Peace Be With You
Stories
Vision Stories
True Accounts Of Visions, Angels, And Healing Miracles
When my mother called the last time to tell us that Dad was in the hospital again, and not doing well, I knew we had to go home. I wanted to be there with him and Mom. The doctor let us know right away that Dad wouldn't make it out of the hospital this time. I sat by his bed, holding his hand as he struggled with great pain. At night, I prayed that God would take him soon, for Mom's sake as well as for Dad's, because I could tell how hard it was for her to see him suffer. We were with him when he died the next day, and his last words to each of us were, "I love you." I don't remember more than two other times in my whole life when he said that to me.
As we talked with the pastor about the service, I told him that I felt a very strong need to speak at Dad's funeral. His illness had caused memory lapses, bluntness, and sometimes even cruelty in his relationships with family and friends, and I didn't want people to be left with that impression of him. I wanted everyone to remember him as I did. For two days, I struggled with what I would say. I wanted to express how much Dad meant to me, and I wanted it to be perfect; a trait I had inherited from him. I studied several scripture passages, hoping for an inspiration, but my mind was blocked and time was running short. Finally I tossed the Bible onto the bed and took a break.
When I returned to the bedroom later, still struggling with my thoughts, I saw my father sitting on the bed, and I heard a voice say, "It's okay." It was a brief sensation; natural and not frightening at all. I walked over and picked up the Bible, which had fallen open to Proverbs when I tossed it onto the bed. The passage read:
Listen, children, to a father's instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight; for I give you good precepts: do not forsake my teaching. When I was a son with my father, tender, and my mother's favorite, he taught me, and said to me, "Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments, and live."
-- Proverbs 4:1-5
This scripture opened to me the memories of my father that I cherished the most; his self-education; how he had risen from being a grade school dropout to hold an engineer's position before he retired; his love of books and the way he had encouraged us to learn. These were the things I wanted others to know and remember about him. They were the thoughts and memories I would share the next day.
Editor's Note: A longer version of this story appeared under the title, "Opening the Scriptures" in Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle A, John Sumwalt, CSS Publishing Company, 1992, pp. 72-74.
As we talked with the pastor about the service, I told him that I felt a very strong need to speak at Dad's funeral. His illness had caused memory lapses, bluntness, and sometimes even cruelty in his relationships with family and friends, and I didn't want people to be left with that impression of him. I wanted everyone to remember him as I did. For two days, I struggled with what I would say. I wanted to express how much Dad meant to me, and I wanted it to be perfect; a trait I had inherited from him. I studied several scripture passages, hoping for an inspiration, but my mind was blocked and time was running short. Finally I tossed the Bible onto the bed and took a break.
When I returned to the bedroom later, still struggling with my thoughts, I saw my father sitting on the bed, and I heard a voice say, "It's okay." It was a brief sensation; natural and not frightening at all. I walked over and picked up the Bible, which had fallen open to Proverbs when I tossed it onto the bed. The passage read:
Listen, children, to a father's instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight; for I give you good precepts: do not forsake my teaching. When I was a son with my father, tender, and my mother's favorite, he taught me, and said to me, "Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments, and live."
-- Proverbs 4:1-5
This scripture opened to me the memories of my father that I cherished the most; his self-education; how he had risen from being a grade school dropout to hold an engineer's position before he retired; his love of books and the way he had encouraged us to learn. These were the things I wanted others to know and remember about him. They were the thoughts and memories I would share the next day.
Editor's Note: A longer version of this story appeared under the title, "Opening the Scriptures" in Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle A, John Sumwalt, CSS Publishing Company, 1992, pp. 72-74.
