My friend John shared this testimony from Debbie regarding the final moments of her husband Lloyd’s life.
“Hi Donald and John,
John sent this to me the other day. It mirrors what you sent from the funeral service. Lloyd said good bye with such love and reverence for his process. He was lucid and in such gratitude. I could feel him leaving and his eyes were looking up. I knew he was between two worlds. He told me what he was seeing was so incredible. He kept saying Debbie you can’t believe what I am seeing. It is amazing. He did not say what it was except that his entire family was there waiting for him and that his sister Pat was in the front. He was smiling but I could tell it was not at me. It was above this world. At some point he opened his eyes and said the word “heavenly.” He told me he would be there when I cross over whether it is pretty soon or years from now. I have never heard him more peaceful and filled with conviction. Sharing his death gives me such comfort but does not fill the empty hole in my heart. The poem is so lovely. I could feel him walking away. Debbie
Gone From my Sight…..
I am standing upon the seashore. A ship, at my side,
spreads his white sails to the moving breeze and starts
for the blue ocean. He is an object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch him until, at length, he hangs like a speck
of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.
Then, someone at my side says, “There, he is gone.”
Gone where?
Gone from my sight. That is all. He is just as large in mast,
hull and spar as he was when he left my side.
And, he is just as able to bear his load of living freight to his destined port.
His diminished size is in me — not in him.
And, just at the moment when someone says, “There, he is gone,”
there are other eyes watching him coming, and other voices
ready to take up the glad shout, “Here he comes!”
And that is dying…”
This brief testimony mirrors what many of the fifty witnesses discussed in Heaven Is Beyond Imagination and the thirty-four witnesses in Heaven Is Amazing! have told us. His brief words even reflect these two titles. Many talked about the fact that you will be met by your family and anyone that had a part in your journey as a Christian. Those that weren’t met were told by a family member they met, “You are not supposed to be here yet. It is not your time. You need to go back.” But when it is your time, there will notices in heaven and many will be ready for you. Richard Sigmund saw people getting things ready, clothing or a house, etc. for someone who was coming. Although Richard was not greeted by his great family because he was just visiting, he did observe others arriving to a large jubilant throng. Don Piper did experience this wonderful gathering of family and friends when he was in heaven temporarily. The fact that Lloyd was the most peaceful he had ever been is probably the most profound experience of all the witnesses. Heaven overflows with peace, joy, and the love of God, more so than you can imagine. God keeps giving us glimpses of our eternal hope to encourage us to stay the course, have patient endurance and faithfulness, until it is our time to be welcomed into a glory that is beyond imagination. If you know someone who is grieving the loss of a loved one, like Debbie, share Heaven Is Beyond Imagination with him or her. While it cannot take away the grief and loss, knowing what joy, peace, and wonder is his or her loved one’s life now is a reassuring comfort and joy. It makes the hole in his or her heart and life more tolerable.