My favorite song right now is the hymn "In the Garden". I have the Brad Paisley version of it, and I can listen to it over and over again. But what is important is not that it is my favorite song, but why this is my favorite song. This song helped me so much after my Granddaddy passed away. I encourage you to look it up and listen to it while you read this, especially if you're unfamiliar with the lyrics to the song.
My love for this song is not upbeat, but it is uplifting. It doesn't make me exactly happy, but it does give me joy. I often cry when singing this song; it is bittersweet. In fact, it taught me what the "bittersweet" really means. For whatever reason, this song was used by the Lord to give me comfort.
My Granddaddy loved being outside. His home and his land were extremely important to him. His huge yard in SmallTown, AL was his Garden of Eden, in a sense. I heard "In the Garden" shortly after Granddaddy's funeral, and a very distinct mental image blossomed.
I imagine my Granddaddy, as he was when I was a little girl. He is not sick, frail, and weak like he was before dying. No, rather he is healthy and independent. He is back in his hometown, the place he loved. The place I love because of my grandparents. And he is sitting in his backyard, near some flowers. And that is where my Lord comes to meet him. I can't see the face of God; since I can't imagine that detail, He is more or less just Light. But He comes to my Granddaddy, in the garden, the backyard. He walks around my Granddaddy's yard with my Granddaddy, and He tells my Granddaddy that he is His own. And the joy they share as they tarry there... Well, my imagination only goes so far. I can't comprehend, due to the fact that I am alive.
That is how I imagine my Granddaddy meeting God, the very second he left his body. The very second the hospital ceased containing him. The very second that medicine, doctors, and machines no longer had any power over him. Of course, no one can absolutely know if anyone else is saved. You can only be sure of yourself. But from the way my Granddaddy tried to live his life and the way he openly claimed Jesus as his King, I am confident he is genuinely a Christian and his soul is in Heaven. This hymn allowed me to connect the passing of my Granddaddy's soul from Earth to God's Kingdom.
As I sit here writing this, I have never died. That is obvious. I do not know what it is like to meet God after death. I do not know what my Granddaddy experienced with death.The above scenario is my imagination, a symbolic creation to represent my belief in God and how He gathers His children to Heaven after their death. However, I do believe that God used it, or even perhaps gave it to me, to comfort me. I know that my Granddaddy came to the garden alone, but God met him there. I miss my Granddaddy; I love him so much. And that, mixed with the absolute, pure, complete joy that my Granddaddy felt when he met God in the garden, leaves me joyously sad, if you know what I mean.
