I have a special friend. We have been friends for a number of years, but she lives more than 1 000 km away from me, so we don’t see each other as often as we would like to.
I live in the same town as her mom , and we actually became quite close over the years. I loved her as I would love my own mother, and she treated me like her own daughter…. even kicking my butt when I needed it.
I didn’t see her as often as I would like to, because life happens, kids happen and we live on a farm outside of town with dogs, cats, horses a marine fish tank and even a sheep, and my days are quite full and planned ahead, especially with boys.
She would often ask for some homemade soup, and it would always bring me great joy to pop in, get a hug, make some tea…and off I would be to the next thing that needed doing for that day.
Yes, I have a wonderful husband, and we have been truly blessed, with him working abroad. (That is a different miracle altogether and a story for another day)
One day her daughter called me, and said she was worried about her mom. She has a few medical issues, so I don’t mind driving to town and just checking up on her.
We arrived at her house just after 17:00, and she was indeed very ill. Her daughter and I made the decision to have her admitted to hospital.
Her son arrived at her house and while he waited for the ambulance to arrive, the kids and I got into the car and we went back home.
The next day she was moved to a hospital in the neighboring town and scans indicated she had a brain aneurism (bleeding in the brain from a burst artery).
It was a scary thought that if she was left overnight, she would have passed away during the night.
Life carries on, as it usually does, and her daughter and I start talking about getting a care-worker at night to keep an eye on her mom, when she is discharged from hospital.
We were making all kinds of plans for the future.
(That’s another thing, she would move the house around at night when she had trouble sleeping. How she managed this incredible feat, remains one of those awesome mysteries.)
But, she never came home ….. no-one expected this.
At 61…. she went into a coma, and never woke up, and a week later she passed away.
What a shock – I mean, we prayed for her in our church, and I even felt that she would recover.
How could this happen? On Saturday we had a discipleship seminar at church and during one of the sessions, I had a vision (If I can call it that), that Father had taken her to heaven, and He was showing her around. I thought she would wake up and tell us about this wonderful heavenly experience she had had. So how did He allow her to pass away?
It was about a day or two after she had passed, that I once again heard / felt Father speak to me, and that He had given her a choice.
She could stay in heaven with Him and be free from more than 30 years of constant pain, or she could come back to a broken body, which will now be even more broken after she had suffered 3 aneurisms, and carry on.
At first, I thought, wow…. that’s kind off selfish…. I mean, what about us? We are all sad and we all loved her and now we are going to miss her more than words can describe, and she just left.
But Father showed me the following.
If she came back, what kind of life would she have lived, and what life would her loved ones have.
I know her daughter would give up everything she has achieved and worked so hard for, to move down to a little town and take care of her mom full-time.
Her granddaughter would have to start at a new school at such a late stage of her academic year, not even to mention her youngest daughter who would have to leave everyone behind that she has known for the past 3 years of her life.
That’s not even what her husband and two sons would have to give up for her if she would come home.
She decided to stay in heaven, because she loved her family more than anything and wanted them to live a full and happy life.
Two weeks later we were at the same seminar again, and Father was so amazing and confirmed this to me.
It brought such a relief and even though my heart is still sore, and I miss her, I know she is having an awesome time in heaven.
She is truly the lucky one to be in His glory and presence every moment for the rest of eternity.
I still sometimes forget that her room is empty, the bed neatly made …. and I can’t make her one last cup of tea, leaving the bag in the cup, with 2 sugars and three bran rusks by the bedside table.
But what I do know is that she is in heaven, with our Father, where she is happily singing, dancing and rejoicing in his glory, until we meet her again.
Father gave her a choice, to decide what was best for her and her loved ones.
Kingdom News: God will always give you a choice
