I Saw Heaven

We all have dreams...some we remember for a moment after we wake up, some we remember vaguely, if at all.  But, the morning I saw heaven, I knew I wasn't dreaming.  I wasn't dreaming and I have never forgotten the vision that I had or the feeling...yes, the feeling...  (Give me a moment now to pray that the Lord guides my fingertips and I am sufficiently able to tell you, dear reader, what I saw)...

I was lying in my bed, when I was quickly awakened.  By what?  Nothing in particular, but I was lying on my back looking straight up to the ceiling..Then, I wasn't.  Before me was a beautiful green landscape.  Like those you would see in a National Geographic magazine, except when I see those I still think about all the bugs and spiders and snakes and yucky stuff that is lurking in all that beauty (sorry, I'm a realist!), but while I looked upon this lush landscape, I had no worries of bugs, no fear of snakes.  I had a feeling of total safety, like I had never felt before in my life.

To my left side, there was a man, dressed in white.  I never turned my head to look upon his face, I didn't feel like I needed to.  He was Jesus and what He was showing me was important.  Standing there on the edge of this beauty, I felt peace.  No, not just peace.  Peace beyond my own comprehension.  I felt that stress I didn't even know I had was washed away from me.  I felt light and free.  Friend, I would give anything to feel that in its entirety again.

This was heaven.  And the way I know that is that I would have immediately left this old world and stepped over into that world.  I would have left my family and friends.  I thought of them in my mind, my two darling children, my husband, parents--those who would mourn losing me.  Yet, after seeing heaven and feeling the reality of eternity, I knew that no matter what they suffered on this Earth, it would not matter.  All of it would be wiped away in eternity with God.  Before in my life when I have thought of leaving Earth, I would mourn.  I wring my hands thinking that I might lose my children to be raised without me guiding them!  I hate the thought of my husband crying over losing me!  If given the chance, I would have told you that I would have asked God to wait and let me stay just a little longer on Earth.  But, in THAT moment, looking at heaven, with Jesus beside me, I wanted to step over.  I wanted to step over into my eternal rest.

Jesus wiped his arm across the scene before us, and a translucent veil came down between me and heaven.  Jesus had said, "Not now."  I immediately felt the loss of euphoric, heavenly peace.  It wasn't completely gone, but lessened as I stood there looking longingly into that paradise.  I immediately mourned the loss of that peace.

Then the vision was gone and I was lying on my back in my bed looking at the wood ceiling of my bedroom.  I lay there silently contemplating what I had just seen.  Why had God shown it to me?  What had just happened?

Later, when a friend of mine lost his mother, I thought of my vision and how she was rejoicing in death.  When my own daughter continued to struggle with a chronic condition, I rejoiced in knowing that eternity lay ahead of us.  There are days I so long for that heavenly home, that I could cry.  I long to be able to show you what I saw, to give you the homesickness I feel...Oh, Beulah Land, Sweet Beulah Land.

Will I Meet Him in Heaven?

So, last post I mentioned knowing that Grandpa was saved, but I put those details off for today.

We often hear when someone dies, "Well, they are in a better place."  "We'll see them again in heaven."  "He's better off today."

Well, obviously IF that person was saved by the blood of Jesus then all of those statements hold great and eternal truth.  BUT, what if they weren't saved?  Then, all of the warm, fuzzy words we spew from our mouths to bring comfort cannot change their eternal damnation.

As I contemplated giving the eulogy at Grandpa's funeral, I knew I would hear all of those phrases.  In fact, my eulogy was going to center on pointing Grandpa's family to serving the God he spoke about, the God he proclaimed to know.  But, did I know that he knew Him?  Did I ever ask Grandpa about his salvation experience?  Did I know the day he was saved?  Did he have that life-changing moment or was he using his lips to give testimony to a salvation experience he never had?  I wanted to know.  I needed to know.  But, how?  Grandpa was dead.

I wondered if anyone knew.  So, as I prayed about the eulogy (even before Grandpa died) I asked God to let me know that Grandpa was truly in heaven.  I heard nothing.  I knew God wanted me to speak at the funeral.  I knew what I was to say.  Yet, I did not receive confirmation that we would see Grandpa again...yet.

An hour before I was to speak in the church beside the casket of my grandfather, I left the family and stole away to a quiet room in the church.  I prayed and thought.  I asked again for God to reveal to me that all I would say about Grandpa in my eulogy was right.  I had a peace that it was, but no earthly evidence.  I rested and returned to the family.  I would speak first that day.

After I spoke, I sat thinking of all the things I forgot to say.  Two preachers spoke after me.  As I listened to them, I heard them say those things I had forgotten.  Then, I heard one preacher say he remembered the day Grandpa was saved.  My heart jumped within my frame and I sat up, ears perked, smiling within my soul.  God was going to answer me.

The preacher didn't stop there, he recounted in detail the day Grandpa gave his life to the Lord.  He also gave details about Grandpa's daddy and how devoted to God he was--a lineage of God-fearing people.

I would see Grandpa again.  What I had felt to be true had been confirmed by the loving hands of my God.  I had completed a task He had given me and He had blessed me with the answer I sought.  He didn't have to reveal truth to me.  He did though because He loves me.  He loves you.  Do you love Him?

Canna Lilies

My grandfather's time had come.  God spoke to me and told me that I would give the eulogy.  He told me what to say.  I agreed without hesitation to do what God wanted me to, but told him I'd need confirmation.  I needed the family to ask me vs. me telling them.  So, a few days later I got the call asking me to prepare for the eulogy.  In the eulogy, God wanted to remind us that James and Lenora Kelly had followed the true and living God, that they had pointed the way to him.  That each of us had our own decision to make, but if we had chose the Lord we also had work to do on this Earth.  We were a large family, a blessed generation, flesh and bone of two people who knew the Lord.


Grandpa always planted Canna lilies.  All in a row, standing by the road side.  He separated them each year, and made the row longer and longer.  They were beautiful.  I liked the red ones best, but my cousins said there were also orange and yellow ones.  Which, I think is also fitting since all of our walks and gardens will be different.


Our walk with the Lord is much like that garden of Canna lilies.  We should plant God's testimony through our walk into other's hearts.  Now, sometimes we'll plant with pride, malice, hatred, or other evilness, but God sends the Holy Spirit to weed the Canna lily garden.  He'll take all of our imperfections that appear in our garden as weeds and he'll pull them right out.  Then, he'll divide and multiply our Canna lilies.  And our witness on this Earth will spread down the roadside of our lives, a pleasing sight to our Lord.  And one day when our work is done, He'll call us to our eternal home.  And, yes, we'll meet Grandma and Grandpa there. 


How do I know?  Well, that's a post for later.  Today, I'll share the poem I wrote for our reunion with Grandpa.


Canna Lilies -


Red Canna lilies in bloom,
we'll be coming home soon.
No more thorns and weeds to hoe
in the place where we will go.
A bright and starry day,
lit so we'll all find the way.
Into our reunion,
a blessed communion.
Breaking bread together
under skies of clear weather.
Your body will be healed,
your mind perfectly filled,
with thoughts of the Holy God
and a garden of perfect sod.
Where red Canna lilies bloom
and we'll all be there soon.