I had heard from one of my students the other day about his Father not having much time left, . . . . and he spoke to me about his his legacy – encapsulated somewhat in two of his Father’s last emails.  I asked if I could share these with all of you, and this is what the student sent me. . .

FIRST EMAIL:
“My prayer request many times a day sounds like a car wash. Do you want a total, basic, or ultimate?

Lord, I pray for your will. Heal my body totally, basically, or ultimately. Ultimate is with him (The Works!). You choose , Lord. You have planned it all before the world began. You choose best. Help me with the tough suffering.

All paths are open to God because of his power. He is in charge. It is his choice. To walk with and trust in my awesome God is incredible. All of life is open to him… total, basic, ultimate healing.

He has made me ready for all three. None would be a disappointment. He has shown me himself and his way and made me excited for all the options. Where he leads. It is a very freeing way to think. Not trying to make things match your dreams. But praying strongly for each option and letting him chose.”

several weeks later

EMAIL #2:
“Looking at my health and my body, I would think that God is taking me home…ultimate healing. As I said, my prayers are open to what God would choose but to me it seems like I am going home.

Home is a good place and I am looking forward to going. There really is no better place than home. Margie (my dad’s sister how just passed away from ovarian cancer, lived there in hospice care) is there and rejoicing.

The hard part is that we are not all going together but God has a special plan for each of us. God needs to fulfill his special purposes in each of our lives as he carries out his overall Kingdom plan, then take us home.

We need to be fully involved here as he works out his purposes. He will take us home at his appointed time for us. All this was planned before the world began. God has everything planned from beginning to end. How does He do it?! He is an amazing God.

I did not know that my time to go home would be this soon. My dreams were for a later date, but I never knew God’s plans and neither do you.

We all need to live fully here so God can work his purposes thru us while learning more about our real home.

The journey home may be very hard. Will I be able to trust God for the trip when it seems too hard?”

There you go Dr. Bryant. . . . Hope that this can be a blessing to many people.

- Thank you so much. . . . . thank you for letting us into these sacred moments with your family. . . . I pray for peace and comfort during this time.

Every now and then I get emails from a student wanting to show a youtube video of this or that. . . . a lot of the time they are just funny, or silly, etc….., but I was surprised to find this one the other day from one of my freshman. . . . for a moment I had forgotten the era that I was in. . . I was not a huge fan of this show, but I watched every now and then, and this is something that I needed to see and hear today

A long time ago I watched this really good episode on Touched by an Angel, I’m sure you remember the show.  Well I found the ending to it and it is a really touching story.  The episode is about this little boy named Petey that finds out that he has cystic fibrosis and has only a short time to live.  Petey told his parents that he wants to die at home, and that he also made a list of things to do before he dies. His items include:

Learn to play the piano,  find a home for Fluffy (his pet iguana), find someone to sing with Mom,  find someone to shovel the snow.   Celine Dion tells Petey and his mom that she will sing a song for Petey.  Peteys mom finished writing the song and told Petey to cross it off the list. 

There were two items on the list.  The second to last was that he wanted a flag put up that said Petey Lives Here.  There was only one item left on the list then, Go to Heaven.  This video shows the last part of the episode when Petey dies and they cross off the last item on the list for him.  I knew you were into youtube videos and such so i thought you would be interested in this one because it had a really powerful story and it was really touching how all Petey’s neighbors gathered at his house to sing the song to him before God took him to heaven…

This just reminded me. . . . . . . . anything on my childhood list of dreams that I have not gotten to yet?. . . . why not?. . . . . . . . what am I waiting for?. . . . Maybe it can’t happen tomorrow or the next day, but maybe I should re-open the dreams God placed on me when I was little. . . .