Eternity Was In the Room
Illustration
Stories
…God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his son. (v. 11b)
Have you ever experienced the presence of God? Have you felt, seen, heard, smelled, tasted or known in some way that the Creator was near?
My colleague Becky Ardell Downs, pastor of John Knox Presbyterian Church in Houston, tells of a time forty years ago when she was attending the funeral of her uncle in the Chicago suburbs. He had died of multiple sclerosis at a relatively young age.
“Their kids — my cousins — were all under thirty,” she said. “We don’t live near each other but for Uncle Tom’s funeral the cousins, the aunts, the uncles, the old friends, the babies, were all sitting in this room together for the first time in so long. … Suddenly I had a sense of eternity, a sense that God had brought us all together there, and that my uncle was there, too, and that all was perfect. It was an experience of time stopping. It felt like eternity was in the room.”
Kathy Housner of Hustler’s Ridge near Richland Center, Wisconsin, experienced a similar close encounter with eternity along with her sisters, Eleanor and Judy, when their father, Edward Parduhn, passed in 2005.
“Judy came from Arizona and Dad was thrilled to see her,” Housner said. “Eleanor returned from New Jersey and Dad said, ‘Oh, I didn’t think I would ever see you again.’ The final night Judy and I both stayed. In the morning I went to Dad and offered to grease his lips. He shrugged me away. Eleanor arrived and she went over to Dad; he shrugged her away, too. Within seconds Dad’s face seemed to glow, his mouth seemed to form ‘Oh,’ and he was silently talking a mile a minute. You could feel his joy. (And then) he was gone.”
Eternity was in the room with Michelle Perry-Roberts of Reno, Nevada, when she almost died from Lyme disease in 2013. I came across her story in a Facebook group called “Lyme Disease, Support and Wellness,” a virtual meeting place for thousands of us who are recovering from Lyme. I called her at her office at the Sierra Integrative Medical Center in Reno, where she is the patient-care coordinator. It’s one of the few places in the country — like the Biologix Center for Optimum Health in Nashville, Tennessee, where I went for healing — that specializes in treating Lyme disease and has an excellent success rate.
Perry-Roberts said since that near-death experience it has become her purpose in life to tell others with Lyme that there is always hope for healing.
“This past year I have shared my story with countless Lyme patients,” she said. “I was speaking to a fellow Lyme patient named Giovanni … and my heart just stopped. He stated he could no longer live with this disease and had signed papers at (the University of California-Los Angeles) for ‘end-of-life options.’ I was speechless and I told him about my journey with Lyme disease.
“At one point I was in a wheelchair, used a walker, had immense pain, bad cognitive issues, digestion problems, depression and anxiety, and lost so much hope. In 2013, I had a blood clot that burst in my stomach after a hiatal-hernia surgery. I spent nine months in the (intensive-care unit), six months in a nursing home and (had) five years of home healthcare. I clinically died twice and saw Jesus and some fellow family members — my son who had passed, my grandmother and my cousin who was murdered by her ex-husband. God told me it was not my time yet and that I still had work to do on this earth, to help people know that there is hope and to tell my testimony of the miracles that I was blessed with.
“I have no pain anymore. I am off of most pharmaceutical drugs and I am able to go back to work part-time after not being able to for a very long time. My purpose in life, as told to me, was to show people that God can perform miracles. When I talk to Lyme patients the two biggest barriers are money to afford the treatment and fear. You can do your own fundraising by telling your story and getting the community behind you.”
I am always amazed at the number of people who tell me that they have seen Jesus and that God has spoken to them. Such liminal moments are not rare, just rarely talked about.
Becky Ardell Downs, who felt “eternity in the room” at the time of her uncle’s death, tells about another time in her life when the eternal appeared in her car.
“Once, in seminary, I was driving to the church where I was working as the youth director. I was going to turn in my resignation; it just wasn’t a good fit for me. I was super nervous because I’d never quit anything before. And then Jesus was sitting in the car with me. He didn’t say anything; he was just there. I knew everything would be okay.”
The author of 1 John wrote, “In the age to come, God’s presence will be the ultimate blessing, for believers will see him face to face.” — 1 John 3:2
Do not let Lyme disease take your life. Call me or call 988, the Crisis Lifeline.
Have you ever experienced the presence of God? Have you felt, seen, heard, smelled, tasted or known in some way that the Creator was near?
My colleague Becky Ardell Downs, pastor of John Knox Presbyterian Church in Houston, tells of a time forty years ago when she was attending the funeral of her uncle in the Chicago suburbs. He had died of multiple sclerosis at a relatively young age.
“Their kids — my cousins — were all under thirty,” she said. “We don’t live near each other but for Uncle Tom’s funeral the cousins, the aunts, the uncles, the old friends, the babies, were all sitting in this room together for the first time in so long. … Suddenly I had a sense of eternity, a sense that God had brought us all together there, and that my uncle was there, too, and that all was perfect. It was an experience of time stopping. It felt like eternity was in the room.”
Kathy Housner of Hustler’s Ridge near Richland Center, Wisconsin, experienced a similar close encounter with eternity along with her sisters, Eleanor and Judy, when their father, Edward Parduhn, passed in 2005.
“Judy came from Arizona and Dad was thrilled to see her,” Housner said. “Eleanor returned from New Jersey and Dad said, ‘Oh, I didn’t think I would ever see you again.’ The final night Judy and I both stayed. In the morning I went to Dad and offered to grease his lips. He shrugged me away. Eleanor arrived and she went over to Dad; he shrugged her away, too. Within seconds Dad’s face seemed to glow, his mouth seemed to form ‘Oh,’ and he was silently talking a mile a minute. You could feel his joy. (And then) he was gone.”
Eternity was in the room with Michelle Perry-Roberts of Reno, Nevada, when she almost died from Lyme disease in 2013. I came across her story in a Facebook group called “Lyme Disease, Support and Wellness,” a virtual meeting place for thousands of us who are recovering from Lyme. I called her at her office at the Sierra Integrative Medical Center in Reno, where she is the patient-care coordinator. It’s one of the few places in the country — like the Biologix Center for Optimum Health in Nashville, Tennessee, where I went for healing — that specializes in treating Lyme disease and has an excellent success rate.
Perry-Roberts said since that near-death experience it has become her purpose in life to tell others with Lyme that there is always hope for healing.
“This past year I have shared my story with countless Lyme patients,” she said. “I was speaking to a fellow Lyme patient named Giovanni … and my heart just stopped. He stated he could no longer live with this disease and had signed papers at (the University of California-Los Angeles) for ‘end-of-life options.’ I was speechless and I told him about my journey with Lyme disease.
“At one point I was in a wheelchair, used a walker, had immense pain, bad cognitive issues, digestion problems, depression and anxiety, and lost so much hope. In 2013, I had a blood clot that burst in my stomach after a hiatal-hernia surgery. I spent nine months in the (intensive-care unit), six months in a nursing home and (had) five years of home healthcare. I clinically died twice and saw Jesus and some fellow family members — my son who had passed, my grandmother and my cousin who was murdered by her ex-husband. God told me it was not my time yet and that I still had work to do on this earth, to help people know that there is hope and to tell my testimony of the miracles that I was blessed with.
“I have no pain anymore. I am off of most pharmaceutical drugs and I am able to go back to work part-time after not being able to for a very long time. My purpose in life, as told to me, was to show people that God can perform miracles. When I talk to Lyme patients the two biggest barriers are money to afford the treatment and fear. You can do your own fundraising by telling your story and getting the community behind you.”
I am always amazed at the number of people who tell me that they have seen Jesus and that God has spoken to them. Such liminal moments are not rare, just rarely talked about.
Becky Ardell Downs, who felt “eternity in the room” at the time of her uncle’s death, tells about another time in her life when the eternal appeared in her car.
“Once, in seminary, I was driving to the church where I was working as the youth director. I was going to turn in my resignation; it just wasn’t a good fit for me. I was super nervous because I’d never quit anything before. And then Jesus was sitting in the car with me. He didn’t say anything; he was just there. I knew everything would be okay.”
The author of 1 John wrote, “In the age to come, God’s presence will be the ultimate blessing, for believers will see him face to face.” — 1 John 3:2
Do not let Lyme disease take your life. Call me or call 988, the Crisis Lifeline.
