At about 4 AM on Wednesday morning, the phone in our room rang. My brother Will picked up. It was the phone call that we, or at least a lot of us, had been expecting. After being hospitalized since Christmas Day, my great-grandfather Starling MacMillan left this world and is now walking with his wife through heaven’s streets. He was 96.
Everyone called him Grandpa; that was just who he was. He was a strong man even in his eighties, continuing with exercises like leg lifts every night until the age of 92. At this age he also gave up the keys to his Buick LeSabre. Grandpa was a healthy man, with no health problems outside of arthritis. Pretty good for 96. He only started to deteriorate over the last year, and a bout with pneumonia, (induced by medication use and lack of sustenance), put him in the hospital. He was loved by many and influenced more.
But why is he in heaven? Some would say he was a good man, and some would believe that everyone went to heaven. However, Neither Grandpa nor I would agree. Grandpa, like the rest of us, had sin in his life. He wasn’t perfect, and he definitely wasn’t good enough to get to heaven. Grandpa used the Bible as his manual for life, and according to that manual, “there is none righteous, no not one.” So, unfortunately, some of his friends and family who would only hope for his eternal life, only hoping just won’t cut it. No, there was something more in Grandpa’s life that made him qualified at the gates of splendor.
Grandpa used to tell of his life-changing experience at the age of five. Using his father’s knees for an “altar” Grandpa prayed for repentance and forgiveness. His clear understanding of the gospel, instilled in him by his parents, kept him faithful throughout his life. He wasn’t good enough to obtain mercy, but through God’s grace he was forgiven. He is now be welcomed to his new and everlasting home, ordained and prepared for him since the day that he was reborn into the family of Christ! He is whole! No more sin! So as we grieve for him, we also rejoice for him, because he gets to see heaven… first!
Here is the question: Are you good enough to deserve heaven? You may think so, but the Bible would say otherwise. God’s Moral Law, the Ten Commandments, show us to be guilty before a Righteous God. Without his forgiveness through our repentance, we cannot live eternally. So Repent! Turn from your sin and trust in Christ! I would have to hate you not to tell you this! Grandpa is now walking with God in a real way, and has escaped Hell through his choice on this earth. He is in Heaven.
Will you be?
In His Steps,
Theo:)
Amen Theo! I will be praying for your family and I’m praising God that your great grandfather is in heaven with his marvelous Savior!
I only met him once and he left an impression on my heart that will always be there. He loved the Lord greatly, and everytime I remember him, I remember his smiling face and every word that he spoke about the Lord.
I love you all!
*tear* That’s such a wonderful testimony!
Maranatha!
Every time someone passes on it leaves a hole in our hearts, but I am reminded of how wonderful it will be when we all finally get to heaven and will forever be together! But esecially because we will be with our Creator once and for all!
Ahhh, Theodore…You are such a creative person, and a GIFT, yourself. I’m thankful for you, my talented nephew. I can’t believe how you came through, at the memorial service, with that last minute, “Amazing Grace”, and, “We shall Behold Him!” I know Grandpa would have wanted to let you know how proud he was of you!! He often mentioned the connection you and he had, to the love of “Hucklebee/icecream”…
Aunt Jill
God is good. I’m so glad that Grandpa was a Christian.