When my grandma passed away, I remembered that I had written a tribute to her a couple of years ago. I don’t know if this was foretelling, but when I was looking through the files, I discovered that I wrote this tribute on July 26, 2018, exactly 3 years before her death – July 26, 2021.
Most of you know that Grandma and I were very close. But do you know why we were so close? It’s because we used to talk together about Jesus – our thoughts on Him, our relationships with Him, our beliefs about Him, etc. So in most of our conversations, even if they started off about something else, Jesus always made His way into them. There’s just something about 2 people who love God, coming together and talking about Him, that makes it difficult to not become closer to one another.
See, when I was in college, Grandma would come to my dad and Patty’s place during the week, where she would keep the place clean, cook for everybody, and she and I would take care of my younger siblings, who at the time were in elementary school. Then, every Friday, I would drive her home, and often times, we’d leave when there was a lot of traffic on the Eisenhower, so we’d have a lot of time to talk and a lot of Fridays to continue our chats. And throughout all this time, we got to know each other better, and we got to know each other’s true love for Christ.
Throughout our chats, I also learned her love language. What’s a love language? Christian author Dave Chapman has written a book called “The 5 Languages of Love”, where he mentions 5 means at which somebody feels worth. For instance, the 2 that I have are physical touch (I’m a hugger), and words of affirmation. When I work hard on something, I put everything into it anyway, but I like to be affirmed for the work that I do. Grandma’s love language was “acts of service.” I noticed it when we’d sit down to eat. Every day, she’d cook over a hot stove for hours! When my dad would compliment her on her food, she’d always downplay it, like she just whipped something up and it wasn’t a big deal. But if you didn’t like the food, or you didn’t take the time to sit down and eat it, she was offended, and hurt, and you could see it. And every time we went to the house, she’d always want to make food for us, remember? No doubt she got that from Gramps – “Manga, Manga! Eat-a-more, it’s good for you.” Right? And she’d always take care of everyone when she could. Grandma’s love language was “acts of service”.
The Bible talks about a time when Jesus was teaching, and a Teacher of the Mosaic Law walked up and asked Him what the greatest commandment is. Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul.” The teacher probed Jesus some more and asked Him what the second greatest commandment was, where Jesus replied, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” He even said to His disciples that these 2 commandments blanket all the commandments in the Mosaic Law – Love the Lord Your God with all of your Heart, mind, body, and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself.
Grandma Senese did that. She knew that salvation is not about doing good in the world but being right with God, and that’s only possible through faith in Jesus Christ.
We all know that in grandma’s humility, she wouldn’t want us to talk about her, she would want us to give the glory to God, whom she loves with all her heart, mind, body, and soul.
I have no doubt in my mind that Grandma is now with Jesus and it’s because of her true faith and genuine love for Jesus with her full being, and a desire to know Him.
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