I Died You Know

“I died you know,” she told us.

“Oh?” I replied.

“Yes, I was giving birth to my son, he is around here somewhere,” and she looked around, but he was not to be found.

“I died and he survived. My husband was so distraught. It was 5 hours until I went through the tunnel of light to come back again,” she said.

“You were dead for 5 hours?” I incredulously asked her.

“Yes.”

She was standing there right in front of us very much alive and well advanced in her life, her son apparently was now in his 40’s.

“You know what God said to me?” she asked us.

I shook my head no.

“He said, did you know that this day, today, has never happened before, no one has ever lived it before. How are you going to live it?”

She is very correct, this day, today, is a day that has never happened before in the whole timespan of the planet and we have a choice as to how we will live it. What will we make priority?

I have had and heard a few things this week that have made me think. One of them was this dear ladies’ conversation.

Another thing I heard was about a fellow who used to grace us with his presence at the Thrift Store and the Prayer Room. A lonely fellow, I believe something left him as some would call a little “slow”, he was made fun of. Now elderly but looking for company and a listening ear. They found him dead in his apartment last week. He died alone. I am so saddened by this; it is my belief that no one should have to die alone. Oh, I have heard many stories about angels and even Jesus making an appearance that perhaps I do believe we are never really alone in the process but hearing that this man was found alone made me so sad.

So many of the wonderful folks at the Thrift store took the time to talk to him, to help him in certain ways, I like to think he had found a “family” of sorts there and felt loved and accepted. I was so thankful that people took the time out of their day to share in this man’s life. We had no idea he was going to pass on so quickly, he was not “sick” that we knew of, what if we had pushed him aside and decided other things were more important at those times?

Today I met another fellow who again would have been labelled “different”. He was the grass mower at a church. He told me the grass was his pride and joy, and the grass indeed was amazingly done. He said he mows it criss crossed each time so by the end of summer you could play a game of chess or checkers on it. I smiled as I looked over the lawn and saw the start of the squares. He went on to tell me that he had had 3 major strokes and that had stopped his life of travelling. He had lived all over the world, as he listed some of the countries and there was many, and some of his favorite places, I envied him.

This man, one we would label “different” then went on to tell me that he goes to the elderly’s homes during this heat wave and he cuts their lawns for free so they won’t have to. He refuses to take payment.

I marvelled after I met him that so many people would write this man off. He did not fit in, he was different, but in reality he was very much like Jesus. He was out in the full heat of the day, 30 degrees, checking on the lawns and the people in his community.

This man was living his life very well, it is a new day and he was choosing how he wanted to live it, it will be said of him, “he loved well.”

It is a new day today, a day that never was before and will not be again, how will you chose to live it?