Nine Days in Heaven: A True Story (7 page)
…
HER WHOLE FORM QUIVERED AS
SHE PRESSED KISS AFTER KISS ON THE
COLD CHEEK OF HER LOST BABE
.
A man dressed in black entered solemnly and silently approached the weeping mother. Taking her hand he said, “Come, dear one. Try to understand that ‘the L
ORD
gave and the L
ORD
has taken away; may the name of the L
ORD
be praised.’
3
Remember that Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’
4
Jesus also told us that ‘their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.’”
5
The scene changed, and I saw the mother sitting beside a coffin with a gathering of people. She was staring at the ceiling, her face filled with grief. In front of the coffin stood the solemn man whom I had seen before. He read a psalm, prayed for the distressed, and then endeavored to encourage the mourners by explaining from the Bible that the baby, though dead, would live again and that an angel had taken it to Abraham’s tender care.
6
“T
HE LIFELESS FORM JUST SEEN IN
THE VISION WAS THE REPRESENTATION
OF MY OWN BODY, THE WEEPING
MOTHER WAS MY OWN MOTHER
…”
The scene eventually faded, and the boy said to me, “That lifeless form you just saw in the vision was my body, and the weeping woman was my mother. This is what happened after I left my body. The solemn man was a Christian minister. The passing angel who paused before us just now was the one who carried me to the place prepared for young and fragile children. These angel spirits are continually nourishing their little minds.”
Authors’ Note:
At this point in the original book there follow four chapters that describe in lengthy detail how angels nurture and teach small infants in a special nursery in paradise. In order to maintain a consistent pace throughout the story, these four chapters, which are self-contained, have been placed at the end of the book. (See Appendix B.)
Support From
the Word of God
1.
“
Being innocent…brought to paradise.
” King David, at the death of his baby son, born to Bathsheba, said: “I will go to him, but he will not return to me” (2 Sam. 12:23). He fully expected to be reunited with his child in heaven.
2.
“See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven” (Matt. 18:10).
3.
Job 1:21 says:
Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
and naked I will depart.
The L
ORD
gave and the L
ORD
has taken away;
may the name of the L
ORD
be praised.
This was Job’s cry of faith and resignation when he dramatically and tragically lost his children, his possessions, and his servants in one day. Note that these words of Job are based on his restricted earthly view of his situation. He was unaware of the exchanges between God and Satan and the fact that it was Satan’s hand that delivered his calamities.
4.
“Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these’” (Matt. 19:14).
5.
“See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven” (Matt. 18:10).
6.
“
Abraham’s tender care
” indicates heaven.
The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried.
—Luke 16:22
This passage tells of a rich man and a poor man who both died—the rich man consigned to hell and the poor man to “Abraham’s side.” The event is probably factual—not a parable. Parables never identify people involved as this story has done with Abraham, Lazarus, and the rich man.
A
VOICE ABOVE US CALLED
, “C
OME UP HERE!
”
A chariot-like cloud of light picked us up, and we rose inside a circular area rather like the interior of a tower. Its spiral walls formed galleries, winding ever upward, and it seemed to be formed of rainbows wreathed in spirals of prismatic shades. Each one reflected many beautiful colors of matchless luster.
A profound sense of peace and delight filled me as we emerged at the top. We found ourselves on an aerial plain suspended above the lofty dome of the central temple. From here I could see the complete layout of the great city, stretching out on every side. Its beauty was breathtaking.
Beneath me was the infants’ Temple of Instruction. Built of the most precious materials, it was an architectural wonder, rising from the center of a vast circular lawn of soft, lush, green grass. Spaced at regular intervals were groups of majestic trees with luxuriant clusters of fragrant flowers. Beneath them in the open spaces were tiny garden beds filled with every variety of flower, blossoming shrubs, and vines.
Fountains of dancing waters caught my eye. Some bubbled up from the green grass to flow with a low and pleasant murmur through marble channels or beds of golden sand. Others gushed up very high, cascading down in streams that fed into basins. Some of these basins looked like diamonds, others like polished silver or the whitest pearl.
The circular lawn was surrounded by high, open trelliswork with a gateway at its eastern side. Flowing out through the gateway was a river, supplied by the fountains within.
Looking around at the surrounding city, I noticed it was divided into twelve great divisions by this river. The river flowed in a spiral course, in twelve huge curves proceeding out from the center to the circumference. On each side of the river was a wide avenue, and twelve other straight streets intersected this spiral avenue. The straight streets began in the consecrated ground about the temple and radiated out to twelve equally divided points on the outer boundary. So the city was divided into 144 great suburbs, or divisions, arranged in increasing degrees of magnificence and beauty.
As my gaze followed the pathway of the flowing river and the stately avenues, I lost all sense of time and self-awareness. I had never seen anything like it in its splendor and complexity, and I became completely absorbed in studying it.
A
S MY VISION FOLLOWED THE PATHWAY
OF THE FLOWING RIVER AND THE STATELY
AVENUES, MY MIND BECAME ABSORBED
TILL ALL SENSE OF PERSON OR TIME WAS
MERGED IN THE ENTRANCING SIGHT
.
Each building in the city was extremely large and perfectly integrated with all the others. The entire city gave the impression of being one garden of flowers, one grove of shady trees, one gallery of sculptures, and one sea of fountains. All of these, together with the buildings, formed an unbroken expanse of sumptuous architecture set in a surrounding landscape of matching beauty. This was then overarched by a colored sky that bathed every object in its incredible and ever-changing shades.
After a time I became aware of the inhabitants. But I can give only the faintest picture of what was before me. I would describe it by saying that the way the angelic multitude moved together was like a single melody, animated by one inspiring love and moving in one orderly plan. Their unchanging focus was the development of their infant charges to the same state of perfection as that of the city.
The melody of their movement was echoed in the groups of infants, where there was no rivalry or desire for selfish glory. Rather, each group in each nursery was united to the more mature groups. In some way I could sense that each little child was filled with holy love and a desire to grow in wisdom, to be capable of being used as an angel of light and loveliness. I could see that each one loved to learn from those above them, and they were devoting themselves completely to unselfish acts of love.
