Minnie Goes to Heaven (51)

(a novel continued)

“John, we must tell everyone about heaven. It's easy to get there and just as easy not to get there. Jesus wants us all with Him in heaven and there are so many that don’t know they have to believe in Him—that he's the only ticket.

“And John a lot of the things we think are so important, aren’t important at all.”

John went home and pondered. He wondered if Minnie really had been in heaven. It could have been a vivid dream. He did know she had a passion for heavenly things that she had never had before. 

He took out the family Bible—the one they read at every meal. 
He prayed, “Lord, show me the truth of these words.” During the next week the Lord took him through several Psalms, and chapters in Isaiah, as well as the books of Matthew, Luke and John. He read Romans, Thessalonians and Hebrews and Revelations.  He couldn’t find a contradiction to anything Minnie told him and some readings verified her descriptions. 
He wondered why anyone would need to be baptised in heaven. With the help of a concordance he found a strange verse in First Corinthians about people on earth being baptised for dead people. Not quite the same, but as Minnie explained the Bible wasn't written for people in heaven.

In two weeks time the doctors discharged Minnie. As John guided her up the front step of their two-storey house on Third Avenue West, she felt some trepidation about the conditions she might find. Her husband wasn’t known for his housekeeping skills.

Much to her delight, she found everything spotlessly clean and tidy. “John, you are wonderful.”

“Actually, Nan and Corrie and a few others came and gave the place a once over. They wanted to see you in the hospital, but since that was against visiting rules, they did this instead.”

Minnie spent most of her first week at home laying down. Her children each paid a visit. They were very considerate of her condition and didn’t stay long. Their thoughtfulness and evident joy in seeing her alive surprised her. 

Bill had taken a leave from his air force work and flown down from the base in Nova Scotia. 

Mary had defied her cult master to be here. She didn’t tell her mother as much, but alluded to the fact that she might be in trouble. John hugged his only daughter and assured her that she was welcome to stay with them if she needed a place. The conversation itself was a miracle. Over the years Mary had only twice come home to retrieve a belonging. She never talked about herself, and never stayed for a meal. 

George, the most considerate of the three, came to visit without his partner Henry. He knew where his parents stood on his life choice, in fact, he hadn’t invited them to the wedding. Why cause them the difficulty of deciding whether or not to attend? 

He brought his mother white roses and cooked up a steak dinner with appetizers and pumpkin pie for dessert. John especially appreciated the three-course meal.  (Not that he didn’t appreciate the casseroles the women from the church had been bringing on a scheduled basis ever since Minnie’s accident.)