Visit From Heaven

I am home sick today.  I have felt worse the last 2 days than I have felt in a long, long time.  The fever and aches are not my friend.  The one thing it has given me, however, is time.  I have slept most of the last 24 hours, and now that I am awake, I thought I would use this time to write about something that is so very special.  I have been sitting on this since Easter morning.  It was almost too precious at first to really share, but I want to share because I believe that God uses things like this to encourage others.  That is my prayer as I write this out.  That someone is encouraged.

I have a very dear friend named Harry.  He was my pastor, but even more he and his sweet wife were our friends.  They were with us through some of our most difficult journeys, as we were for them.  Harry suffered from serious diabetic issues and we lost him a few years ago.  He has been missed greatly, especially by his family, but also by all of us that loved him.  I knew I would see him again in heaven, but then Easter morning, I got a visit from heaven when Harry was in my dream.

I want to preface the rest of this blog with the understanding that I am not one of those people that thinks every dream has meaning and is providing insight into my life.  Some people may believe that way, but I don't.  I believe that the Holy Spirit plays that role in my life.  I think sometimes dreams are just crazy mixtures pf nothing.  But I do know that sometimes, God can bring us special moments through dreams and I know that this dream was just that.

Ever since I lost my sweet Eathan, I pray for God to touch me with a dream of him.  God has done so a couple of times and those dreams are treasures!  But he has also given me a couple of other dreams, where I didn't actually get to see Eathan in them, but I was able to spend time with someone who was in Heaven with him.  One was a friend's husband, Daniel, who passed away 3 weeks after Eathan.  Easter Sunday, it was Harry. 

I don't remember the details of where the dream began.  I was with people that were familiar and we were just doing normal things.  Then all of the sudden, I was sitting with Harry.  We were talking about heaven and he was sharing with me how it is so much more than the bible can even begin to help us understand.  We were having a conversation like we would have when he was on earth.  He shared that he is with Eathan and how there are no words to describe the joy my son is experiencing.... the joy that he and everyone in Heaven is experiencing.  He said, "Robin, it's beyond glorious.  It' beyond peaceful.  It's beyond exciting.  It is beyond anything your mind can understand right now!  It is all God said it would be, but so, so much more!"

I remember in my dream, feeling this sense of calm that was surrounded in the deepest joy, as he shared. That seems strange to me because my reaction this side of heaven, to the idea of what heaven might really be and especially what my sweet Tuffy is experiencing since he was eternally healed, gets my heart to pumping.  But as Harry shared with me that morning, I felt this strange calmness and serenity. I could actually picture Eathan and I felt this sea of peace wash over me, over and over and over. I remember feeling like somehow, it was normal, all that he was saying. 

But how could that be normal?

Suddenly, there was a group of us and we were in this circle.  I don't know who the people were, but Harry was teaching us from God's word.  He was sharing of the hope we have because of the cross and he was saying to us, "Don't do Easter because of tradition!  Do Easter because of the radical way it personally impacts your life."  I remember crying in my dream and realizing, as much as I love Jesus, as much as I celebrate the hope of heaven, I get so distracted in the every day things of life this side of heaven and I do get caught up in taking for granted the depth of how personally I was changed because of the cross. 

The dream wasn't long and Harry was gone again, but for those brief moments in my dream, I sat with my friend again and I experienced what I believe was my personal Easter message from that visit from Heaven. I woke with tears in my eyes and joy in my heart.  I felt like the tomb was rolled away again... and just for me!

I don't know what you are walking through.  I don't know what is holding you down and grieving your soul.  But I know, on earth, just as Jesus told us, there WILL be trouble.  So I know that probably each of you that take the time to read this, have something that is a struggle in one way or another in your life.  "BUT DON'T WORRY!  I HAVE OVERCOME THE WORLD!" (John 16:33) 

The cross is sort of watered down.  People hang crosses on the walls, on their necks, have them tattooed on their bodies.  But how often do any of us really stand in front of the cross and realize it is not a tradition... it has radically impacted our lives?  How can we get so caught up in our tunnel vision that we water it down?  It has radically changed our lives!

Each Easter, we watch the Passion of the Christ.  This year, for some reason, we did not do that.  Todd was having to work and we just didn't watch it.  Easter Sunday, after I awoke from my personal sermon from Harry, we made a decision to visit a different church.  We didn't really have a reason, other than we just felt led.  The church we attended held an Easter performance.  It was a wonderful enactment of the life of Jesus, leading of course to the cross and Resurrection.  I was sitting by my youngest when they began to whip Jesus.  She covered her face and just cried her eyes out.  I held her while tears rolled down mine as well. 

We knew the rest of the story... "He isn't here!  He is risen!" (Matt 28:6), but the understanding of his suffering on the cross was real and the cost was so high. Harry is right.  We cannot let Easter be just another tradition.  Nor can we let any other day either.  Christ died so that we could live!  And our living here is one thing, but living forever with our Father in heaven.... that is something beyond our wildest dreams.

I am sad about many things in the world.  I am sad about things with my own adopted daughter.  There are things I just have a hard time finding hope in.  But the cross covers it.  It isn't a tradition... its the radical truth! So I will continue to run free in the grace that I have received and I will continue to treasure the reminder that my son and all that have gone before us, are relishing in a place that we will call HOME because of Jesus. 

If you don't know Jesus... please, give Him a chance. He isn't a myth or just a good man.  He is a Savior and a Redeemer.  He is HOPE.

In Christ,

Robin