He Died So We Can Live

March 9, 2012

I had a very peaceful night’s sleep, again. I marvel at how much peace I am feeling. I have begun to read the bible. I am following a guide on how to read the Bible in 365 days. I hope I live to be able to read the entire book to the end. The Easter Season is my favorite time of year. With this season comes a renewed hope, a rebirth a feeling that all will be right with the world because of the sacrifice Jesus made for us. His death, His resurrection. Jesus truly loved us. He gave his life for us. The ultimate sacrifice. He asks of little of us in return. Honor His father God, love one another, take care of one another, following the Ten Commandments, read the bible, live to serve and honor Him so that we can turn as many people as possible to the Lord. We are truly blessed to be able to reach such a high power through prayer. All we have to do is open our hearts and minds, and talk to God. Tell God what is in our hearts, confess our sins, ask for forgiveness, and ask how we can serve the Lord in this temporary life. In return we are given so much. It is as simple as it sounds and very easy to do.
I spent most of my 58 years living for myself, serving myself. I was selfish and self-centered, putting my needs above anyone else’s, even Gods. I grew up believing that I did not need a higher power to help me run my life. I was doing fine. Over the years I came to realize that I did need God. I was making a mess out of my life. I had no interest in the after life. I thought this temporary life was as good as it gets. Then, I figured out that this life is the way to a life in eternity with the Lord, if we earn such a blessing. Up to this point I don’t believe I earned that blessing. Now, with the face of death imminent, I am scrambling to get my house in order, and in the time I have left (how ever long that may be), I desperately was to serve the Lord. I want the Lord to see that I love him and that I am worthy of his grace. I stood on the outside of life thinking I will serve the Lord but why hurry. I have all the time in the world. So, I kept putting my service to the Lord off until tomorrow, not realizing that my tomorrows were limited, not infinite.
When I was about nine years old, I asked my grandmother, "Where are you going to move, when you get tired of this house?" My grandmother, a devote Polish Catholic smiled at me and answered, "I am going from here to the graveyard." Grandmother was a small woman in stature, standing only four feet, eleven inches. Her faith in the Lord was strong. She walked to church every morning to attend five o’clock mass, well into her nineties. She died just a few months shy of her one hundredth birthday. Grandmother came to this country in 1910 from a small dairy village in Poland at the age of twenty. She came alone, leaving her family in Poland. When she arrived, she was kept at Ellis Island for a few days until her sponsors came to claim her. Her sponsors were an order of nuns in New Jersey. Working as a nanny to a wealthy Polish family was her first and only job in this country. She married my grandfather in 1911, then gave birth to her first child, my father Andrew.
My grandparents were blessed with nine more children between 1913 and 1933. My grandfather died at an early age of Tuberculous which he contracted while working in the coal mines of Pennsylvania trying to carve out a living to support his wife and children. When my grandmother died, she did exactly what she said she was going to do. She "moved" from her beloved home, directly to the graveyard. Towards the end, grandmother yearned for death. She would often say, "Why hasn’t God taken me yet? I am ready to go. I want to rest." She is now resting with the Lord. I hope to see her soon.