I Watched A Man Die
I watched a man die once. I know this is a sobering start for an article, although I believe we are sometimes called to be diligent and thorough in the expression of our thoughts. I confess to several attempts at writing this article, some with a humorous slant and others lightly touching on the subject of death – each effort deleted and sent to that virtual word processing Heaven where the writing is never bad because it is never read.
This brush with death began when a friend asked me to the hospital to pray with her family for her father. What I thought would be a quick trip to the intensive care waiting room changed my perspective on life: both my physical life and my life eternal.
Over the course of a few short weeks, I was drawn to the hospital several times by what can only be expressed as the severe love this family felt for their wonderful father. I was compelled to embrace the raw emotions and to soak in the wave of love washing over me as my friend’s family shared their memories. As the end neared, my heartstrings were stretched tight to witness the tears and grieving for a husband, a father, a grandfather, a brother, and a dear friend.
When the the moment came to turn off the life sustaining machines so he could pass peacefully, the family invited me to be there… a service to them but an honor for me. In the last moments of his life, we read from Scripture, Revelation 21.
“And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City… It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates.
The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass.
I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.
Nothing impure will ever enter it… but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
No longer will there be any curse. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign forever and ever.”
We held hands and prayed during this man’s passing. There was confidence the welcoming arms of God and the most precious sound of a chorus of angels greeted him in Heaven. He stepped from the hospital bed and into the arms of Jesus within a blink of a moment.
We see the absence of life when we witness death. This is where we are called to have faith and trust in God’s promises. The faith and trust this family had in God’s promises exceeded my own and through them I was encouraged. My faith was built and strengthened.
While I may have known about Heaven and life eternal, and while I may have understood the concept of our physical lives ending so we may gain our eternal reward in Heaven, this fmaily’s faith caused me to examine whether I fully accepted this reality in my heart. Some of us may have this academic knowledge without the experience to embrace this promise, that is, we know it in our heads but not in our hearts.
I watched a man die once. He was embraced by God and received His promise.
When being a Christian is tough, are you tough enough?
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Glenn Sasscer
www.glennsasscer.com
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