My grandma died this morning. She was 101 years old. I hope I don’t live that long, but I do hope to live my life as well as she has. I am proud to be her grandson, and many other people share that sentiment - they are proud to be her grandson or granddaughter or son or daughter or friend. Her prayers outlive her and her legacy will continue for many generations. She raised six children, was widowed 60-something years ago, brought her family from Hong Kong to America and held on to Jesus every step of the way.

She loved Jesus more than anything. I can hardly remember a single conversation with her in which she didn’t talk about Jesus – stories of missionaries who left everything for the sake of Jesus, stories of how Jesus was faithful to her in difficult times, recounts of her time in scripture when Jesus spoke to her. The phrases she used the most were “jian mei joo” and “hallelujah,” which mean “praise the Lord” and, uh, “hallelujah” in Cantonese. I’ve echoed those phrases to her every single time we’ve met in the past 15-20 years. As her hearing faded over those years I’ve said them louder and louder to her, to the point where I put my mouth right up to her ear and shouted them. I can only imagine how loud she’s shouting those words now as she sees her savior face to face.

As the years progressed our conversations became less coherent and more comical. The last extended and semi-coherent conversation I had with her was about two years ago. She was going on about her daily life at the nursing home where she lived the last several years of her life. At one point she noticed that I was spacing out and picking my nose. She stopped talking, then started scolding me for doing such a thing. I’ll never find a wife if I pick my nose like that, she said.

Another time she was talking to my then-girlfriend, Lisa. Grandma’s words of wisdom to her: “even if you’re ugly, Jesus makes you beautiful.” Lisa is not ugly, but she appreciated the words anyway. Her words made us laugh, and they also captured the truth of the gospel: we are made beautiful by Jesus.

My favorite story of her goes like this: A few years ago she was at an airport with a couple of my aunts. They went to use the restroom. My aunts finished their business and went outside. After a while they realized that it shouldn’t take grandma so long to do her thing, so they went back into the restroom to check on her. They found grandma on the ground, crawling out of the bathroom stall. She couldn’t figure out how to open the stall door so she lined the ground with toilet paper and started crawling out from the stall on her back. And the whole time she was saying “Jian mei joo! Hallelujah!” This little 90+ year old woman was having her own time of private worship on the floor of a public restroom.

Death is grandma’s reward. She has lived her life well and Jesus is welcoming her into his presence with the words she has longed to hear her entire life, “well done, good and faithful servant.” Even as her body decomposes and we prepare to say goodnight to her, we know that she is more fully alive and happy than we can imagine.

I journey forth rejoicing
From this dark vale of tears
To heavenly joy and freedom
From earthly bonds and fears
Where Christ our Lord shall gather
All His redeemed again,
His kingdom to inherit--
Goodnight, goodnight till then

Why thus so sadly weeping
Beloved ones of my heart?
The Lord is good and gracious
Though now He bids us part
Oft have we met in gladness
And we shall meet again
All sorrow left behind us--
Goodnight, goodnight till then

I go to see His glory
Whom we have loved below
I go, the blessed angels
The holy saints to know.
Our lovely ones departed
I go to find again
And wait for you to join us--
Goodnight, goodnight till then

I hear the Savior calling--
The joyful hour has come
The angel-guards are ready
To guide me to our home
Where Christ our Lord shall gather
All His redeemed again,
His kingdom to inherit--
Goodnight, goodnight till then

("Goodnight" by Matthew Smith) --> Listen to it HERE.