Death has not held her

Recently I have been blessed to get to know a remarkable lady. This week she will celebrate her 90th birthday, and though using a 'walker' still gets out and about from her own home.

Yet what makes her more remarkable is her story. For some time ago (I think nearly 30 years back ... when she was a mere 60 years old), she became seriously unwell and in hospital. Other patients on the ward have told her that one day the monitors ceased to give any reading. Her memory is of being in a tunnel with a bright light at the end, with voices calling her forward - but also the voice of a relative calling her back. Medically she was revived, but deep down she knew that she had 'more to do' back here in this life.

Extraordinarily she recalls how her father had a similar experience. He had told her of how he apparently died, had a vision, and a sense of being called back. Such things seem to run in her family!

Her story, however, traces back even further to baby-hood tragedy. Her mother's first pregnancy resulted in the still-birth of a brother. She was conceived and born, but within six months her mother became seriously ill and passed away, leaving a distraught father with a baby girl. The grandfather took them in, but sadly she was unwell too - at just 6 months old. The doctors told the grandfather that they did not expect her to live: tragedy was about to compound. Yet relatives have since told her that the grandfather did not accept the doctor's prognosis, and proclaimed: "She will live!". Of course she survived, and is now hitting the age of 90!

This lady has some kind of clear faith: believing in God and she prays every night, thankful for her life. Yet Christologically it is not orthodox - her recounting of both her and her father's death-bed visions do not assert Jesus as Lord. Interestingly both her grandfather and her father originally claimed to be atheists, but the grandfather changed his tune after the survival of his baby granddaughter, and apparently the father was seen by other relatives to be praying.

Whatever the exact theological standpoint declared through her telling of her story, it is clear that death has crouched near on more than one occasion but has not held her! It also seems to me that the Spirit of God has been curiously at work in this family through multiple generations, albeit without explicit profession of Christ from them (so far, at least!).

It is my privilege to get to know this lady, and freely talk about the resurrected Jesus with her. I can talk with her about faith in Christ, and I have much to learn from her incredible still-unfolding story.