About nine months ago we worried about how to tell my 3 1/2-year-old granddaughter, Dene Lybbert, that her step-grandfather and my husband, Dorward Hill, had passed away.
"Grandpa Hill" had held and rocked her often when she was a petite baby and growing small child. The two of them were very close, with an extra special love for each other.When Dene would visit us with her parents, Scott and Janet Lybbert, she sometimes would find Grandpa was not in his big chair. Dene would go to the back door and pound on it until someone would take her out to the woodshop to see him. After his death, we had all worried about how to explain to her what had taken place.
A few days after Dorward's passing, Dene's parents called with good news.
"We told Dene that Grandpa Hill had gone to live with Father in heaven," her father had told her.
They said her eyes got wide with excitement as she responded, "And does he get to live with Jesus, too?"
"Yes, he gets to live with Jesus, too," they explained, and felt everything was OK and nothing more needed to be said.
From the mouths of babes we learn so much.
