"You're awesome."
My grandma gave Nate a hug and said this as she left after a weekend visit.
I'm not sure I've ever heard my grandma say those words, and although I know how wonderful my husband is, it's pretty awesome for your grandmother to agree with your mate.
I saw a lot of differences in my grandma this weekend. She was quiet. She was positive. She didn't complain, and she seemed to really enjoy the little things like getting to go to my dance recital and coming to visit.
My grandma was recently diagnosed with colon cancer, and traumatic as a diagnosis like that is, sometimes it's exactly what we need to prioritize life.
Sometimes people receive bad news like cancer with bitterness and loathing, but I would guess that more often than not it makes them think about how precious their family is to them and makes them realize what is important and not important in life. We all need to look at life through the lens of death, through the lens that shows us that life here is not long and that most of what we invest in is only temporary.
That's wonderful that my grandma is using this time to think more positively and to dole out compliments. It's wonderful that she wants to spend these moments with her family.
However beautiful those things are, it still makes me think of the importance of eternity. If life here is so short, what we really need to focus on and invest is not anything of this world. What we need to invest in is our souls and the souls of those around us.
It makes me want to push my grandma, to make sure that she has accepted Jesus as her savior. Because, at this point, that's really the main change that needs to be made. Jesus knew that our time on our earth is short, and he wanted the rest of our eternal lives to be good and to be spent with him instead of spent suffering eternal torment in hell.
That's why he came to earth and took on all our sins on the cross and died for us, rising again and beating death for us.
Even when cancer, or any other illness, comes a-calling, if we have hope in Jesus Christ and his salvation, we can realize that life here is short. We can spend our short lives despairing of them, or we can be positive and give out compliments and treasure the little things. And then we can focus our eyes on Jesus and realize that this life is temporary and if we accept him as our savior that we can have much more time.
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