GOD AND MY SISTER JO  When the veil is thin

I'm sharing stories today at the request of my sister. They're her stories. She felt that it might bless others to read them. I think so too. I asked her to send them to me so that I could share them accurately and without too much of me in the mix. She did. What follows are experiences that happened to her when the veil was thin. 

What do I mean by that? It's when you know or see in another dimension of being than your every day experience of life. A place where you don't quite fit, and yet, there you are. Sometimes , oftentimes, this happens when you are between the place of being awake and asleep. Other times it happens when you're praying. Or when you're just minding your own business and God still has a plan of His own for you....

This short poem is from the Lord and is about her husband, who is gravely ill. He gave it to her in the in-between-place; not quite awake, and yet, not sleeping...  The next part will also be about her husband. He has end stage renal failure and metastatic kidney cancer. His time on earth is short now. He will soon meet Jesus face-to-face, but not just yet. Please read on...

The Flower

The brilliance of its color

The fragrance, so sweet

Fading

Almost gone

The color lingers in my mind's eye

So sweet, the fragrance never leaves me

Imprinted on my heart

Forever

So simple, so beautiful, so tender. It made me weep when she sent it to me.  She said that it was just there, in her head, like the first Spanish dialog she remembers from school. (We used to memorize dialogs to help us understand how the language flows together.) She was saying how her husband has some very bad times now, and some good times. She wrote it down quickly and sent it to me so she would have it, and what a gift it is to her. 

The next day, I called and she had another experience when the veil was thin....this one was quite different. She told me that the night before, there was a man on her lawn, and he was looking in the windows. He also walked around the outside of the house a bit, looking for a way to get in. He was all tan; everything was. Even the grass was tan; she especially remembers the grass. She could not see his face or hands; no skin was visible at all. He was wearing a hat with a large brim so she couldn't see his face.

She wrote, "I prayed him away, told him to leave. He was at the end of the sidewalk and then he was gone.  I told him to leave and that I would not let him in. I was in that place where God meets me. So close that even though death was near I had no fear. I knew we were safe. It is not like being asleep or awake, or like when you just wake up. It is different. It is a place of unexplainable peace and safety." She goes on the say "The safety of that place is like a warm, weighted blanket. You feel peace and safe. Almost like a cuddle, but you don't feel a touch; your whole body is wrapped up in the safety of God."

We talked about her experience; the tan man was death. It came for her husband, but it is not his time yet. He isn't ready. They had talked about this and how he would know and she would know the time.  It isn't far, but it isn't yet.  

I spent some time again today reading about the Shunemite. (My last post if you missed it.) I'm still regarding her and me and in my own difficult time. I had a hard morning and spent the worship service sitting in the common area. I needed time alone but not away.... the Lord gave me a psalm to write about what Jo has experienced as I sat and read and prayed....

   Death came---she saw him. She said "No." She said, "Go away."

She said, "Leave." and she closed the doors to him. 

She locked the doors---he sought to enter, she saw and stopped him.

She used her words; her words had power, her words defeated her enemy.

She praised God in the valley; it had been a valley of death~~~~

It became a valley of praise~~~~~~

God is in all of the things that go on in our lives; we just need to stop and acknowledge Him. He brings sweetness beyond compare in the hardest of times, the most difficult of times. He did this for Jo. She wanted me to share her stories so that you might come to know that He'll do it for you too. 

Good night sweet friends. Thank you for stopping by. May God stop by your home and in your dreams tonight.

 

 THE SHUNEMITE

 

Many years ago the Lord spoke to me and gave me a scripture in 2Kings. It was 1998. Adam was having terrible headaches, and we were just so frustrated and hoping to avoid another surgery. At this time in his life Adam had very little speech. But he felt so awful, and he would just say or scream, "My head, my head!"... and I knew he was suffering terribly. I would pray for him, give him Motrin or Tylenol, and pray some more. He got some relief, but not much. One day as I was hanging laundry on the line and Adam was sleeping, I was praying and crying out to the Lord and asking why He wasn't answering my prayers. Why was Adam suffering so much?  "I didn't ask you for a son; I didn't ask you for this child...." I was afraid he would die.....  God did not answer these prayers as I would have liked. Instead, He gave me a scripture. 1Kings 18. So I read the whole chapter. 

The funny thing is that in this story, the son of the Shunemite was having similar problems, and they were saying much the same things we were.  Her son was out in the fields with his father, and had become ill. He went to his father and said, "Oh, my head! My head!" And the father told the servants to take him to his mother. 

They did, and the child sat in her lap until noon that day, and then he died. The Shunemite took the child and laid him on the bed of the man of God, Elisha, whom she and her husband had provided an upper room for him to stay when he came through the area. She left the room and shut the door. She told her husband to send her a servant and a donkey so that she could go to Elisha quickly and then return. When he asked her about this, she replied, "All is well." Of course it wasn't according to the actual circumstances. She told the servant to push the donkey to keep going and not to stop unless she asked him to.

Elisha sent his servant out to meet them but she wanted nothing to do with him. She would only speak with Elisha. She fell to his feet upon her arrival and the servant Gehazi tried to move her away. Elisha told him to let her be, and that she was in great distress but the LORD had hidden it from him. So she said, "Did I ask you for a son? Did I not say, 'Don't deceive me?'" 

Elisha sent Gehazi ahead of them on the return trip as the woman refused to go with him.  "As the LORD lives and as you live, I won't leave you." Gehazi got to the home first, and tried to raise the child by laying the staff of Elisha on the child's face, to no avail. He went back to meet them as they travelled and told them that the child had not awakened.  

When Elisha arrived, he went upstairs to the room where the child lay and shut the door, and prayed to the LORD. Then he lay down on the child, putting his mouth on the child's mouth, his eyes on his eyes, his hands on his hands. As he did so, the child's body became warm. He got up, walked back and forth, and then laid down on the child again.The boy sneezed seven times and then opened his eyes. He sent for the woman and gave her son back to her. 

What spoke to me the first time was that the LORD knew Adam's cries of pain. He heard him. I felt somewhat comforted by this. Our trial wasn't over but I knew God was in it. 

The next time this scripture was given to me Adam was again having problems that my prayers could not defeat. But this time, I did the same thing that Elisha did; I prayed and then lay down on Adam, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. No small task with a sick child and moving target. I needed to be careful to hold my weight off him. After I got up, he sneezed six times. He got better after this, but he was not completely healed. 

This most recent time, as I returned to this scripture after a tough season over a year and a half, and 5 surgeries, I saw something different. The Shunemite. The mother. What was God saying to me about this? I had never considered this before. So I discovered as I searched that Shunem is in the area that belongs to the tribe of Issachar. This made my heart jump! I learned a long time ago that the sons of Issachar know the signs of the times AND what to do. It was about ME after all this time. It always has been about Adam, but ALSO about me. I just wasn't ready to see it. 

The Shunemite mother knew what to do for her son. She knew who could help and who couldn't. This is significant because I must also know what to do, who to go to, who can help. I often do. When I keep my peace, just as this woman did so long ago, things go much better. This past season, I lost my peace for so many reasons, and things got out of control. Fear came in for the first time in a long time. I was in a bad place. After realizing all this, I turned back to finding my place and my peace with and in God. I have always prized this place and gift above all the others in my life. It is what keeps me close to Him and in control of the situations that I need to have control of. 

The Shunemite. A daughter of Issachar. Me. Knowing the signs of the times and what to do. This awareness now is a challenge to see how else the LORD wants me to recognize who He has called me to be. I am pressing forward into more understanding and knowledge. It's a good journey. I'm in no hurry. I have all the time the LORD wants me to have to gain understanding. I know He will lead me. He will teach me. He may send others to deepen my understanding and to help me along the way. I'm looking forward to it all.

Our problems are still here. Adam is still not healed. He has new problems. I will press in to understand the time we're in and where we're going. I know God is with us. He sees what I cannot. But I will know the signs of the times. And I will know what to do. 

Peace to one and all. Thank you for reading my stories. I appreciate you. May God bless you richly.