On this date (August 5, 1999), my mother Mary E. Keller passed away. She had cardiovascular disease. Previously that week she collapsed and was rushed to the hospital having had a heart attack. She had many stays in the hospital back then, so it had become somewhat routine.
On the day she passed, the hospital called me early in the morning, I rushed down there and she was sitting up and we talked. The doctor informed me it was hopeless, it was her wishes to be placed on a ventilator to ease her suffering. I held her hand and we all prayed (including the doctors and nurses). I ran home and took Johnny to a friends house returning to the ICU. I called my sisters after they arrived she woke up and looked around the room, at that very moment my pastor at the time Tim Santinga came in and led us in prayer for God's will. Mom nodded as she understood what he prayed. The last act of our family was my pastor praying with us. Right after he left, she closed her eyes never regaining consciousness.
That afternoon, from 3 pm till about 6 pm, I was alone with my mom. I held her hand in the valley of the shadow of death, for this was the loneliest three hours of my life. Every once in a while, a nurse would come in and check on things. I just sat there quietly for three hours as my mom left this world. In the end, the nurse came in and said she was gone, I went to the nurses' station, used the phone to call my sisters and tell them she had passed.
If it were not for my hope that the gospel of the Bible provides me, this would be a tragic story. But it is not because I have the promises of the Bible. Take away that promise, take away the hope I have because of the Word of God, then you have just reduced my mom to ashes in an urn in a cemetery.
When you see people who believe the Bible is the literal words of God, and that those words go against what is popular in modern culture, they are not being hateful towards the culture, they are being true to their core belief. When popular culture ridicules us for our hope, passes legislation in the supreme court that suppresses our beliefs from public display, demands we deny what the Bible teaches about all areas of life. How cruel, and how sad, for when popular culture demands we change our beliefs, it is demanding I agree that my mother is just ashes in an urn then there is truly no hope.
The loneliest three hours of my life will be forgotten when in eternity, I will forever be with all those I love who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Love you mom, still miss you, but I know you are in heaven, regardless of what popular culture says about my beliefs, I know in my heart Jesus was raised from that grave and so are you. The evidence is just too compelling to believe otherwise.
"Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live" (John 11:15).
On the day she passed, the hospital called me early in the morning, I rushed down there and she was sitting up and we talked. The doctor informed me it was hopeless, it was her wishes to be placed on a ventilator to ease her suffering. I held her hand and we all prayed (including the doctors and nurses). I ran home and took Johnny to a friends house returning to the ICU. I called my sisters after they arrived she woke up and looked around the room, at that very moment my pastor at the time Tim Santinga came in and led us in prayer for God's will. Mom nodded as she understood what he prayed. The last act of our family was my pastor praying with us. Right after he left, she closed her eyes never regaining consciousness.
That afternoon, from 3 pm till about 6 pm, I was alone with my mom. I held her hand in the valley of the shadow of death, for this was the loneliest three hours of my life. Every once in a while, a nurse would come in and check on things. I just sat there quietly for three hours as my mom left this world. In the end, the nurse came in and said she was gone, I went to the nurses' station, used the phone to call my sisters and tell them she had passed.
If it were not for my hope that the gospel of the Bible provides me, this would be a tragic story. But it is not because I have the promises of the Bible. Take away that promise, take away the hope I have because of the Word of God, then you have just reduced my mom to ashes in an urn in a cemetery.
When you see people who believe the Bible is the literal words of God, and that those words go against what is popular in modern culture, they are not being hateful towards the culture, they are being true to their core belief. When popular culture ridicules us for our hope, passes legislation in the supreme court that suppresses our beliefs from public display, demands we deny what the Bible teaches about all areas of life. How cruel, and how sad, for when popular culture demands we change our beliefs, it is demanding I agree that my mother is just ashes in an urn then there is truly no hope.
The loneliest three hours of my life will be forgotten when in eternity, I will forever be with all those I love who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Love you mom, still miss you, but I know you are in heaven, regardless of what popular culture says about my beliefs, I know in my heart Jesus was raised from that grave and so are you. The evidence is just too compelling to believe otherwise.
"Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live" (John 11:15).