I was not taken to the hospital, though my parents were contacted and informed of my injury. I had had a similar accident and injury before when I was about 4 years old, so it was decided that they would just watch me and all the school staff would pray over me for God’s healing.
I was put to bed in my teacher’s room. During the night I had the most incredible experience.
* * * * * * *
I was in a very beautiful place that I knew to be Heaven. It was not the “New Jerusalem” as described in the book of Revelation in the Bible. But I am sure it was a real part of Heaven. The colors were so vibrant, and everything just pulsated with life and light. There were no shadows at all.
I saw trees, and grass, and flowers. And there were birds singing in the trees. And I was walking with Jesus---I was holding his hand and He was holding mine. And we came to a crystal clear, bubbling brook, and the brook was singing the same song as the birds were. I think there were angels singing too; it was as if everything, the grass and the flowers and trees too, were all singing a beautiful song. I don’t know the words, but it was incredibly beautiful. And we sat down by the brook, and Jesus took me into His lap, and He told me he loved me. He did not speak words in English per se, but I know He told me he loved me very much. And I felt His love to the very core of my being.
After a while it was time for me to leave this beautiful place. When I awoke the next morning in my teacher’s room, I felt fine. My head was fine, and I was no longer sick. I excitedly told my teacher about what I had seen during the night. I am not sure if I actually went to this place during the night, or if it was just a vision of this place. But I can tell you, the experience was very real, and I have never forgotten it in all the years since.
Years later I read a book “The Great Divorce” by C.S. Lewis. It really struck a chord with me, because so much of what he describes, the realness of the heaven he saw, I knew what he was saying. Not that the grass felt like knives in my feet, but just the vibrantness and realness and beauty of the place.
I have also read a few other books where a person describes a near-death experience, and they speak of seeing some place similar. I really believe that there is this Heavenly place, I do not think it could be just a product of our imaginations.
* * * * * * *
About 20 years later, I lay in a hospital bed, in preterm labor and very sick with severe pre-eclampsia. The doctor came in and told us the sad news that things did not look good for our baby. He did not think that the baby would make it through the birth alive, but my blood pressure was way too high to safely perform a C-section delivery.
I remember talking to my husband’s Aunt Bennie, a wonderful sweet Christian lady whom I had only met a few days before. We were 1300-plus miles from home, on our vacation, visiting relatives, when I went into labor about 12 weeks before my due-date. Aunt Bennie left work to come be with us when she heard the news that I was being admitted to the hospital.
I remember telling her that I knew that if our little baby Ezra John (we knew he was a boy) did not make it, I knew exactly where he would go---to that beautiful place I saw so many years ago when I was so sick with a head injury. I knew that Jesus would be there, to hold my child on His lap and tell him that He loves him. And I described to Aunt Bennie exactly what I had seen so many years ago----it is still fresh in my mind as if it was yesterday.
Our first-born son did survive the delivery, and he lived in NICU III for nine days afterward. But then his struggles for life here on earth ended, and he went to be with Jesus. I am sure he went to that beautiful Heavenly place I saw so long ago. I am sure he is very happy there, with Jesus, and all the others of God’s children who have gone there too. The thought warms my heart, and it makes it easier for me to accept that my precious Ezra John is not here on earth with us.
I hope that my sharing this will encourage others who have lost their precious children.
