Love Stories

Apparitions are just about the most beautiful thing on earth, in my opinion. When God chooses to come to earth again or send someone else from Heaven shows His continuing concern. Reading the stories of others who have had apparitions or other mystical experiences is akin to reading a love story. I am privy to how God transformed their lives. It is awe-inspiring.
Recently I read a book called Heaven is for Real it is about a 4-year-old protestant minister's son who saw heaven while he was having surgery. The details he recounted from his 3 minute visit to heaven were astounding. The main thing that touched me was the encounter he had with his sister. She was a miscarried baby that he never knew about. He was able to describe what she looked like to his parents later. I have 5 siblings in heaven and except for a brief period when I was 10, never thought much about them. This story reminded me that they are just as real as my brothers who live across the country and one day I will (hopefully) get to meet all of them. So now I talk to them, especially as I'm discerning and filling out paperwork. I was having trouble writing a letter to the founder so I asked them, "Hey Guadalupe, Julian, Conrad, Anthony and Benedict, please help me. I don't know what to write at all." Right after that the right words came to mind in a torrent, just like they were all talking at once.

Last night I looked up another apparition by a four-year-old, Akiane. This girl was raised in an atheistic home. Her family was very private so no one else could have told her about God. Yet, she told her mother of fantastic visions she had. Blessed with an incredible talent for art, she painted pictures of Jesus (including the one here), as well as other people and places she saw. I was listening to an interview with her when she was 10 or 11 and her faith is so beautiful. She said her purpose in painting was to bring others to God, because He is the most important thing. She claims none of her ability as her own, but claims God taught her and gives her the ideas.


I'm also reading He and I which is the conversations a woman, Gabrielle, had with Jesus. This book is most definitely a love story. As I read these books or listen to Akiane's story or even listening to songs by Tenth Avenue North, one thought keeps coming to me over and over: When these people were seeing visions, or being inspired by God, He knew that I would be touched by it years later. He knew exactly how it would affect me, that I needed to hear those words, to know that thought. So their love stories are intertwined with mine, intertwined with the people on the earth today and people I will never meet. This amazing love takes my breath away!