By Dan Barber
I often think about this question. What I believe is what my
father told me in a dream about two weeks after he died. My brothers and I had to ask the staff of the
hospital where he was on life support to end that support because he was never
going to recover and we knew he did not
want to continue living that way.
That decision really bothered me until my father came to me
in that dream. I asked him if we did right by removing his life support. He
assured me it was the best thing because in his Heaven he was able to relive
every joyous moment in his life over and over again as if for the first time.
I posed the title of this blog with the question “what’s in
store for us” because my wife just found out his morning that her youngest
brother, Bobby, had just died. We are sad that we won’t be able to see him
anymore, but we are joyous that he will always be with us in our hearts. I
remember Bobby as being a young child, because of my service I was separated from
family for very long periods of time. We missed visiting some of our family
members because geographic distance as well as the years that eventually came
to separate us.
Bobby was the youngest of seven children. He was born
prematurely by a very risky c-section delivery with no guarantees that he would
survive for very long. The emergency c-section only gave Bobby a very slim
chance at survival because his mother was dying from Leukemia. She was only
able to hold her baby for a very brief time before she passed.
I believe that Bobby’s mother and father will welcome him to
his Heaven and he will get to know them and he will get to relive his joys and
share them with all his loved ones in Heaven.
It is very important that you “own” your family and friends…
which means if you “disown” them you will have lost some very important memories
and joyous moments in your Heaven.
