|
A man's daughter had asked the local minister to come and pray
with her
father. When the minister arrived, he found the man lying in bed
with his
head propped up on two pillows. An empty chair sat beside his bed.
The minister assumed that the old fellow had been informed of his
visit.
"I guess you were expecting me, he said.
 "No,
who are you?" said the father.
The minister told him his name and then remarked, "I saw the
empty chair
and I figured you knew I was going to show up."
"Oh yeah, the chair," said the bedridden man. "Would
you mind closing the
door?"
Puzzled, the minister shut the door.
"I have never told anyone this, not even my daughter,"
said the man. "But
all of my life I have never known how to pray. At ! church I used
to hear
the pastor talk about prayer, but it went right over my head. I
abandoned
any attempt at prayer," the old man continued, "until
one day four years
ago, my best friend said to me, "Johnny, prayer is just a simple
matter of
having a conversation with Jesus. Here is what I suggest."
"Sit down in a chair; place an empty chair in front of you,
and in faith
see Jesus on the chair. It's not spooky because he promised, 'I
will be
with you always'. "Then just speak to him in the same way you're
doing
with me right now."
"So, I tried it and I've liked it so much that I do it a couple
of hours
every day. I'm careful though. If my daughter saw me talking to
an empty
chair, she'd either have a nervous breakdown or send me off to the
funny
farm."
The minister was deeply moved by the story and encouraged the old
man to
continue on the journey. Then he prayed with him, anointed him !
with oil,
and returned to the church.
Two nights later the daughter called to tell the minister that
her daddy
had died that afternoon.
"Did he die in peace?" he asked.
Yes, when I left the house about two o'clock, he called me over
to his
bedside, told me he loved me and kissed me on the cheek. When I
got back
from the store an hour later, I found him dead. But there was something
strange about his death. Apparently, just before Daddy died, he
leaned
over and rested his head on the chair beside the bed. What do you
make of
that?"
The minister wiped a tear from his eye and said, "I wish we
could all go
like that."
Story contributed by Priya
|
