A young woman wrote to me about how God brought her family back together with an estranged grandfather. He had Alzheimer’s disease and, bedridden following a bout of pneumonia, was being cared for by his family.
“A family fight years ago separated us from this very loving and gentle man, and it was only after we heard about his illness that we realized how much we were missing,” she wrote. “We came to understand that God had a plan for all of us and that even through adversity, he would help us all to love and follow him more closely.” Only through the illness of her grandfather were they all able to come together again and truly be a family once again. They followed God’s commandment to forgive one another, and through that act they had an unexpected glimpse of heaven.
“A man who was so sick that he couldn’t even communicate taught us valuable lessons about the preciousness of life and reminded us about the importance of family,” she wrote. The family decided to have Sunday dinners together, and on one occasion when he heard a little two-year-old playing near him, he even responded. “He let us all know that he was definitely feeling all the love we were sending him, through loving each other again.”
This young woman, who took the time to share her family’s experience, is looking forward to the day God sees fit to take her grandfather home to heaven with him. Through this experience of loving each other as Jesus loves, she and her family have seen that there is a plan in place for all of us.
They have had their glimpses of heaven during this time of forgiveness and renewal, and they are praying that God will give their grandfather a beautiful glimpse of heaven as he takes him home. They love him enough to know that God will reward his goodness to all of them with a beautiful homecoming of his own. Love has changed them all.
