A woman friend of mine was at work (here in Michigan) when a co-worker received a call that the woman’s daughter was in critical condition and going into emergency surgery in Texas. This mother was understandably distraught. Even if she left right at that moment she could not get from Michigan to Texas before the surgery.
My friend went to the restroom and sat down and prayed.
She had an immediate image of Jesus lifting this young woman into his arms and healing her.
She did not share details of her experience but she put her arms around her tearful coworker and said, “I just have a sense your daughter is going to come through this all and be just fine.”
The young woman did survive the surgery and recovered fully. Later the young woman told her mother she had had an amazing experience of feeling as though Jesus lifted her up into his arms and healed her while she was on the operating table.
The most fascinating part of this story is that neither of these women are Christians!
Now some people would take that as conclusive evidence that Jesus is the ONLY way to God, and that Christianity is the only true religion.
That totally misses the point.
When we pray, we are inviting an intelligence, a love, an energy that is grander than all of the barriers human egos can construct.
This is from the report of the death of comedian Sam Kinison:
Initially, Kinison appeared to have suffered no serious injuries, but within minutes he suddenly said to no one in particular, “I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die.”
Kinison’s best friend, Carl LaBove, had been in the following van.
LaBove later said it was as if Kinison was having a conversation, talking to someone else, some unseen person. There was a pause as if Kinison was listening to the other person speak. Then Kinison asked,”But why?” and after another pause LaBove heard him clearly say, “Okay, okay, okay.”
LaBove said, “The last ‘okay’ was so soft and at peace … Whatever voice was talking to him gave him the right answer and he just relaxed with it. He said it so sweetly, like he was talking to someone he loved.”
Kinison then lost consciousness. Efforts to resuscitate him failed. Kinison died at the scene from internal injuries with his dear friend holding his head. An autopsy found that he had suffered numerous traumatic injuries, including a dislocation in the cervical spine, a torn aorta, and torn blood vessels in his abdominal cavity, which caused his death within minutes of the collision.
Malika Souiri, Kinison’s wife, whom he had married just six days earlier, was rendered unconscious by the collision, but survived the accident with a mild concussion.
The following story has been told in a lot of contexts. A river began to flood and homes were in peril.
A man refused to evacuate when a Red Cross Jeep came by.
“No,” the man replied from his doorstep. “I have faith. God will take care of me.”
The water continued to rise.
When the Coast Guard boat stopped, the man was in a second story window. Again the man refused to evacuate, even though he was told, “You are in danger. Your life is at stake. You will drown in the flood.”
“No worries,” said the man. “I have faith. God will take care of me.”
The flood continued to rise even more. The man went to the roof of his home, holding onto the chimney, trying to avoid the rising water.
A helicopter pilot saw him on top of the roof and the pilot was unable to convince the man to grab the rope ladder which was dangling above his head.
“You are in danger. The flood is still rising. You will drown if you do not grab the rope ladder. Let us help you,” the pilot called out.
“I will be fine. Yes, the flood is higher but I still have faith that God will take care of me.”
The man drowns.
At the pearly gates, the man says to God, “I had faith yet you let me die.”
God replied, ” What more could I have done? I sent you a jeep, a boat, and a helicopter. ”
If it helps you, imagine when you pray your prayers are attended to by the All That Is.
Perhaps Jesus, the Buddha, and all loving sentient beings in non-physical are available to help us like the jeep, the boat, and the helicopter when we choose to be helped….