The mere mention of heaven or hell can send a person’s head into a tail spin of emotions.
Our thoughts of the after life are brought to our attention by a either a tragedy or loved ones passing.
We seem so fixated on programs of the supernatural kind. Television shows explaining people’s experiences of near death encounters fascinate us.
There are books written by different authors who in their best efforts try to explain the unexplainable. I have read many of these books as I too was fascinated by our heavenly home.
When we can’t understand and all we have left is our faith that’s is the moment God steps in.
Losing my grandmother was a very difficult time in my life. What made it even harder was I also was dealing with multiple dilemmas. First my mother was in a ICU burn unit at St. Barnabas Hospital and my husband’s Grandma Theresa had passed 4 days before. It was a rough couple of days to say the least.
The day after we laid my husband’s Grandma Theresa to rest is when my Grandma Wojdyla reached out from beyond to get my attention. It was a weird feeling to describe, but that day I felt grandma all over me. It was more a calling or a beckoning as it were. Almost a pulling on my thoughts to get my attention. I couldn’t explain it or even how to rationalize what I was sensing in my spirit. I only knew that grandma was calling out to me but why?
That question would be answered 7:00 that evening. I received a phone call from my cousin Crystal. She began telling me that our Grandma collapsed this morning, that she was found on the floor and somehow she broke her neck during the fall.
Crystal then went on saying that Grandma is on life support in ICU at Newark University Hospital and the doctors say there is no chance of recovery. The C4 vertebrae that was broken in her fall was necessary for her breathing. Lisa, grandma is going to die.
I hung up the phone feeling like someone had just stollen my breath.
I began to cry realizing the mistake I made all day. My Grandma Wojdyla had been calling out to me and I thought I was crazy! She was trying to get to me but I thought I just have an over active imagination!
I have always been connected to my grandma we had a special bond. My Grandma Wojdyla was from Poland. She spoke a mixture of broken English with polish words thrown in for good measure. Even l though most people could not understand her I could. I would get a couple of words and somehow just know!
What was more interesting is we were connected spiritually!! I believe we could communicate without words.
I knew this because once while in the hospital she had a blood transfusion and had a really bad reaction to it. That night I had a dream about her house and the Angel of Death was trying to get in. I was telling it to go away your not welcome here!
I woke up and was afraid to open my eyes. I asked my husband if my grandma was standing at the edge of our bed? I really believed that her spirit would come and say good bye before leaving this world. From that day on I knew that I would know when she was dying.
That day was today and I almost missed it. I got myself together and met my cousin at the hospital. We walked into the ICU room and I immediately knew that my grandma was gone. Her spirit was not here . All that remained was her empty vessel plugged into machines that were keeping her body alive.
My cousin and I went to her bedside both distraught that we were not able to say goodbye.
I started to talk to my grandma professing my love to her and telling her how much she meant to me. When all of a sudden Crystal said, “Lisa, look”! Crystal pulled back the sheets only to reveal our grandma holding her finger.
I immediately began to brush my grandma’s forehead calling out her name. “Grandma” I whispered “Grandma can you hear me’? I saw her eyebrow begin to move as she started to show motion in her face. I could see life coming back into what was just devoid of any life.
Again I spoke to her saying “Grandma it’s ok, You need to go now”. I continued telling her “Go to Jesus, there is nothing here for you now please go to heaven”! I cried as I brushed her eyebrows kissing her forehead for the last time I told her goodbye and how much I love her. I said “I’ll see you again” and then I felt her spirit leave us.
God had sent her back to us one last time so we could say good bye.
The plug was pulled 3 days later and my grandma was buried next to my grandfather. It was a quiet funeral no church, no viewing and that made it all the more difficult for me.
That is why I truly believe God gave me that moment. It gave me closure and acceptance that I would have never had if she didn’t come back.
Years had passed since my Grandma Wojdyla left this world and went to heaven. I never questioned where she was. I would tell people if she was here on the earth I would know it! I just knew that if she could get in touch with me she would. One day I would see my grandma again I just knew it.
I didn’t realize that God would make it sooner rather than later. When God speaks to us it is most often in dreams.
The interesting part of dreaming is we really don’t have a lot of control when we sleep. Some dreams are so real you often wonder did that really happen or was I dreaming? The night I had a dream about my Grandma Wojdyla it was the most real experience I ever had. In dreams they say the difference between a dream and a visitation is in a visitation it’s just you and the deceased person.
Boy, I got a visitation from my grandma I still remember to this day. I remember being in a waiting area the ones they have in hospitals. I was sitting at a table just waiting for someone. I could see this glass partition and then I saw her my grandma walking out to me!! She looked beautiful and so colorful. She wore tight white pants and a hot pink blouse. My grandma loved pink it was her favorite color. Her hair was golden blond, very shiny not the brittle lifeless hair she had worn. She looked like a movie star walking off the screen. We didn’t speak with our mouth but with our thoughts. She showed me her flat stomach something that she didn’t have here on earth because a incision had opened after a surgery leaving a large mass on her stomach. She was always wearing loose tops trying to conceal her malformity. She would say “It no hurts me. I’m ok”. I just knew how much it bothered her.
Grandma smiled as she used to hand going slowly over her perfect abdominal area where there once was a huge bulge. She hugged me and with her thoughts told me she was fine and she was very happy. Grandma smiled with her brightly lit teeth and in her sparkly eye you could see the love. I told her I love her and miss her so much! We hugged one last time and then she had to go. I watched her walk back the way she came in. Then she was gone.
I’m not sure how that dream ended I only know I woke up happy. I thought about that dream wondering was that real? Did I talk about her that day and that is why I dreamed of my beloved grandma?
I’m really not sure why, but I can say it gave me comfort. The grandma I saw was radiant and glowing. She was beautiful and happy. The cares of this world were no longer written all over her face. She had peace, joy and a lightness. I am so very grateful to God for allowing me once again to feel peace about something that is just so hard to understand.
The Lord is so very good to me and so loving that he allowed me to see my father-in-law also. The dream was the same just that my father-in-law came to me. It was the same location the same table and the same glass hallway. In this dream He showed me his feet. My father-in-law suffered from neuropathy here on earth, but not in heaven.
God promises us perfect bodies when we leave our earthly ones. In the bible it says For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. (2 Corinthians 5:1 NLT).
How awesome is God! He fixes what was damaged here on earth and gives us perfection in heaven. God also hears our cries and comforts us when we mourn. In my dreams God had answered my questions. In my dreams He showed me His promise was kept. The fact that I had a dream that took place in the same location was no accident. That just confirmed that the dream was from Him. God wanted to show me that the family you love is safe, happy, healed and in heaven.
God has always used dreams to talk to His children. Now I go to sleep with an anticipation of maybe tonight God is going to show me something!