Proof of heaven

Thursday of the Seventh Week of Easter, June 5, 2025

Memorial of Saint Boniface, Bishop and Martyr

(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)

John

You loved me before the foundation of the world.

Sitting with my friend John in his study yesterday, I noticed a copy of Eben Alexander’s Proof of Heaven. A few years ago John gave me a copy of the book, because it meant so much to him. After his wife passed away he felt little purpose in his life, and only gradually did he begin to understand his createdness, and his Creator, as grounded in love. Dr. Alexander’s book made a life-giving difference to John.

The author’s near-death experience, in a realm of “profound peace and interconnectedness,” left him with three insights, what Alexander called Three Truths.

1. You are loved and cherished forever.
2. You have nothing to fear.
3. There is nothing you can do wrong.

John realized that God’s love surrounded him completely, like a hot bath that never drained or cooled. God’s welcoming arms never closed against him or against anyone. He and the woman he loved for decades were enfolded forever in love beyond conditions, releasing them from fear and judgment. John trusted God with his life (and hers) like he never had trusted anything before.

Preserve me, O God, for in thee do I put my trust. I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.” I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

In our conversations we have always included prayer. Part of that prayer is liturgical – we use the same words each time. He brings his lifetime of musical performance and dramatic expression (he was a college drama major) to our prayers together.  Joy fills me up as we share words together with Jesus. I know joy fills him too.

I am blessed by a deep sympatico with just a few intimate friends. With these folks, deep calls to deep. We can start immediately where we left off, no matter how long we’ve been apart. With John, whose penetrating eyes hide nothing and insist on the same honesty from me, I feel loved beyond any surface protection I might choose with others in other circumstances. His generosity of spirit envelopes us.

For this I am profoundly grateful.

Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed:

“I pray not only for these,

but also for those who will believe in me through their word,

so that they may all be one,

as you, Father, are in me and I in you,

that they also may be in us,

that the world may believe that you sent me.

And I have given them the glory you gave me,

so that they may be one, as we are one.

(Acts 22, Psalm 16, John 17)

(posted at www.davesandel.net)

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