For just a moment I want to take you on a journey, a journey much like the one Dad embarked on Saturday August 14, 2010.
What if when you closed your eyes instead of darkness there was a great light? What if when you closed your eyes instead of the fogginess of a dream there was clarity and focus? What if when you closed your eyes instead of shadows there was revelation?
Imagine if you will, being inside a vessel that is slowly but surely shutting itself down. Parts of this vessel no longer operate; they don’t function as they had before. You just have snippets of awareness as you start to leave this vessel in which you have traveled for 81 years. There are your loved ones around you as you awake and then sleep and then awake again. Light, darkness, light again for a brief time.
You ask yourself if you’re dreaming. It may be hard to know what is real and what is not. This happens to you for some time, it is an experience that you have never had before, yet somehow seems familiar. You awaken and hear someone praying and then a brief flash of awareness as you hear someone say the name of Jesus. As you open your eyes you see the people you love and then back to the dream. And then there is something that draws your attention far off in the distance. At first you’re not sure, but then you recognize that someone is calling your name. A voice that you can’t place at first, but then you know that you have often heard it before. You have heard it in the middle of the night, when you couldn’t sleep, you heard it speaking to you when you prayed, and you’ve heard it give you comfort, guidance, and even understanding. You still can’t see who it is that is calling you; they are just too far away.
But then there He is, is it really? Am I dreaming again? But now the voices and prayers of your loved ones have slowly faded, and now all you hear is the voice of the Master calling your name.
I also wonder if somewhere in heaven an angel taps my mother on the shoulder – come follow me I want you to see something…Imagine Dad walking into the gates of heaven with multitudes waiting for his arrival.
You know we can never know for certain what Dad experienced on that day but I do know this. For him that was the greatest moment ever for him as he crossed from this life to his eternal reward.
