What Lies Beyond?

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty thunder-peals, crying out,

‘Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
   the Almighty reigns.

~ Revelation 19.6 

Many years ago, when my grandmother had passed away from cancer, I remember my mother saying that she no longer feared death.  While she had been watching at her mother’s bedside as her mother’s last hours on this earth neared, her mother woke up and asked her who was singing in the hallway of the hospital.  My mother said there were some nurses in the hall talking, but no one was singing.  Her mother insisted that, no, it wasn’t talking she heard, but singing.  

A couple of hours later, after my aunt had relieved my mother of the bedside vigil, my grandmother opened her eyes from her sleep, looked to the window as if she saw something and followed her gaze up toward the ceiling.  My aunt, wondering what her mother was looking at, looked up to see what my grandmother might have been so intently looking at.  Seeing nothing, she looked back at her mother and she had passed from this world to the next.  

God gives us glimpses in scripture many times over of what lies beyond this life.  Those that are already in heaven will be shouting, singing and praising God!  A great celebration of eternal life with our glorious Heavenly Father is what is awaiting us!  We need not fear our earthly death, for it leads to an eternal life for those of us who believe in Him and have repented of our sins through the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. 

Prayer 

Father in heaven,

We thank you for these glimpses of heaven that you show us, not only in the Bible, but in the last moments of those we love as they pass from this world to Your eternal peace so that we who believe no longer need to fear what lies beyond this life.  Amen.

~ Wendy Miller