“Without detracting from the sacredness of that Scripture in Hebrew 11, I would like to submit for your inspiration my own modern-day “Heroes’ Hall of Fame.” Listed among these giants of the faith are two incredible human beings who must hold a special place in the great heart of God.

During my fourteen years on the attending staff at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles, many of the kids I saw suffered from terminal illnesses. Others endured chronic disorders that disrupted and warped their childhoods.

Some of them were less than ten years of age, and yet their faith in Jesus Christ was unshakable. They died with a testimony on their lips, witnessing to the goodness of God while their little bodies withered away. What a reception they must have received when they met him who said, “Let the children come to me” (Mark 10:14).

Bells Were Ringing
In my first film series, Focus on the Family, I shared a story about a five-year-old African-American boy who will never be forgotten by those who knew him. A nurse with whom I worked, Gracie Schaeffler, took care of this lad during the latter days of his life. He was dying of lung cancer, which is a terrifying disease in its final stages. The lungs fill with fluid, and the patient is unable to breathe. It is terribly claustrophobic, especially for a small child.

This little boy had a Christian mother who loved him and stayed by his side through the long ordeal. She cradled him on her lap and talked softly about the Lord. Instinctively, the woman was preparing her son for the final hours to come. Gracie told me that she entered his room one day as death approached, and she heard this lad talking about hearing bells.

“The bells are ringing, Mommie,” he said. “I can hear them.”

Gracie thought he was hallucinating because he was already slipping away. She left and returned a few minutes later and again heard him talking about hearing bells ringing.

The nurse said to his mother, “I’m sure you know your baby is hearing things that aren’t there. He is hallucinating because of the sickness.”

The mother pulled her son closer to her chest, smiled, and said, “No, Miss Schaeffler. He is not hallucinating. I told him when he was frightened, when he couldn’t breathe, if he would listen carefully, he could hear the bells of heaven ringing for him. That is what he’s been talking about all day.”

That precious child died on his mother’s lap later that evening, and he was still talking about the bells of heaven when the angels came to take him. What a brave little trooper he was. His courage was not reported in the newspapers the next day. Neither Tom Brokaw nor Dan Rather told his story on the evening news. Yet he and his mother belong forever in our “Heroes’ Hall of Fame.” – Adapted from When God Doesn’t Make Sense by James Dobson

Are you in the throes of distress over the loss of a loved one? Rather than succumb to the negatives you cannot explain, why not choose the path of encouragement. Take a cue from David in 1 Samuel 30.

And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. And David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech’s son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought thither the ephod to David. And David enquired at the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all. 1 Samuel 30:6-8

Shalom




Pastor Afolabi Oladele