Happy Birthday Dear Gramma!

Today was Grammas 87th Birthday, a milestone most will never see, and fewer will share joyously with a loved one as we did today.  Every morning I quietly observe Gramma through the glass door panes in the french doors to her bedroom to see if there is any movement or sound.  I tip toe in, hoping to relieve the initial anxiety of whether or not she has lived to see another day, yet not wanting to wake her once confirmed.  EVERY morning she pops open her eyes and says "What's going with you?"  Sometimes I respond by telling her "I'm just making sure you're still alive!"  She says "Am I?"  Then we laugh and I tell her to get some more sleep!

There have been several nights lately that she will take my hand and thank me for all I've done for her and she tells me that God sent her here because He knew she needed to be here.  Once I came in and she covered her face with both hands and bawled.  When I asked why she was crying, she told me that she doesn't know what she did to deserve all that we've done for her and why so many others never have what she has.  She is thankful for every moment and told me yesterday that she was not afraid to die.  She told me that she feels like He wants her to go sometimes and she asks Him for a little more time.  He tells her that she can because she asked!

Tonight, Gloria Malcom and her son Daniel came over for cake and Birthday wishes.  They brought her a nice, personal gift and then she cried as she prayed before blowing out her candle.  Her speech is less and less discernible, but her heart is easy to understand.  She poured her heart out for a good five minutes before blowing out her candle.  What a special day it is to see a woman turn 87 years old and bless God for every moment and every breath He gives her.  Shouldn't we all feel this way?  It is easy to see why she is grateful since she is so close to death, or life in the case of the believer!  But aren't we all close to death?  God hasn't promised any one of us tomorrow.  If only we all treated each day as if tomorrow may never come, we'd show such gratitude when we woke up in the morning and breathed in the air that God created for us to breath.  It's HIS air, shouldn't we thank him for it?  When Pastor Brandon put it that way, I felt foolish for not treating the air as if it were God's and I should be thankful that He lets me breathe it!!!   Gramma is thankful because every breath could be her last.  Lord, give us the reverence and fear that causes us to fall prostrate before you at the awesomeness of breathing~Amen!

Gramma bows her head to pray!

Thanking me for having her here.

Blowing out her candle on her 87th birthday!