Building Bridges. Tuesday, March 03, 2009
11:54 pm
Well most of you might not know, but my grandpa (from mum's side) recently passed on and his wake was held today afternoon. It happened on 28th Feb, a Saturday night. It did catch me off guard because I never expected it to happen so soon.
I admit, I wasn't that close to him (and that naturally made me somewhat guilty on the inside). The people who had a closer relationship with him said that he was a jovial person who was full of faith and prayed a lot even though he's in such pain. The fact that he had to endure all sorts of pain that his body was giving him because there were many complications with it and the doctor could not treat all at once, showed that he had a lot of mental strength. I admire him for that and I like his unique name - Napoleon Gabriel.
The amazing thing was during these 3 days (Sunday, Monday and Tuesday), 3 pastors from different churches were invited to share a message on each day and all 3 of them shared the exact same verse from the Bible! The impact of the revelation was 'woah'. It's from 1 Corinthians 15 : 50-58.
I realized that funerals are one of the times when broken relationships between relatives and friends are restored. People put aside their differences to pay their last respects and I witnessed all of that. It's good to see them reconcile and comforting one another during these times. Like they say, blood is thicker than water. I do hope this 'bridge' that they built is a strong one.
I also had enough time to reflect upon life and how short it is. It's a taboo topic but yes, death is not a choice, it's mandatory, face it. No human being can predict the 5Ws and 1H of your death, so use your time wisely because in a twinkling of an eye, everything can disappear.
I did shed my share of tears but deep down I'm happy that grandpa is finally relieved of all the physical pain he's been enduring for so long.
