Imagine Heaven DevotionalSample

A Marvelous Feeling of Peace

At age five, Margret’s appendix ruptured, and the infection took her to the edge of death. One night, says Margret,

This marvelous feeling of peace came over me. I was basking in that because it was so beautiful, when suddenly I became aware that someone was holding my right hand. I looked up and my eyes were traveling over a white gown. I came to the head of this beautiful woman. . . . 

She walked along with me holding my hand. . . . I became aware of a fragrance in the air that was becoming stronger and stronger. It was of flowers, and they just seemed to permeate my whole body. And when I took notice of what was around me besides her, I realized that the path was banked with flowers way over our heads.

After this beautiful woman told her she must go back to earthly life, it took Margret a year to recover. Decades later, in her sixties, she decided to paint the beautiful arbor pathway of Heaven. While painting it, Margret had to see her doctor. Her doctor mentioned near-death experiences, and she told him she was painting hers. He asked for a reproduction of it and hung it in his office.

Several weeks later, a new patient named Mary Olivia came  to see him. As a single mom facing a terminal illness with three children, she needed a second opinion. When Mary Olivia saw the painting in the doctor’s office, she just stood and stared before exclaiming, 

“I know where this is.”

He said, “You know what that’s a picture of?” 

“Of course I do. I walked along that path when I was five years old and almost died.” 

Mary Olivia then recalled being reassured by Jesus that He would always be with her, and this gave her great comfort as she was at the doctor. 

It is amazing when we realize how personal Jesus is with each of us, even to the point of orchestrating moments in time to meet a need He knows we will have in the future. Being aware of His presence enables us to live each day with a calm assurance that there is nothing we will face without Jesus by our side. 

Heavenly Father, I am so grateful that you are always with me, and I can trust in you to walk alongside me through every challenge and every joy I may face in life. Amen.

Taken from Mally Cox-Chapman, The Case for Heaven: Near-Death Experiences as Evidence of the Afterlife (Windsor, CT: Tide- mark, 2012), Kindle ed., loc. 433–94.