Village Shepherd

I once took a funeral service after which a member of the congregation told me a story he'd never told anyone else before. Many years earlier when he'd been very young, he'd had a motorbike accident in which he had nearly died. After the accident he'd found himself spiralling down a long, dark tunnel, emerging at the end into a brilliant, radiant light where there were people waiting to welcome him and gather him in. But someone had told him it was too soon for him, that it wasn't his time yet.