Behold! I Tell You A Miracle!

A couple of days ago, in the Angels of Rain post, I told you of my friend Liz and her fight for life. On Tuesday, all life support was removed from her – and she began to breathe on her own! Still, because tests had shown she had brain damage to both lobes, the prognosis was not good. Her sister stood by her bed, reading the 23^rd Psalm to her and, when she came to the last lines, Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever, Liz repeated the words after her! She’s very fragile and still has a long way to go, but she’s alive and this community is rejoicing.

This is not the first time I have heard of such a miracle. Years ago, my friend Bobbi was hit head-on, on her way to work one morning, by boys who were road racing. She lay in a coma for over two months. When she finally awakened, she reported that she had spent the entire time with her ancestors. They had discussed together whether she should return to life or stay with them. Finally, she had a meeting with a great and luminous spiritual being who counseled her, saying the choice was hers, but that she had small children whose welfare she should consider. When she returned to this side of the veil, she was able to identify in the family album those souls who had been her comfort on the other side.

My dear friend Javier was shot at point blank range in the left temple, one night on the street in Chihuahua. He “died” on the operating table, left his body, observed the operation and was later able to tell the doctor what he was wearing and saying at the time. Then he reached up to take the hand of a radiant spiritual being whom he calls, simply, God. He traveled through the hand and arm of this being and then traveled with him through space, in the form of a crystal ball in the being’s heart. He asked many questions about the nature of life and death and about religious teachings – is there heaven; is there hell? In each instance the being answered his questions.

Finally, the being brought Javier to a vast and lush green meadow, with a huge white cliff rising behind it. This, he was informed, was where they would part company, as Javier had to go back to this life. Javier argued, saying he didn’t want to go back and that, if he did, he would be a vegetable, as he had a bullet lodged permanently in his brain. The being told him that all would be well with him, and departed.

The next thing that Javier remembers is awakening in his body and hearing the doctor explaining to his mother that, even if he were to live, he would be a vegetable, as the bullet was so deep in his brain as to be inoperable. He would never be able to move, speak or remember. At which point, Javier opened his eyes, turned to his mother and said, “Madre, I had an accident,” thus proving in one feat that he could move, speak and remember.

He gave me the x-ray image of his brain. Two bullets are clearly lodged right next to his pituitary gland. Yet my friend Javier is alive and well and just as brilliant and cantankerous as ever. I asked him if God had any messages for us. Yes, He did: I AM, and I give life and I take it away.

Since he was a small boy Javier had been praying: God, if you exist, show yourself to me! This is definitely an sterling example of be careful what you ask for, because you just might get it. But what extraordinary voyagers these people are! They have been to a far land and returned to report on it. Bobbi and Javier each say that the love, serenity and joy they experienced on the other side surpassed the ability of language to describe it. What greater gift can we receive than the reassurance that our loved ones are safely and sweetly embedded in such love? Or that we, when our time comes, will be, as well.

 Liz has been on a long voyage. That cloud flotilla, those angels of rain, were bearing her not only away, but back again. Behold! I tell you a miracle!