I’m sure you know someone in your life who is the epitome of graciousness, loves to entertain and lights up the room when she walks in and cares only for the comfort of others. That’s my friend Nancy  –  who we said goodbye to recently on an impossibly sunny day, three months after her husband passed away in her 77th year on this earth.

The sunlight streamed through the stained glass windows on a day only God could have orchestrated as Nancy was remembered and celebrated to Heaven. The part that was the most touching was her grandson, Colton who shared how he was able to at age 24 spend the last two months living with his grandmother as her health declined.  He talked about how one night he came in late and was trying to be quiet while making a snack when Nancy quietly made it into the kitchen with her oxygen tube trailing behind her. He told her not to worry and to go back to bed; but she said she just wanted to talk…and they spent a lot of time doing just that with their short window of time together. Colton said he wouldn’t trade those two months for anything.

Colton said he struggled finding a word to describe his grandmother and that all he could think of was “the opposite of selfish.” I don’t believe there is a better description of Nancy, “the opposite of selfish,” and I thought what a parallel that phrase was to the life of Christ here on Earth and the life he lead, leading to the ultimate sacrifice for you and for me. Maybe those words from a 24 year old at his grandmother’s homegoing will encourage you (and I hope me), to be “the opposite of selfish.”