Sweet Sounds From Heaven

People are supposed to go into the hospital and get better pretty quickly or die. Daddy did neither. He went in the hospital in October,1990 and came out October, 1991, a total of 362 days. Yeah, that was a difficult year, and without God’s grace and favor, none of us would have made it, including daddy. He went in with a fairly minor and quite fixable situation, but stuff happens. It was not long before we were not sure if he would ever come out. Matter of fact, many doctors told mama he would not make it, and if he did, he would be a vegetable and need constant care. We appreciate and respect doctors, but I know the Great Physician can fix any mess.

Somehow, I was not willing to let daddy go. He was only 67 years old and I found promises in the Bible that we should have at least 70 or by reason of strength 80 years on the earth before we fly away (Psalms 90:10). So I had a talk with God and reminded Him of his Word and just pleaded daddy’s case before the high courts of heaven. Mama agreed with me. She was not ready to let him go either.  My entire church was in agreement with me that daddy would live and not die according to Psalms 118:17. Little did I know this was going to be the fight of my life. The fight of faith, because I surely couldn’t go by what I saw. They had tubes in every hole he had and made more holes. It was tough stuff but for the most part daddy hung in there like a hair in a biscuit.

A lot was learned that year. One thing  learned was to guard my tongue. Say only what I believe. I spoke the Word of God over daddy daily. He was in and out of intensive care probably 10 time or more, I lost count.  When he took a turn for the worse, I had to increase God’s medicine, the gos pills. During that year there were more miracles than my mind can even remember. Every time something else would happen, mama would call me to pray. Without faith it is impossible to please God. I sure did please God that year. I believed Him for things I didn’t even know I could believe Him for. I just did, and He just honored it.

There isn’t space to recount everything that happened, but one morning while getting dressed for work, God spoke to me and said “you need to go see your daddy today”. Because of work, I didn’t get to see him everyday like mama did. Nevertheless, I saw him as often as I could, which was often. I told God I would. My boss was very understanding and willing to give me space when I needed to scoot out to the hospital and allow me to make up my time during the week. After all, no one expected daddy to live anyway, but I did. Arriving at the hospital and he was back in intensive care, tubes everywhere. Things looked really bad as usual. I prayed over him out loud. I knew he could hear me, even if it looked like he was dead, and it did. Seemed to me he looked even worse this time than other times when he was in intensive care. His color was quite stark. There was a window in daddy’s cubicle and I could see the mall across the street. I talked to daddy and reminded him that one day he would be over at the mall looking back at the hospital. Reminded daddy that he would not die, but live and declare the Works of the Lord.  Prayed over him, laid hands on him, thanked God for healing daddy and left. Boy Oh Boy, I sure could not be moved by what I saw.

When daddy went into the hospital he weighed around l65 pounds. Naturally, he lost weight during his stay. When he came out he weighed 114. He looked like a cancer patient, but he was alive, and we were grateful. He had problems swallowing so mama had to puree his food. Once when he was eating pureed pinto beans; one of his favorite foods, he got a whole bean and he was so excited. He proudly announced it to all at the table. It was a little difficult to understand his speech, but we got it by his smiling eyes. I truly believe his humor helped pull him through.

He had lots of therapy at the hospital as well as at home. He had speech therapy, physical therapy and all kinds of therapy. Remember, this is the man that was not supposed to live, but he did. He was not supposed to be able to talk, walk, feed himself, bathe himself, certainly not drive a car, lawn mower, or boat. He did all of these things and more. Later on he even worked on the lawn mower. God is so faithful!

Because of the trauma daddy experienced through this whole ordeal, his nervous system suffered damage. His hands would move involuntarily. He endured several spinal taps and actually, at one point, the doctors thought he had spinal meningitis. I don’t recall if he did or did not. All I remember is he had trouble with his hands in particular and did not have a lot of feeling in his fingers.

After daddy recovered enough to move about and have a life, I accompanied him and mama on a trip to Virginia. It was in the Spring of 1995. We call Virginia home, even though we all have lived in Florida for many, many years. I was driving the van and daddy was in the front seat with me. He was fooling around with the controls up at the top of the van. It was obvious he was having difficulty finding his desired knob to do whatever he wanted to do. I found out he was trying to check the outside temperature. We were climbing.

Driving in the mountains required all my attention, especially since I hadn’t driven mountain roads in some time. Nevertheless, It bothered me that daddy was having so much trouble. I asked him what seemed to be the problem. Daddy said, “I don’t have as much feeling in my hands as I used to.” Then he grinned and said, “but ,I’m so much better then I used to be.” I grinned and agreed wholeheartedly. Then daddy said, “Sandy, when I would get to my lowest point and wanted to die, you would show up at my bedside and say, “daddy, you will not die but live and declare the works of the Lord.”  Somehow, when I heard those words, the desire to live again rose up inside of me and I began to fight again for my life.”

When daddy shared that with me, it took everything I had to steer the vehicle and keep it in the middle of the road and not go over a cliff.  I knew God spoke to me to go see daddy on at least one particular occasion, but little did I know daddy had truly given up. I can understand. He was born again and knew he would go to heaven. He didn’t want to be any trouble to mama and us kids. The physical body can only endure so much stress, pain and discouragement. Sometimes, we feel like, “I’m out of here.”  Who wouldn’t just call it a day. I am so glad God knows exactly what we need to keep us trucking. Daddy talked about God’s delivering power everywhere he went and gave his testimony in several churches. He got bold about what God could do. It was wonderful to observe.

After daddy was home just a little while, Christmas was approaching. He told me he wanted to go to the mall to buy mama a gift. Naturally, we went.  He was in a wheel chair, but what a treat to wheel him around and let him shop. He found what he wanted and paid for it. He did all the work. His hands needed the therapy and he needed the independence. We finished our shopping spree and started toward the vehicle to go home. I told daddy to look across the street at the hospital. He did and we both thanked God for HIS faithfulness.

Daddy lived for 13 additional years. He went to heaven in 2004 and was over 81. I tried to talk daddy into more time on earth, but this time his body was worn out and he was not willing to stay. I had no promises to stand on and had run out of options. Our times are in the hands of the Lord. I’m thankful for every minute we had together. The really good news is I’ll get to see him again. Sometimes God will give us more time just like Hezekiah got 15 additional years. Believe for all you can and don’t go until you’re satisfied. And above all, go to heaven. Hell was not made for people.

If you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and confess that with your mouth, the Bible says you will be saved from wrath. Jesus took the curse upon himself at the cross so that we could go free from the curse. He took our place. Just think about it, God gave His Son, The Sinless, Spotless Son, Jesus, so that YOU could become His son, regardless of your spots and sins. Glory to God! I’m grateful, I just believe that the Bible means what it says, and that’s all it took for me. You’re no different, I promise you, you’re not. There is such freedom in knowing that our sins are forgiven and we can have peace here and hereafter. Fire insurance is just a bonus. Freedom from fear of death and the grave is what it’s all about. See ya at the house.

We all dream, but don’t generally remember them, however immediately upon waking up, I remembered my dream. I thought what a weird dream that was. Actually, I remember saying out loud on the way to the bathroom,” that was a very weird dream.” It was very stirring to me. I had dreamed that my brother-in-law had had a heart attack, and worse, my sister didn’t even call me to let me know. We have a good relationship so there was no reason for her not to call me. In my dream, when I finally did hear from Karen, I was disturbed that she had not called me earlier, if for no other reason but to pray for Ralph. I said “Karen, why didn’t you call me, you know I pray. Thousands of people would love to have my personal phone number and a hot line to heaven; you’re my sister, you even have my cell.”  And she said, “I know Sandy, but I didn’t want to worry you and I know you go to church on Sunday.”  Well, it was Sunday, but I would not have worried, I would have prayed, I assured her. Even though the dream was very stirring, I tried to put it behind me and get to more important business. It was, after all, only a dream.

I am fortunate to be able to spend my mornings in prayer, and have ever since retirement several years ago. So as was my custom I settled in my prayer chair to petition heaven and fellowship with my Heavenly Father, who loves me. This is my greatest joy and deprivation occurs if time is not spent with my Master. I pray about lots of things and for lots of people. I pray the Word of God over situations and expect things to change, because it is the Word of God that is sharp and powerful and does the work. I simply vocalize the word, so God just uses my mouth and my faith, and He gets the job done any way He wants to. During my prayer time I was praying for healing over several people. I included Ralph in the healing prayers. I never had before. I pray other scriptures over Ralph routinely, but not necessarily healing scriptures. As far as I knew, he was well and doing fine. However, I was stirred in the prayer time for healing to include Ralph, I’m sure because of the dream. I finished up the morning prayer time and went about my day.

The following weekend, late Sunday evening I received a phone call from my sister. The call came from the hospital where she worked during the weekdays as a nurse. I answered the phone and said, “karen, what are you doing working on Sunday?” She said, “I’m not working, I’m up here with Ralph. The doctors think he had a heart attack.” I said, “What! Why didn’t you call me, you know I pray. Thousands of people would love to have my personal phone number and a hot line to heaven; you’re my sister, you even have my cell.”  I’m sure I made her feel bad; not intentionally, I just didn’t understand the logic. Nevertheless, she felt my pain.

She kind of changed the subject and said she had to unplug Ralph from all the things he was plugged up to so he could get a shower and she would be home shortly. I told her I’d call her later. After we hung up, I felt like I was in a time warp. Somehow I had been here before, then I remembered the dream a week ago. I wanted to make sure I hadn’t made all this up so I gave Karen time to get home and I called her. She had just walked in the door. I said, “Karen, remember the phone conversation we had earlier when you were at the hospital?” She said, “yeah, I remember,” like how could I forget. I said, “have we ever had that conversation before?”  She said , thinking it through, “no, why?”  Then I told her about the dream. She said, “wow! actually, last week end Ralph was walking in the woods near our home and fell. The doctors think he may have had the heart attack then.” I said, “wow!, that’s how much God loves Ralph.”

I am so impressed with God. He can get stuff to us any ol’ way He wants to. Dreams work for me. That was about 18 months ago and today Ralph is alive and doing really well. Somehow, I’m not so sure this story would have a good ending, had God not stirred me with such a weird dream.

I had company. Reed and Donna Raye with their new baby, Amos had come from Quitman, Georgia to visit Aunt Sandy in Florida. What a treat. We all worked and somehow people don’t visit like they used to. At least, that’s what my grandma always said to me, and she was right. Donna Raye and I decided to run into Starke, our nearest town and play while Reed stayed with Amos Coy. We played in the Dollar Store and laughed until we couldn’t. We were trying on clothes and the mirror was evidently from Mars as it made us look like aliens. I don’t know, looking back, maybe that was an improvement. Anyway, we were having lots of fun when we remembered Reed and Amos were home alone. This was in 1981 and before cell phones. We decided we had better check in, so we headed toward Graham.

 When we arrived Reed was in some kind of a tizzy. Amos was limp and seemed to be running quite a fever. Reed had already placed him in tepid water in the bathtub seemingly to no avail. Well, now Donna Raye and I were in a tizzy too. We were all pretty scared. I came up with the idea to call my pastor just down the road. Of all times for him not to be home. With church tonight, I knew he could not be far, however time was an issue. Amos’ eyes did not look good. Seemed to me they were disappearing in the back of his head. I said to Reed and Donna Raye, “listen, now the Bible says believers shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover, it didn’t say we had to be a pastor.” They both agreed wholeheartedly. I said, “look here, I have hands and we are all believers. I’ll lay hands on Amos Coy and you two agree and we’ll just expect Jesus The Healer to heal him.”  At that point, I think they would have agreed to just about anything, but we were going to stick with the Bible.

I also remembered and reminded them about Peter’s mother-in-law who was healed of a fever by Jesus, and that Jesus never changes, and He is no respecter of persons. They laid little Amos in my lap. I laid my hands on his little, very warm body and prayed. Actually, I just reminded Jesus of his word. That He was the one who told us to lay hands on the sick and we were just following His orders. His job was to heal Amos. I also told the fever to leave Amos’ body in Jesus’ name. We agreed and said amen. Little Amos’ body began to cool off and he fell into a deep sleep. His color looked a lot better immediately and we were grateful. We went to church that night and Reed held little Amos in his arms and testified of God’s healing power and His faithfulness. Today Amos is married and serving his country in Iraq.

It was a beautiful fall day in the mountains of Grayson County Virginia. My sister, brother-in-law and I had just arrived for a weeks visit at Whitetop, and we were so excited. This is where Karen and I were from and we had not been home in some time. Karen and Ralph stayed on Pond Mountain in the cabin where our grandmother was born in 1903. I stayed with Doyle and Kaye, as I am a creature of comfort. We were trying to see as many of our folks as possible and one cousin lived across Whitetop mountain in Troutdale. Teresa invited us to come over for dinner and play guitar and sing, as was our custom when we got together. Karen and Ralph went over early and I told them I would be over later. We enjoyed their company and played and sang until we couldn’t.

It was about 6 o’clock and we decided we had better head back across the mountain toward our temporary homes. The sky had grown rather dark and a little snow had just begun to fall. This storm came out of nowhere. We left and by the time we reached the base of the mountain we were to cross, we were in a full fledged blizzard. I could hardly believe my eyes. Karen and Ralph were in front of me in a truck and I was in my trusty Honda. We had climbed the base of the mountain at its widest point just before it narrows to practically nothing. Nothing that is, but an embankment on the right and a deep fall to sudden death on the left.

Ralph stopped the truck and came back to my car. I had already started praying because things seemed to be pretty dire. Ralph was obviously shaken and said, “Sandy, I can’t see anything; this snow is blinding me and the headlights just go into space.” I said, “I know Ralph, this is serious.” He suggested I go in front and see if I could see any better. It was worth a try. I made it around his truck and was in the lead. I could see no better. However, I prayed “Jesus, if I ever needed you, I need you now.”

Suddenly, my headlights turned 45 degrees toward the embankment. I was shocked beyond belief. I could see the mountain. Dirt had never looked so good. I simply followed the winding, narrow dirt road all the way up the mountain, across the mountain and down the other side. It took about 10 minutes and the headlights never left the side of the mountain. I was crying and rejoicing all the while. It was obvious we were descending, but still could see nothing but the mountain. Then the headlights were straight ahead again. I thought, oh no, He’s left me, then immediately I saw the black top directly in front of me. Highway 58 was so beautiful I wanted to kiss it. I was so pleased and excited. We were safe. God had intervened and literally saved our lives.

 God is so good and I am ever grateful we have a God who can do anything. The next day was another beautiful fall day; the snow was history, so short lived. I stood on the porch and looked at my Honda as if it had life. It sure did the night before. Somehow I wanted it to talk to me, wink, blow kisses, anything, but of course it did nothing but sit there in the driveway like a good little car. You know, Jesus spoke to trees, the wind, dead people, fevers and they all obeyed Him.  Obviously, headlights obey Him too.  I will never forget our trip to Whitetop in October 1988 and especially our trip across Whitetop Mountain. God is so faithful and very, very smart.