God made a divine arrangement for me to demonstrate His love for my friend grandmother

Jude 1:21-23, “keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And on some have compassion, making a distinction; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh."

Recently a grandmother of my friend passed away. Although I have met her only 3 times within a period of a few months, I felt sad in my heart looking at her corpse at the funeral. There seems to be a connection between both of us. God supernaturally connected me to this friend of mine and led me to be a part of his grandmother’s life.

The first time I learnt about her was when I was giving my friend a ride home. He mentioned about his 90 over years old grandmother being admitted to the hospital. The immediate question I had in my mind was whether she was a Christian. I knew it would be a matter of time before she passes away. Unfortunately she was not. Hence I wanted to visit her and share the gospel with her.

The first visit was at a local hospital. She was in a dazed state with no ability to move or communicate effectively. I could feel the compassion in my heart for this particular grandmother. I spoke into her ear about receiving the salvation of Christ and prayed for her. All I could ask God was, “God, help her know you.” However I was not convinced she would receive her salvation then. Despite my friend was a non believer, he was appreciative of my prayer.

The second visit was when I learnt that the grandmother was admitted to one of the local old folks home. I visited her and could understand why my friend was reluctant to place her there. In her ward of over 20 old folks, all of them except her were in the state of unconsciousness, mental instability or handicapped in one way or the other. The old lady beside her had both her legs amputated while the old lady diagonally across her bed died a day ago. The atmosphere was definitely not edifying and there was a sense of despair lingering around. The care takers were also mostly foreign workers who could not speak dialect or Chinese. After the visit, I shared with my friend that I was very concerned about her salvation than her current situation. He was appreciative of my concern but he told me his grandmother was not ready to receive Christ.

The third and last visit was on Good Friday. I have been pondering how I could help to bring some joy to the grandmother’s day and so I thought of bringing my baby girl to see her. My family went there without the knowledge of my friend. Initially I was a little apprehensive about the spread of diseases or sickness among the old people but I just make sure hygiene was ensured for my baby during the visit. The grandmother could not recognize me but I just took her hands to stroke my sleeping baby’s head and talk to her about my baby. Although the grandmother was still not able to communicate well, she was more alert in her mind this time. On several occasions she even broke into smiles as she touched my baby. This time, I took the opportunity and time to explain the gospel to her again and prayed a little in tongues for her. I asked her if she believed Jesus and she just looked at me and nod her head at times. To be frank, I do not know if she really did accept Jesus.

Every now and then, I would have this grandmother in mind and would ask my friend how she was doing. The last time I heard was she got into a seizure and was admitted into the hospital again. However I had other commitments and thought of dropping by the week after. It was then that I received the news of her death when the new week started.

Through this episode, I was reminded not to be negligent in the area of reaching out to non believers. I am probably the last person to reach out to my friend’s grandmother and who knows I might be the only person to share the gospel with her.

Moreover whenever God made the divine connection to touch non believers through us, He would place the compassion in our heart to love them to our best know how for the sake of the kingdom of God. I also realized that when these people passed away, I would feel the sense of loss in my heart that is different from the loss of people whom I have acquainted for years.

Steve