Dear Trudy,
I want to tell you about the recent loss of my father.
Dad was a very strong Christian who would preach to those caring for him. Once he asked an orderly in the hospital. “Son,” he said, “do you have a personal relationship with God?”
“No one has ever asked me that question before,” the orderly replied.
One afternoon Dad was surrounded by everyone who was most dear to him except for his only son, who was praying he would reach him in time to say goodbye. He had an expression on his face that could only be described as pure radiance. He told my sister that what he was looking at was just so beautiful—too beautiful for our words. She asked him what he thought he was looking at, and asked him to try to describe it.
He answered very clearly, “I am looking at heaven, but there are no words on this earth that would let me really tell you about it.” He kept saying, “It is so beautiful,” over and over again.
My brother arrived just in time for a hug and for Dad’s request that he take good care of our mother. He died within minutes, with a very peaceful look on his face.
I had a wonderful serene feeling about his leaving. I was not sad; I felt his passing was an assurance and celebration of a life well lived that was now rewarding him.
We joked about the fact that he actually had his own sermon preached at his funeral service, even though he was already in heaven—witnessing until his last breath. It was so obviously planned by God and not by man and that fact was lost on no one.
Thank you for letting me share my story.
Sincerely,
A Comforted Daughter
Dear Comforted,
In all the years I have been caring for terminally ill and dying patients, the explanation about how heaven looks is always exactly the same: peaceful, beautiful, exquisite, filled with a sense of pure love and joy. In one way or another, each person says that “there are no words.”
How good God is to prepare such a gift for his children for all eternity. He only asks us to love and follow him; he will take care of the rest.
Sincerely,
Trudy Harris
Trudy gets so many questions from Guideposts readers, we decided to make her answers a regular feature on her blog. If you have a story about a “glimpse of heaven,” please share it with us. Send it to glimpsesofheaven@guideposts.org.
