Schultz Party of Four

There was this moment when I was about twelve. I said to my Grandma as she and I drove down a quiet road "I hope things are always like this." She was silent and just smiled a little, but drove on. I remember it sort of bothered me, not knowing then what I know now.

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Last year, on this night, I stood in a hospital room watching things change. Grandma knew that day fifteen years ago that this would happen eventually. That things never stay the same, and it could not always be "like this". That one day her time on Earth would be over, and we'd say goodbye to phone calls and hugs and dinners and card games. One day things would not be "like this" at all.

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However.

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It was not until I held her hand for the last time, whispered "I love you" for the last time, and had to finally let go of "this" that I finally thought about a truth I had always known but never understood. The truth, or the hope of Everlasting.

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The previously longed for aspects of Heaven, like seeing loved ones again, being with our savior, and never having another medical condition empty my savings (which will consequently be worthless anyway, hallelujah!) is all surrounded by the bigger truth, a more profound hope. The wonder of 'everlasting'.

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Someday "this" will never have to end. Someday "this" will be forever. Someday "this" will be better than we ever comprehended or experienced as we were together on Earth - and the new-and-improved "this" will be everlasting.

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Praise be to God.