My covid Journey: Staring at Death and Seeing Jesus

Death by covid is agonizing for family members who can not hold their loved one in a covid ward. As I relate my experiences, I pray these words bring comfort to you and hope that your loved one was so overjoyed by the presence of Christ, they felt no pain. Only joy.

 

Death seemed imminent. 

Everyone knew it. 

Family said their tear-filled good-byes via facebook. 

Nurses smiled, encouraged, but

 I sensed the certain sadness in their eyes. 

Another covid patient would bite the dust, and 

become a pandemic statistic. 

But death, where is your sting?

I felt no sting. 

Only joy!

 One envisions their last days filled with 

 sorrow,

 fear,

  terror, 

the sting, 

But these feelings were foreign to me on that last day.

 Earthly thoughts drifted away.

 The glories of Heaven consumed my mind.

 Excitement built.

 Today will be the most wonderful day of my life. 

Today I meet Jesus! 

There was no white flash or tunnel. 

Only Jesus Himself and Jesus alone. 

How exciting!

I was ecstatic!

 Wow! 

Today is the day.

 Today I meet Jesus. 

The One I love most. 

The Love of my eternal life.

I haven't been this excited since my wedding day.

Only more so!

  

Today is the day I finally see Jesus. 

I thought of my family, and there was peace. 

Sure, they would grieve. 

Miss me.

 But Jesus would not take me unless He would care for them. 

They would laugh again. 

Remember me around campfires and dinner tables.

 Create memories without me. 

 

I'll make family history as the grandma who died in a pandemic.

Pretty cool!

Funny, the things you think about when death's door is the next door. 

But Jesus.

 He shut Heaven's door until another day. 

My healing was decisive. 

Doctors were talking 

ventilators,

 lung transplant.

In my heart I knew doctors were deciding

 whether to keep trying to keep me alive or give up.

In my heart I knew my death date was God's plan, and

not a medical decision.

 

"Take her off the oxygen." 

The nurse startled, repeated the order. 

"Let's see how she does," 

the doctor hoped for one last chance at life.

 I breathed. 

I breathed again.

 I breathed again and again and again.

 I keep on breathing nine months later. 

"O death, where is thy sting? O grave,  where is thy victory?" 

1 Corinthians 15:55

"I will not die, but live, and tell of the works of the Lord." 

Psalm 118:17

"and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die."

John 11:26 

 

Hallelujah!!!