Tico Tuesday, September 28th

One life to live

I know that is/was the title of a soap opera, but it's true. We only have one life to live, and this life is passing, fleeting, a breath, and flower that blooms and fades. On Sunday afternoon Abuelita Ruth went home to be with Jesus. I'll admit, I'm jealous. If we claim to follow Christ and be His, then shouldn't we long to be with Him for eternity? God has definitely been showing me lately that there is nothing better than being with Him. But He has us here for the time being: He has a purpose for us and will be faithful to complete it. We are rejoicing that God fulfilled His purpose in Abuelita and that she is now with Him, but of course we do miss her. I'll post some further stories on things and share how God glorified himself in Abuelita's death on my blog.

O Lord give us the grace to be faithful to You in this life on earth!

Carrie

Abuelita was a quiet woman. It wasn't always easy to converse with her because she didn't often have much to say and sometimes I just didn't know what to say. Towards the end as she weakened trying to get her to talk would often send her into a bout of coughing or she just wouldn't have the strength to speak. So, I never got to know her terribly well. But, there are a lot of things I observed and learned from her. She was very diligent. As long as her health allowed she was always doing something productive. She liked things to be neat. I couldn't leave any dishes dirty in the sink from preparing my food before I ate because by the time I finished she'd wash them. Things had to be orderly. Abuelita was generous and thoughtful. She loved embroidering. She sewed and crocheted and sewed and embroidered and embroidered and embroidered I don't know how many placemats, hankies, tea towels and other random rectangles of material. One of her last big projects was making a dust coverlet thingy (that you put under the mattress that hangs down to the floor) for one of her granddaughters. She loved bright, vivid colors and almost everything was flowers and butterflies. But what I most loved, appreciated and admired about Abuelita was that she was a woman of prayer. She kept notebooks full of prayer requests. She would flip through her current one every day, running her finger down the list and moving her lips almost silently, praying. She watched CNN all the time and took note of what to pray for in the news. She prayed for so many things and people. And when someone came to visit she'd ask about a whole bunch of things she prayed for for that person-the salvation of a loved one, their business, somebody's health, etc. Talk about an incredible memory! Abuelita also read the Bible a lot and memorized passage after passage. Don't ever let your age stop you from memorizing! Even in the last few months and weeks of her life Abuelita was still memorizing the Word of God. Wow, may God give me the grace to follow her example!

A few weeks ago my friend Ana Luisa told me her Grandma wanted to visit Abuelita. Finally she was able to come on Sunday afternoon. She was reading Revelation 21 with Abuelita Ruth and felt obliged to kneel. They both acknowledged feeling God's presence very strongly and said she saw Jesus coming to take her away. The family was called into her room (or I think maybe they heard what was going on and went to see) and about a half hour later Abuelita passed away in the arms of her son and daughter. Her other son Henoc tried as hard as he could to come from Colombia but was not able to make it. But, thanks to Skype they were able to see each other and he was able to sing her favorite hymn “ Great is Thy Faithfulness” to her and pray with her. After that she went downhill really fast.

I was SO glad Tía was not home alone when this happened. It was too bad I wasn't there, but I'm not much for wanting to be with or hang around dead people. And I think it's much more important that her immediate family be with her. What a blessing Jorge and Esther hadn't left yet to go back to Guápiles where don Jorge works! I was on the ferry on the way home from Isla Venado (a story for anther post) when Ana told me. I cut it close, but thankfully I was able to catch the last bus back to San José. By the time I got to San Joaquín at about 9pm they were already having the calling hours. Yesterday morning we had a mostly impromptu mini-service that was very nice and then we had the burial. I haven't been to many burials, but I'm pretty sure this was the first one where they actually buried her and were done covering her body back up by the time we left the site. That was a little rough for me, but I know that there's only a body that doesn't work anymore inside the casket under the ground. Abuelita is really alive with the Lord, now, more alive than she ever was here on earth!

So, that was that. Very quick, all of it. But, it was all sweet and simple. Sunday night during the calling hours we sang some hymns and I read Psalms 34 and 103 aloud. Monday morning a whole bunch of don Jorge's coworkers drove all the way up from Guápiles to be there, and they were really touched at the way everything was done, Tia's singing, and don Rolando's words. The wife of don Jorge's boss approached Tía in the cemetery and thank her for returning their family to the faith. God was being glorified and drawing people to Himself, even through Abuelita's death! As Paul says in Philippians, “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain,” and we even managed to gain something here too! God's ways are indeed perfect and so much higher and better than ours!!

Oh and another really sweet thing was a comment Samuel made to me. At the close of the little service, don Rolando had the whole Viera family come together and then he blessed them, then he blessed everyone else. Well, later at the cemetery Samu commented to me, “you weren't there when he blessed us.” He really considers me part of the family!! That was really special to me.

This sounds weird, but one of the saddest things for me about Abuelita's passing is that it means Tía is going to leave. She's not gone yet, she's going to stick around a little long, then visit Honduras and then go home. But, having her around has been an absolutely enormous blessing and I am going to miss her A LOT!!! Thank God for Skype!!