Going Home Part Two

Allow me to direct your attention to a previous written blog entry entitled, “Going Home.” You can find it at “blog #3.” I entered this on December 19, 2015. It tells the story of a particular patient for whom I had the privilege of offering ministry at the end of his earthly life. While this experience was going on, I had the distinct privilege of getting to know his wife and children and particularly the patient’s daughter. As you read “Going Home” you may be inspired by the “butterfly blouse” she wore the day of her father’s death. The daughter was known as “Squeekie.” 

I learned today, she took her final flight one year after I received her permission to write the “Going Home” blog entry concerning her dad. I did not know she had died. As I think back on my experience with this amazing family, I recall hearing a response to a question I had posed in my prayers while standing at the foot of her father’s hospital bed. As a hospital chaplain, I have stood at numerous bedsides awaiting for the patient to take their last breath. While standing next to Squeekie, I asked the Spirit if any of your messengers had been dispatched to take her father home? Within seconds I heard in my spirit they had been dispatched and they were there in the hospital room with all of us. 

Now that I serve in a children’s hospital, I have wondered if God uniformly dispatches messengers to fetch us home to our Source. Personally, I believe God does this. I’m reminded of the prodigal son parable whereby the Father not only waits for us to return home but actually runs to meet us on our homeward journey. I asked a similar question while standing at a child’s bedside while they were experiencing their end of life. What I heard in my spirit I was not anticipating. Once I posed the question if messengers had been dispatched for this little one, the reply that I heard cause me to become weak in my knees. What I heard was, “…yes they have been dispatched and one of them is standing next to you.” 

Squeekie’s butterfly blouse seemed to speak volumes of her belief in life. Humming the familiar hymn Amazing Grace also captured her belief that life is about being set free to fly away from all the pain and suffering that we humans encounter in this life. That flight, however, is not determined by us but by the One who loved us into being. I have learned much from God’s children while observing their lives. Perhaps those reading this entry will find encouragement to stay the course and finish the race that has been set before us. In a world where so many get distracted from the Light we are intended to reflect, we lose sight of ourselves and our purpose. Your life is sacred and to choose to live it rather than to end it prematurely is a testimony to the One who showed us how to live and how to love. I believe God IS Love and Jesus Christ is the visible representation of the invisible God who said, “If you’ve seen me you have seen the Father.” He is the Light we are designed to reflect! This Light is already within each of us. It is time to awaken to this reality!!!!