gospel that criss-crossed North America. Wide open in finding unconventional ways to make presses run when they didn't want to.

He died the way He lived; eyes wide open. With a chair pulled up next to PawPaw's bed and reading some scriptures about heaven, Kinsey and MeMaw arrived around 7:40 a.m. to relieve me. After saying good morning and telling PawPaw they loved him, Kinsey asked me if I wanted a little more private time. "Yeah, I think so." She and MeMaw had grabbed a couple of breakfast biscuits and slipped into the hallway to eat them while I was able to say to PawPaw, "Go, go home Ralph. Go to your Lord and rest." (Friday night/Saturday morning was a struggle for him and like many of us, I was so aggitated over having to see him continue to suffer). So many of us have been asking God to bring PawPaw home. Well, he opens his eyes and then make the extra effort to stretch them wider. I tell him want I want have to say and ask him to wait while I get Kinsey and MeMaw into the room. They get a few brief moments with him, eyes wide open. Just then hospice calls MeMaw to finalize the details for moving PawPaw back home but the time has come. The culmination of a life well lived, expressed in passion-commitment-loyalty. A life lived out loud and with eyes wide open. Good for you buddy, you know what we can only imagine. I love you all day and all night long.