Were It Not So, I Would Not Have Told You

 I hope Jesus is OK with my using His words.

It happened again, on the morning of Monday, May 3. I died, went to Heaven, and returned (the first trip was March 14). Breathing is a real problem now, and I guess my lungs just got overwhelmed.

This time, I did not want to come back here; I was in tears at being made to return.

I haven't been well enough to write a full narrative yet, but no worries about it being forgotten in any detail. Won't happen.

It was experientially consistent with the first visit in terms of sensory fidelity and an unambiguous and logical sequence of events, though the setting was different.

It was a party, put on by Barb, in my honour, with food and entertainment and people I am meant to know. One of our current dogs, Strawberry, was there. She's a petite Bullmastiff, and in Heaven she is not petite but huge, with a window-rattling bark. And a scarlet-and-gold harness!

We all arrive at the same time. Paul said that, I think, the "we who are alive and remain" thing. That's what Barb says, anyway.

This was not a place of 'happiness', for that word denotes the existence of its opposite, and that's not the case in Heaven. The opposite isn't just gone...it never was.

In Heaven, Happy is the noun that defines the whole.

On coming back to this life, I was devastated, but was shortly given information. By God? Perhaps. By an angel, as Barb suggested? Maybe.

It didn't come in words, exactly, but it did come in words. Try to make sense of that. I can't.

There will be another trip. I was at first told that I would not return from the third time, but the 'Voice' then amended Himself to say that I would come back to tell the story.

The three trips are analogues of the Triune God; the first is something of sweeping vistas and majesty, and is a voyage of discovery ("Oh, of course...that's the way it's supposed to be.")

The first trip is being taken up into God the Father, as a wick is taken up into a candle-flame. Only the wick is not consumed, and the flame does not burn.

The second trip, described above, is being taken up into the New Life in Christ. It is an out-and-out celebration. 

The third trip will be...wait for it...taken up into the Holy Ghost. I have no idea what it will be like, but look forward to finding out.

I am writing as factually and clinically as I can, without interpretation, because I truly want you, the reader, to take comfort and joy from these experiences. I suspect it may be why I still live; Barb thinks so.

So why have I been selected for this, and charged with the task of writing about it?

Darned if I know. I'm deeply honoured, don't get me wrong, but probably any of you, reading this, could do the job better.

But it's in my lap, and I will do my best. I won't write anything that didn't happen, and won't leave out anything that did.

But it's hard, because I can only describe what I experienced. I saw no New Jerusalem, no streets of gold, no angelic choirs.

I saw no Throne Room.

I did meet Jesus on the first trip, but the encounter was so laid-back that I did not realize until later whom I'd met.

I wasn't taken up into the air, and no-one wore robes or crowns. The clothes were 'nice' comfortable wear, and I saw no headgear of any kind.

What I'm trying to say...and why I have still held back from posting the narrative of the first trip...is that I don't want to undermine anyone else's picture of what Heaven will be like.

I only saw what I saw. The other stuff may be there; I simply do not have that information.

But I do have what I saw, burned indelibly into my heart.

Were it not so, I would not have told you.

 I died on Monday morning,

sent Heavenward, returned.

I saw new life a-borning,

but have I truly earned

the right to tell of glories

through which I have now passed?

Can I relate the glowing stories

of the effervescent joy that lasts,

or should my words be now constrained

unto an earthly plane,

speaking as though I have remained

with those whose vision stays the same

to see the bright eternal age

through well-loved words on holy page?

Music from Kool And The Gang, with Celebration. (Please click here if the video doesn't come up on your device.)

Thanks to Carol Ashby, Blessed Are The Pure Of Heart is back on Kindle, and will be available in paperback soon.

Friends are everything. I couldn't have done it.

Below are my recent releases on Kindle -please excuse their presence in the body of the blog. I haven't the energy to get them up as 'buttons' in the sidebar. You can click on the covers to go to the Amazon links.