Our strength was restored to us on our God-given vacation and then we came home to the next assignment. The "crisis mode" continued. John's cousin Jerry went into Hospice and John wanted to see him again. And so we drove 800 miles straight through the night down to El Paso. We spent two full days in Jerry's room and I had a most holy, awesome time with him. He was unable to speak, on heavy morphine - and yet I was granted an entire morning where he was lucid and clung to my hand, receiving the words of God that assured him safe passage into an everlasting life. The Spirit showed me his fears and anxieties as he was reviewing his life and wondering if Yeshua could possibly accept him. As I sang over him and read John 6 and Romans 3 to him, he gripped my hand so tightly, so fervently, and his crystal blue eyes met mine in an effort to respond. We know he heard the message of the Pure Gospel of Messiah and then he fell into a deep, peaceful sleep and we turned on Pandora Radio on my phone.
God chose the song list and played them in this order: Amazing Grace - I'll Fly Away - Jesus, Take My Hand - I Can Only Imagine. Four songs all about the moment of passing from this life to the next, and what awe-inspiring joy, peace and immeasurable LOVE we will encounter!
That was two days ago and Jerry still lingers, though we came home. That is a mystery - it must be a time when the Spirit reveals deep things to the one leaving this earth. It caused me to recall the last moments with my parents just a year and a half ago. Through these experiences I have come to truly understand this: "Precious and holy in the eyes of the LORD is the death of His saints."
Abba wrote that in the sky just after my time of ministry with Jerry. I walked over to the hospital window and just over the horizon of the El Paso sky, a huge, glistening rainbow appeared and then ascended higher into the heavens. Precious and holy!
