Nearing Home - Billy Graham [37]
Even on the cross, Jesus taught that death was a passage for the spirit into the presence of God (Luke 23:46). The psalmist declared, “God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave” (Psalm 49:15 NKJV). Have you committed your soul into the hands of its Maker? Are you following the caution signs that God has posted throughout His Guidebook, the Bible? “The highway of the upright is to depart from evil; He who keeps his way preserves his soul” (Proverbs 16:17 NKJV).
You may find yourself saying, “But, Billy, I’m nearing the end of life. I haven’t been a bad person.” There are many, young and old, who have said this as they have contemplated death, but it is my duty to speak the truth from God’s Word: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 NKJV).
During a visit to the Billy Graham Library, a woman relayed a story: “My sweet mother, seventy-six years old, who never did any wrong in my eyes, struggled with my belief that all people were born sinners, according to Scripture. I prayed for years that she would come to recognize her own sin and repent so that she would know the salvation of Christ alone and have the promise of eternity with Him. When I received a call that my mother was on her deathbed, I traveled from Europe to her home in Florida. She took my hand and said, ‘My dear, when I’m gone, take heart. The Lord has saved me.’ ‘Mother, how did this come about?’ ‘When I could no longer do for myself and was committed to this bed of infirmity, I realized I had come to the end of myself; I had no more control over my life. I felt lost in my own house. The home health care attendant who has been coming would patiently read to me, sometimes from the Bible: “There is none righteous, no, not one” [Romans 3:10 NKJV]; “Now set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD your God” [1 Chronicles 22:19 NKJV]; and “for the Son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” [Luke 19:10 NKJV].’ That moment, for me, will never fade. When I met the dear lady who had faithfully led my mother to the Lord, I was stunned at her vitality of life. She was the same age as my mother. It gave me great comfort to know that God will use us—no matter our age—to minister to others if we make ourselves available.”
The Bible says that “a true witness delivers souls” (Proverbs 14:25 NKJV). The living never run out of opportunity; the question is, do we take advantage of the opportunities that come to us as this home health care worker did? Sometimes death comes suddenly and unexpectedly. “I didn’t even have a chance to say good-bye” is a lament I must have heard dozens of times. Even more tragic is the knowledge that you missed that last chance to share the Gospel.
As people grow older, the less surprised we are by their deaths, which often come only after an extended period of declining health. There even may be time for family members to gather and be with the dying person in the final hours. That is the way it was with Ruth. “Her body is beginning to shut down,” her doctor told me frankly. “Her death may still be some days away, but the process has begun, and you need to be prepared.” Two weeks later we gathered around her bedside as her breathing grew more shallow. I was seated by Ruth’s bedside holding her hand, and our daughter Anne was standing beside me. Suddenly Anne said, “She is in Heaven.” Her breathing had stopped, and her hand slipped from mine. Her years of suffering were over; Ruth had entered her final home.
Memories of those final months will remain with me the rest of my life: her growing frailty, her suffering, her expressions of love, our times of prayer, her certainty—and even joy—that soon she would be in the presence of the Lord she had loved and served for so many years. As I think back over those days, the familiar words of Psalm 23 come to me with new meaning, for they