A week ago today, my grandfather passed away. He was almost 90, and he lived a wonderful, long life. I’m obviously in mourning, but I’ve only had happy memories of him. There are a lot of great stories that have come to mind over the last several days, but my wife reminded me of a particularly poignant memory that I completely forgot about.

Because of Covid, I didn’t see him and my grandmother much over the past year. In fact, the only time we were able to see them was briefly at Christmas. I had forgotten, though, about a few weeks before Covid shut down everything. At the end of February, I got to preach a sermon at church, and my parents and grandparents came to hear me. My grandparents loved hearing me preach and always wanted to know any time I was going to do so. This particular series was on the names of God.

My topic? Jehovah Shalom. The LORD is Peace.

The Hebrew word shalom isn’t a word that means the same thing as our word, peace. When we think of peace, we think about the absence of conflict. Instead, shalom expresses the idea of completeness, soundness, or well-being. Peace is completeness in the midst of conflict and chaos. Peace that I need at the moment.

We went out to lunch afterward, and the one thing I remember is him saying how proud he was of me. He was always intentional about telling me he was proud of me whenever I saw him, something I try to always do with my daughter. And that’s one of the greatest things that I will always remember about him. He was always proud of me, and he never hesitated to tell me.

Granddaddy loved all of his children and was proud of every single one of them. He loved all of his grandchildren and was proud of every single one of us. He loved all of his great-grandchildren and was proud of every single one of them.

My mom told us all a story about a man who came and talked to her at Granddaddy’s visitation. She didn’t know who the guy was, and he said he had never met Granddaddy, but he had heard of him around town. He said that he had heard so many great stories about Granddaddy that he felt compelled to come and pay his respects. Imagine someone who doesn’t even know you coming to your visitation. I don’t think that any story better sums up the impact that my granddad had on his community than that one.

I can only hope that I have even a fraction of that kind of impact on those around me. Fortunately, I have the benefit of being able to stand on the shoulders of a giant.

It brings me a lot of comfort knowing that one of the last experiences I had with Granddaddy was him getting to hear me preach. And now he has achieved shalom. Completeness in God. My continuing hope is that I will continue to make him proud with the rest of my life.