Celebrating
Love of JESUS, Hope of Heaven, and Faith in the Word of God.
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Christian Speaker
Celebrating |
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      lois@loishetrick.com |
INSIDE THE GATES OF
HEAVEN On Thursday, June 28, 1928, I was taken to the hospital in great pain three days after my mother's funeral, and six weeks after the birth of my fourth child, Lewis. After a few days of examinations and consultations between six doctors, I fell into a deep coma on Saturday about noon. It seemed I was wandering for a long time through semi-darkness and mist, through dim and dismal scenes; presently finding myself on the bank of a slowly flowing sinister-looking stream. The water appeared dark and cold and about ten or twelve feet wide. No rippling or murmur, just slow movement past me. My mind registered the thought that this must be the river Jordan spoken of in hymns and that I was dying and would have to cross this stream. After some hesitation, I stepped in and found it very shallow. Proceeding step by step, slowly, I felt the water rapidly becoming deeper and it was numbingly cold. It soon was washing over my lips as I neared the middle of the stream. Dreading the thought of drowning, I stopped, and heard my name being called in loving accents. Raising my eyes, I saw the farther bank, and beyond it a lovely park-like area of grass and trees, and over all, a sort of luminous twilight. An indescribable feeling of utter peace filled my being and, raising my eyes, I beheld my smiling mother and my sister who had also passed away a few years before. They both had in this life suffered greatly, but now they radiated health and well being. Their faces shone with love and joy as they told me how glad they were to see me there. They told me that I was standing in the middle of the stream and Jesus had sent them to welcome me and help me up the bank on the other side. I longed to go to them, but was stopped by the sound of children weeping, coming to me across the water. Turning about, I saw my four children (Oden, Frances, Bill, and Lewis) on the bank I had left, reaching out their arms to me and crying 'Mama, Mama!' Turning to my mother and sister, I told them how very strongly I wanted to join them but would have to return to my children. Their expressions changed instantly to sadness and regret, as they said that Jesus had told them I could return to my family provided I turned away at once and did not look back. They said that they understood and that they, being mothers, knew the compulsion that urged me to return to my family. So I started back and, oh, the water was so deep and so cold and the current was very strong making it extremely difficult to keep my footing and go step by slow step back through the stream. I have never known any more difficult task than to go back through that stream! I could hardly proceed at all, but the thought came into my mind to just keep breathing. After what seemed a long, long time, my strength nearly failing, the pull of the current left me. The water receded and I felt as though I were being lifted onto the bank where I sank down utterly exhausted and knew nothing until a voice called my name. I opened my eyes to see a nurse's aid standing by my bed and her kind voice asking if she should feed me my lunch. Later, the six doctors came to my bedside again and the head surgeon spoke to me very comfortingly and very reassuringly. I didn't know that there was just one chance in three hundred that I would recover without a serious operation and that I was too weak to stand an operation, so that there was no hope for me in that direction. However, he pledged the full resources of that great hospital to help me pull out of this. He said that there was something for me to do, too, that I was to try very hard to get well. From that day, the assurance never left me that I would recover. I remained in the hospital for three weeks under treatment and was taken home. After convalescing for a year - a year of discouragement and pain, and very difficult living, the family doctor stopped by to see me and told me that I would recover without an operation. That was great news to me. I want to say here that all the doctors and surgeons that were connected with my case gave all the glory to God. They said that their best efforts would have been of no avail without help from Him. The head surgeon said that God must have something in this life for me to accomplish that He would restore me from such a serious illness. At the end of this year of convalescence, I was again in full stride and again very active. I later had two more children (Marjorie and Sylvia) and led a very full and active life. I have felt God's strength in my body from day to day knowing that it was only through His will that I was here at all, and that He would never forsake me or leave me, but lead me along as long as it was His will for me to live. This experience occurred more than forty years ago, but the comfort and assurance of it has never left me and I am certain that I will have the strength and protection of God to the very end. All of this experience is as clear to me as it was at the time it happened. Nothing has dimmed. Nothing has faded. It is just as clear and as plain as it was when it all occurred, and the assurance has never left me that there is a place reserved for me in Heaven when it is God's will for me to go there. Since this time, Fanny Crosby's beautiful hymn, MY SAVIOR FIRST OF ALL, has had special meaning to me, especially the third verse:
Oh, the dear ones in glory how they beckon me to come, Oden's mother used to sing this next lullaby to him:
Far away, beyond the starlit skies
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