{"id":152,"date":"2009-12-30T09:34:30","date_gmt":"2009-12-30T14:34:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/example.org\/ill-see-you-in-heaven"},"modified":"2009-12-30T09:34:30","modified_gmt":"2009-12-30T14:34:30","slug":"ill-see-you-in-heaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/2009\/12\/ill-see-you-in-heaven.html","title":{"rendered":"We’ll see you in heaven Nana."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NanaGary0709\" “For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down\u2014when we die and leave these bodies\u2014we will have a home in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands”<\/em> (2 Corinthians 5:1 NLT).<\/p>\n

When I first started dating Robin, I had to date the whole family. Every weekend was scheduled by their family gospel group, the Happy Hearts. If I wanted to go out on Saturday night with Robin, I had to get on the Happy Heart bus and ride to their next concert date.<\/p>\n

While being a “roadie” for the Happy Hearts wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when I was dating my wife to be, it was a great way to get to know her family, especially her mom, Christine Conner.<\/p>\n

Robin’s dad\u00a0mostly picked on me. “Did you get that one College Boy?” He’d ask, after telling another corny joke. Eyeballing\u00a0me in the huge overhead mirror with a wry, half-smile, while gripping the oversize Greyhound steering wheel with both hands, he’d wait to see if I laughed.<\/p>\n

But Mrs. Conner asked serious questions, about me and about what I believed. Apparently, no one ever told her that religion and politics were touchy topics for polite conversation because she would ask me a question and then debate me if we differed in any way.<\/p>\n

I never minded. I come from a family that discusses everything. I had strong opinions and so did Mrs. Conner. We both shared our views\u00a0and a growing respect grew between us.<\/p>\n

When Robin and I married and had children, they called Mrs. Conner, “Nana.” So, I started calling her Nana too.<\/p>\n

When we would visit, Nana always made special foods for me.<\/p>\n

“Gary, did you see that cheesecake in the fridge? I made that just for you!” She’d say, while rushing around her kitchen preparing for dinner.<\/p>\n

“Thanks Nana. It looks great.” I’d reply, knowing that cooking was her way of showing love.<\/p>\n

“After dinner, I want to show you a new book I got on Revelation.” She’d say. She loved to discuss the Bible, especially\u00a0books on the end times.<\/p>\n

After I became a pastor, she wanted my weekly sermon tapes. We mailed her a tape every week for years. She would write and tell me what she thought of my latest sermon. She even started giving them out to her friends after she listened.<\/p>\n

“Why don’t you move back to Virginia?” She’d ask. “You could be my pastor.” She would say, while squeezing my hand.<\/p>\n

This past year, she hasn’t been able to listen to my sermons. Her health declined rapidly after Robin’s father passed away. But she still wanted me to do my job.<\/p>\n

“Can I pray for you Nana?” I asked, the last time I was with her.<\/p>\n

“Yes.” She mouthed through the oxygen mask, while raising up in her hospital bed to grab my hands in hers.<\/p>\n

As I prayed, she murmured “Amen” and “Yes” to every sentence, punctuating my prayer with her affirmations of faith.<\/p>\n

“I wish I had you in my amen corner at church.” I said.<\/p>\n

She nodded weakly and mouthed, “Me too.”<\/p>\n

As Robin leaned over to hug her, they played the “I love you more” game. Then she looked into Robin’s eyes and said, “I’ll see you in heaven, honey.”<\/p>\n

She was ready. And so, early this past Tuesday morning, Christine Conner went to be with the Lord.<\/p>\n

We’ll see you soon Nana. Be looking for us. We’ll have great things to discuss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down\u2014when we die and leave these bodies\u2014we will have a home in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands” (2 Corinthians 5:1 NLT). When I first started dating Robin, I had to date the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"location":[],"class_list":["post-152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}