Sights And Sounds Of Heaven

Sights and Sounds of Heaven

Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. Hebrews 11:1

I am convinced of the reality of a heaven beyond this world, not only through my faith, but also because of countless stories of people I’ve known who have stepped from this world into the next as easily as I walk from one room in my house to another.

I grew up hearing about my great-grandmother’s trying to describe the music she was hearing just hours before she died. And my sweet Aunt Adah, who had not been able to speak for the last year of her life, managed to joyfully utter her mother’s name as she shed her paralyzed body.

A dear friend kept his eyes closed for several days as he endured cancer’s pain. Knowing the end was near, his wife stood on one side of his bed, a daughter on the other. Suddenly, he opened his eyes and turned toward the door with such a look of joy the others turned to see who had just arrived. But no one had entered. They turned back to him and realized he had died in that moment.

A friend related witnessing a similar experience with a church member. John had fallen into a coma, but a few hours later struggled to sit up, extending his arms. His wide-open eyes were focused on a corner of the ceiling. “Halfway there!” he murmured and sank back against his pillow. Several minutes later, he attempted to sit up again, hands outstretched, eyes fixed on that same corner. He lay quietly for some time, breathing roughly. Suddenly he sat fully upright and exclaimed, “Unbelievable!”

His family tried to understand. “What do you see, Dad? What is unbelievable?” But he could not tell them. Whatever he had seen, he was now experiencing.

I know medical people try to explain such experiences as an electrical charge, or some other scientific thing, that flashes through the brain as a person dies. But the night my extended family and I took turns keeping vigil beside my dying father, I pondered Hebrews 12:1, which says we are surrounded by a huge cloud of witnesses. Dad died at home in a bed set up in the living room. Normally that room is always cold in the winter, but that night it was incredibly warm from some invisible, comforting presence.

No, heaven is not here, but I’m grateful it is real and waiting for me and for all who believe in the shed blood of Jesus. —SANDRA

Lord, thank you for earthly reminders of a heavenly home. Help me not only to be joyful about my future home there but to share that reality with others.

Cultivate a continuous habit of believing, and sooner or later all doubts will vanish in the glory of the absolute faithfulness of God.

—HANNAH WHITALL SMITH (1832–1911), QUAKER LAY SPEAKER AND AUTHOR