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Many years ago, my dad gave my mother a wonderful old book called Moments of Light, and when they both went on to heaven, it was left to me. I call it my treasure.
Each chapter is one small page in length and packed with a tender insight, hard to forget. Sometimes I pick it up and sit for a few minutes to read just one reflection and I know I am all the better for doing so.
Moments of light often come to us through the people and circumstances God allows us to experience. Consider the friends and acquaintances no longer here on Earth who have been a moment of light for you. Many will come to your mind.
Ed, my wonderful friend whom God took to heaven just a few weeks ago, was a gifted and selfless pediatrician. He recognized God in the work he had been given to do all his life. It was a beautiful experience to be with him at the end of his life and to see him prepare to meet the one he had loved and served so well.
Bobbie was an exquisite woman, inside and out. She reflected a gentle, tender and compassionate spirit and everyone was drawn to her by God’s own design. If you felt lonely, afraid or sad, the mere presence of Bobbie would lift you as if Jesus himself had entered the room. She went on to heaven recently too, surrounded by the gentility and grace with which she had covered everyone God sent to her care.
Father John died much too soon as far as his friends were concerned. Always ready with a kind word, tender thought and quick Irish wit, he left in the middle of the night with no chance to say goodbye. If you were different, thought outside of the box, were quirky and impatient, Father John understood you. He arrived often for dinner with flowers that died the next day and laughed harder than anyone else when it was suggested that he should stop buying the cheapest flowers he could find.
Funeral plans arranged for about 300 friends turned into a standing-room-only crowd of nearly 700. He touched lives in a way few do by sharing his humanity, however imperfect that may have been. He taught us to love the way Jesus loves, with all our hearts. Our lives were greatly blessed by his presence and we will always miss him.
Heaven has all three of these friends now. Knowing we have been touched by God’s tender embrace through them is indeed a great gift. Watch for your own moments of lght in the coming year, you will be surprised whom God sends your way.
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Trudy Harris, RN, is the author of the popular Glimpses of Heaven and More Glimpses of Heaven. Although now retired, she was a hospice nurse and president of Jacksonville's Hospice Foundation for Caring where she raised more than $45 million in capital contributions. You can find her on Facebook!
Your Comments
Eve,
Thanks so much for your kind words. Many of my friends have been touched by Hospice caring for their families and feel the same as I do. Take good care and God bless.
Janice
Janice, Thank you so much for sharing your story. I was a hospice nurse for many years (I still miss it!) and am so glad yours was a wonderful experience. It is a beautiful thing to share in somebody's death as a Christian. I was never sad, knowing that I would see many of these people again.
Can't wait to meet your mom!
Sincerely, Eve
Dear Trudy,
Reading your inspirational stories have really helped me in my current season of grief. My Mother, Lillian Johnson, 80 years old, was diagnosed in April of 2010 with stomach cancer after having been a cancer survivor for over 30 years. She received her diagnosis on the weekend we had gathered at my younger sister Fay's house in Maryland to celebrate Fay's 20 year anniversary of being cancer free. I am also a cancer survivor of over 4 years. It was a traumatic and heart-rending time for our family when we recieved the diagnosis. My father had suddenly passed away 10 years prior due to complications from diabetes.
I called my Mother everyday from Afghanistan where I took a job after retiring from the Army after 30 years in June 0f 2011. In October, as her condition worsened and she was placed under Hospice care, I came back to the US to spend time with her. I can never thank the Hospice of the Piedmont folks in Charlottesville, Virginia for their wonderful, professional and compassionate care. I spent the last 20 days of Moms life with her as she was surrounded by extended family and wonderful neighbors and friends that visited. The doctors at the University of Virginia Hospital would always remark about the "contingency of family members" that surrounded Mom when she was hospitalized. (She never spent one night alone in the hospital after she was diagnosed.) Many people visited or called moms house knowing that Mom was mostly unresponsive just to check on her and support us. Three days before Mom passed away, she was responsive enough to play a practical joke on family members and a family friend who was prsent.
Although all the signs were there, we really could not believe Mom was dying as quickly as she was. Mom soon became totally unresponsive and did not speak a word for three days as we continued to care for her and speak lovingly to her. Around midnight on the 23rd of October, my sister Fay noticed a change in Mom's breathing and called my brother Terry, a minister and I into the bedroom. I had been sitting at my computer in another room praying to God to release Mom from her condition as she had a horrific bedsore that caused her great pain. Just as I released that prayer, I heard my sister call out that Mom's breathing had changed. I quickly called the Hospice nurse and she directed me to the "kit" in the fridge to give Mom some meds to assist with her breathing.
The end of Mom's life was was near and it was a terrible feeling even though we knew she had a wonderful relationship with God and was ready to go to heaven. Several days before, My brother Terry, was walking in the front yard and it was obvious he was deep in prayer for my Mom. When I walked into her bedroom, she opened her eyes and looked right at me and said. "Tell Terry to let me go! Tell Terry to let me go!" As sorrowful as it was to hear, I knew then she was ready to go to be with God. In short order, I passed her mesage to my brother.
Mom's breathing quieted after I gave her the meds and I told my brother and sister that Mom liked the Lord's Prayer. We recited the Lords prayer in unison and it seemed to fill the room in a way that three voices should not have been able to fill it. We followed the Lord's prayer with Mom's other favorite bible verse, the 23rd Psalm. Again the room was filled with the sound of praying as if there were more than our three voices. While we recited the 23rd Psalm, my Mother who had been totally unresponsive for three days suddenly opened her eyes and staring ahead exclaimed very loudly "Love you! Love you! Love you!" After saying the third "Love you!" Mom closed her eyes and entered heaven while my brother entreated God to welcome her into his kingdom. While holding Moms wrist, I called the cessation of her pulse. Her ear to Moms chest, my sister called Mom's last heartbeat. My brother announced the time of Moms transition at 12:15 on October 24th, one day before her 81st birthday. Coincidentally or not, Moms insurance policy would have expired on her 81st birthday. I believe she left this earth just in time to not jeapardize the effect of the insurance policy. While we are deeply saddened by the loss of our matriarch, we know full well that she is with God and look forward to joining her in eternal glory with him. Thank you and all Hospice workers past and present for your wonderful contributions. God bless you all. Regards.
Janice Johnson
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