A Grain Of Sand |
Wm. J. Garvey
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It was another cold day in Michigan and the last thing I wanted to do was to go outside and do anything. The e-mail on my computer was doing it's best to keep my mind busy, stay warm, even providing a smile every now and then. The serenity of the moment was not to be long lived and was quickly broken by the ringing of the phone on the desk beside me. For the first time in my life I hoped it wasn't my brother calling, it wasn't his voice I feared, it was the message it may carry, a message on the condition of our father and so far hadn't promised much hope for his future. I answered the call and Fred said hello and told me I had to hear this story as he handed our dad the phone. Dad picked up the phone, saying, "Hi Bill!" "Wow Dad, you sound great!" I said. "Tell me what happened today," I asked. He told about a light coming down the hall with a lady who came into his room with the light. She took his hand then led him out of his room to another place, he said. "I think we went down into the basement, but I am not sure. When we got to the room God was there and beauty of his light filled the room. God never spoke in voice," he explained, but he could hear every word in his thoughts. God then picked up a grain of sand and told how each grain of sand was each moment of his life, telling how each thing he had done in his life was a grain of sand, and each grain of sand led to the next grain of sand, telling both the good and the bad things of his life, not leaving out one detail. When God got done telling him all he had done in life, Dad said God told him, this is where he is now, as he looked down, he was standing on a pile of sand. God told him how each action had led him to where he was right now. Saying he had done all he needed to do and that he would be all right. He needed to do nothing else in life, God told him he had done all he needed him to do. Dad then told me how the lady took his hand and led him back to his room, he said he could tell she was very beautiful, but he couldn't see her face or her eyes. As she went to leave him, she turned toward him and he said she was the most beautiful lady he had ever seen. I asked if she was an angel? He said, "I didn't see any wings, but I can tell you her face carried all the beauty of the world. I have never seen such beauty in my life." Dad told me, "Bill, my whole life I believed in God, but not seeing, you sometimes have your doubts. But after today, if God calls me home tomorrow, it will be alright. I am not afraid because I know he is always with me." The day my father talked to God would be a turning point on his trip back home to all of us. Two weeks later he would be given an 80th birthday party by his many nurses, and a few weeks after that he would come home again. Home again to add a few more grains of sand to the many sand castles of our lives.
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