Ode to Opa

Yosef Stalin killed men with ideologies different from his, and took their wives and children into exile. Packed into trains like cattle, the women and kids stood like crowded sardines as the locomotive chugged along for weeks on end, going who knows where. My grandpa turned 15 on that train ride.

Finally the train stopped and the side door was opened. What they saw, was frozen wasteland. They were in Siberia. Upon exiting the boxcar, the first thing they had to do was sign papers, declaring they would never leave Siberia and would be in exile forever.

My grandpa was old enough to sign his own papers. As he looked at the communist handing him the pen, he thought, How can you, an atheist, talk about forever? Forever is a God concept. He quietly took the pen and, with blurry eyes, signed the papers. 

Handing back the pen, he looked up into the bright blue sky. "Maranatha," he whispered, releasing a visible mist of breath into the crisp air. Come, Lord Jesus.