In a way that only the Spirit of God can orchestrate… we adjusted our plans. Actually, our sleeping configuration.
The night was June 7th, 2020. Almost exactly a year ago.
The pandemic was raging. Racial tensions at a boiling point. Economic uncertainty loomed. Political rhetoric was being hurled about with toxic results… but none of that seemed relevant on the 7th of June.
Eunice Cargo, my mother in law, had taken up residence in our lower level. She had walked across the threshold of our home on April 22, 2020 after a departure from a confining Assisted Living location. We wanted her with us. And after some persuasion, she agreed.
Now, seven weeks later, her body was giving way to the unrelenting affects of age. At 95, her body had every reason to wave a white flag. But her mind remained crisp, even witty.
During her final days on earth, Eunice managed her pain and discomfort well… and for the most part, without medication. This meant that she remained mentally engaged and engaging. On the night of June 7th, Mary and I both came to the conclusion that we should make up a sleeper sofa in the same lower level where Eunice’s “apartment” had been configured. Quite literally, our bed for that evening was roughly 15 feet from hers.
Just after midnight, Eunice woke us. Our interaction with her in that moment has pressed into my tidy rational soul for almost a year.
“Who were the men that were standing at each corner of my bed?”
That was Eunice’s question. Mary, with compassion and tenderness assured, comforted, and loved her. “It’s just Dan and me”.
Just Dan and me. Really?
Is it possible, that God had dispatched an escort? Companions for a journey. Guards and protectors who would walk with Eunice for the final steps of her life.
The four men hadn’t frightened her… in fact, they seemed to bring her comfort. This vision had been preceded by others in the weeks before this. “A room full of white flowers.” On another occasion Eunice welcomed a room full of “visitors”. Perhaps saints that didn’t leave footprints… but seemed to bring great delight.
Visions in an uncluttered mind. A thin veil between heaven and earth. Heightened sensitivity to a cosmic reality when the rest of us were numb because of our culture.
Eunice, a wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother who, over the course of her life, had been called on to fight for, defend and protect those closest to her. She stood watch as her eldest son went to war. She walked through the ups and downs of a military and corporate career with her soulmate… as his advocate, his friend, his defender. She wrestled with the forces of evil who crafted designs to highjack the spiritual vitality of her friends and family… and now Eunice was the recipient of the same celestial support.
Eunice, a child of God. A daughter of the King. Now being beckoned home.
My rational mind whirled, even as the vivid picture of an eternal struggle unfolded. Indisputably.
This was my home, but I was a guest in this room. The waiting room. The lobby to the grandest experience of a lifetime.
Eunice, clear minded and unmedicated saw it. As Eunice’s grip relaxed on the things of this world, her grasp on eternity tightened…
Two hours later she pulled her last bit of oxygen from her final breath… and the four men ushered her into Glory. Her pulse stopped, even as her eternal existence began.
Uninvited guests had come to my house… and when they did, they interrupted my tidy perspective on the Kingdom of God. I’m afraid that mystery and wonder were unwelcome, and dismissed. The size of my faith constrained my view of God’s power… until Eunice. Until heaven broke through.
And a year later… the memory continues to linger in beautiful and powerful ways.
Jacob wrested with an angel, and Eunice was protected and reassured by them. Cosmic confidence. Ushers to eternity. Glory to God… in the highest.
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