I cried in session today.
It doesn’t happen often but today as I heard the recounting of a
God-moment my heart was touched to a point of tears. Obviously, for confidentiality reasons, I
cannot go into the details of this story.
This, by the way, is one of the downsides of being a counselor. I see and hear so many cool things and I can’t
really talk about it. I will tell a tiny
part, just barely enough for you to get the gist. I heard a story of evil and its subsequent
tragedy thrust upon a family to such a magnitude that you could never even
anticipate or imagine such a thing.
Hearing the story was heart wrenching.
But, hearing the God-moment was heart inspiring.
Over the past couple of weeks, a theme of heaven has been
running through my counseling sessions.
Questions such as “Will I know or recognize my loved ones in heaven?” and
“Is there awareness between here and heaven?” have been asked of me more than
once. I don’t think the bible answers these
questions. So, we are left to surmise
what we can based on our knowledge of God and his character, the few things we
can draw on scripturally, and personal experience. I’ve always had an interest in near-death
experiences and within the last year I’ve read a couple of books that were
interesting on that subject. I
whole-heartedly recommend reading Heaven Is For Real which recounts
little Colton Burpo’s story of visiting heaven.
Proof of Heaven is another interesting read because it adds an
extra twist: the author went to hell first.
Yes, there are contradictions from book to book and there are theology
differences, too. But, there are common
threads woven through the stories as well.
When I hear a grieving mother tell me she prayed for God to
give her a glimpse of the other side so that she can know her daughter is okay,
my first thought was “That’s a cool prayer.
I don’t think I would have ever thought to ask that.” When God answered her and said, “She is closer
to me than she has ever been,” I got chills…and tears. She is in heaven, right there with God. You can’t be any closer.
It’s comforting to have the assurance that your loved one is
in heaven communing with God. It’s a
thought that could make you long for heaven.
Until today, though, I’d never taken this to a point that says, “If I
commune with God through worship and prayer, and the departed commune with God
through worship and heavenly presence, then, aren’t we also, in that moment of
worship, all communing together?” If
everyone and every being in heaven praises God and we, here on Earth, are worshipping
too, then doesn’t that bring a closeness between us and the ones who have
departed and are now in heaven? If being
in heaven means I get to commune with God, then am I not in a form of heaven
when I worship and commune with Him now?
To wrap it up, today while driving the three different times
I drove today, I heard three times the song, “Your Presence is Heaven to Me.” God certainly has a way of adding the bow to
the wrapped gift.
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