In The Presence of God

Last week my family attended the funeral of our youth pastor's grandmother. The funeral home was very nice and I actually had attended the funeral of a friend/co-worker's husband at that same funeral home just weeks before. It was sort of surreal being there again. Joe's funeral was still fresh in my mind. My heart ached for Denise, my co-worker/friend, a little more as I walked into the chapel. I just couldn't help but think about her and Joe's funeral.

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Our pastor and his wife were there and as we sat down on the back row we chit chatted with them. The service quickly started with a video of this precious woman. Picture after picture it showed just how wonderful she must have been. I did not know her personally but as an outsider looking at those pictures you could just tell how wonderful she was.

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The service was performed by the husband of a granddaughter. Come to find out he is a pastor at a local church and he did a fantastic job. I'm sure it was very hard for him to preach his own grandmother-in-law's funeral but I do not think anyone else could have done it justice. As he spoke he began to talk about the day she died. She had been sick for a very long time and as they all gathered in her hospital room just moments before she died he said the feeling in the room completely changed. He said that it felt as if angles pushed him out of the way to get to her. He told everyone that he wanted nothing more than to pray as this sweet woman took her last breath but when he would open his mouth nothing would come out. He said it was as if God said "You don't speak when I'm here!" He continued by saying that as this precious angel was called home and her last breath was breathed he immediately began to pray without a struggle. The words just flowed right out of him. He said he truly knew that he had been in the presence of God.

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As the service continued he quoted Luke 15:10 "...there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents" (NLT). He pointed out that this verse does not say that the angels rejoice but that there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels. He explained that he believes that those who have gone on to heaven before us are the ones described in this passage. That just made my day! I began to think about my Grannie, my Grandma, both my Grandfathers who even though I never met knew that I existed and that on September 28, 2008 they knew that I had accepted Jesus as my Savior! They rejoiced, danced, sang, clapped and had a good ole time. Maybe I'm simple minded but I have this vision of everybody just standing around, hanging out, having a wonderful time in heaven and all of a sudden a speaker goes off (you know like on the old MASH episodes) and it says "Ladies and gentlemen we have another one....Lori Anne Schliep Goodwin has just placed her name in the Book of Life" and then the crowd just goes nuts! Can you see it?

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The air in that chapel that day was like nothing I had ever felt in my life. I knew God was most certainly there! You could truly feel his presence! Amazing things happen in the presence of God! Have you ever felt him? Better yet, do you know him?