7 Lessons From Heaven

by Mary C Neal

  The more I learned in medical school about the intricacies of the human body, the more clearly I saw the pattern and presence of a divine order. And I am not alone in this understanding. Despite the widely held belief that scientists are hostile to religion or that science and religion are incompatible, a recent study showed that nearly 36 percent of scientists have no doubt about God’s existence.3

  Like many accomplished scientists, Dr. Francis S. Collins found no reason to postulate the existence of any truths outside of mathematics, physics, and chemistry, and he was comfortable in his atheism—until he went to medical school and focused on genetics. The more he learned, the more his beliefs changed. Now the former director of the Human Genome Project and current director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Dr. Collins believes, “DNA is God’s language, and the complexity of our bodies and the rest of nature is a reflection of God’s plan. The God of the Bible is also the God of the genome. God can be found in the cathedral or in the laboratory. By investigating God’s majestic and awesome creation, science can actually be a means of worship.”4

  What do you see in the innocence and beauty of a newborn? What do you see in the miracle of your own two hands? There are so many ways to wake up to the supernatural all around us.

  CONSIDER FOUND TREASURES

  You probably have a bible somewhere in your house—maybe several. But when you open it, do you remember that even as a historical document, it is one of the world’s great wonders?

  We “look around” at our physical experience in a historical sense when we try to corroborate biblical places, people, and events by reading ancient writings and studying the records of archaeological discoveries. Relics discovered during digs often provide physical historical evidence of specific biblical details. A 1906 expedition, for example, discovered evidence supporting the existence of the Hittites, a people previously unknown outside the pages of the Old Testament—and therefore assumed to be apocryphal. These archaeologists discovered the ruins of Hattusas, the ancient Hittite capital at what is today called Boğazköy, as well as a vast collection of Hittite historical records that are consistent with biblical records.

  There is historical evidence of a great flood during the time Noah would have lived. Mesopotamians, Egyptians, and Greeks all recorded stories of a great flood in Hebrew times. Even the list of Sumerian kings from 2100 BC is divided into those who ruled before a great flood and those who ruled afterward. In 2012, master’s students in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Leicester demonstrated mathematically that the instructions given to Noah in the book of Genesis would actually result in a boat that could not only float but also could support the weight of even more animal species than those that inhabited the earth at the time of Noah.5

  Findings have also validated geographic details of biblical sites such as Jericho, Haran, Hazor, Dan, Megiddo, Shechem, Samaria, Shiloh, Gezer, Gibeah, Beth Shemesh, Beth Shean, Beersheba, and Lachish. The geographic specificity used in the Old Testament would suggest that the Bible was not meant to be merely metaphorical or allegorical.6, 7

  LOOK AT ONE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE

  We have abundant evidence that the supernatural stepped into the human story in physical form when Jesus came to Earth. Whatever your understanding of the divinity of the rabbi from Nazareth, the astonishing power of his teachings to change lives and redirect the course of nations has never been equaled.

  The story of Jesus is not just Christian fiction. The ancient writings of Roman historian Tacitus confirmed the historical existence of Jesus when he reported on Emperor Nero’s decision to blame the Christians for the fire that had destroyed Rome in AD 64. He wrote:

  Nero fastened the guilt…on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of…Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome…8

  This record is thought to validate the physical existence of both Jesus Christ and Pontius Pilate. Further, scholars speculate that the phrase “a most mischievous superstition” refers to the Christians’ belief that Jesus rose from the dead.

  Pliny the Younger was the Roman governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor during the first century after the death of Jesus. In one of his letters to Emperor Trajan, dated around AD 112, he asks Trajan’s advice about the appropriate way to conduct legal proceedings against those accused of being Christians. At one point in his letter, Pliny relates some of the information he has learned about these people:

  They were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft, or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food–but food of an ordinary and innocent kind.9

  Josephus, a first-century Jewish historian, also mentions Jesus when he describes the condemnation of one “James” by the Jewish Sanhedrin. This man, says Josephus, was “the brother of Jesus the so-called Christ.”10

  COLLECT THE WISDOM OF OTHERS

  But what about present-day evidence of God among us? You read this book, at least in part, to get more information about that. For the same reason, I encourage you to collect heaven- and miracle-related stories from others in our own day.

  As a way to understand the significance of this sort of evidence, consider what you would think about the cheeseburgers at your local café if two or three friends said it served the best-tasting cheeseburgers in the country—their words probably wouldn’t make much of an impact. If fifty people told you the same thing, you might consider trying one. If one hundred people echoed this conviction, you would definitely try one for yourself. If one or two million people raved about your local café’s cheeseburgers, you wouldn’t even need to try one—you would be convinced this claim must be true.

  A 2009 study conducted at the Pew Research Center demonstrated that more than 30 percent of Americans say they have “felt to be in touch with someone who has already died,” and nearly half of all Americans claim to have had a religious or mystical experience (defined as “a moment of sudden religious insight or awakening”), including 18 percent of self-described atheists, agnostics, and the secularly unaffiliated. What’s more, 13 percent claim to have seen or sensed the presence of an angel in the previous year, and at least 5 percent have had a near-death experience.11

  This data would lead to an estimate of more than 100 million people who have had a deeply spiritual experience, including 15 million with a history of an NDE. Using the analogy of your local café, one shouldn’t even need a personal experience to accept the truth of that spiritual reality.

  Ask your friends about the “coincidences,” or “synchronicities,” that have occurred in their lives. Ask them about answered prayers, and spiritual experiences of any kind that they still value. Ask if they’ve ever experienced a miracle or seen an angel. You may be surprised to learn how many of your trusted friends have had deep spiritual experiences that they keep to themselves, like both Justin and Cindy did in the following two stories:

  I worked for the phone company when I was a young man and got electrocuted one day when I was up on a telephone pole. The first thing I remember was looking down from somewhere in the sky and seeing one of my buddies doing CPR. I felt so peaceful and surrounded by God’s love. When I started moving down a bright path, I recognized my grandpa. He told me to “go back,” and suddenly I was in the ambulance. I tried to tell my wife about this, but she told me that it was just because I hit my head. I never told anyone else until now, and that was thirty-two years ago.

  —JUSTIN, FORT WORTH, TX

  When I was three years
old, I fell off a dock when no one was looking. I didn’t know how to swim and immediately sank to the bottom of the lake. I had the most loving encounter with Jesus. He held my hand while we talked but then told me I couldn’t stay.

  Suddenly, I popped to the surface right by the shore. My brother laughed and said I was lying when I told him I fell in and met Jesus. So I kept it to myself for many, many years. I remember this like it was yesterday and have never forgotten how much love I felt.

  —CINDY, MIDLAND, MI

  Read other published accounts of NDEs, miracles, visitations, and encounters with angels. (I am not suggesting that you read these accounts with blind acceptance; some authors will purposely exaggerate the truth—or outright lie—for their own purposes, but you can begin by measuring them against the “quality checklist” I mentioned in Chapter 10.) Taken independently, most stories can be picked apart at their edges. And if you put two of them side by side, they will differ. But if you read ten of them, you will find striking commonalities. The more accounts of spiritual presence or intervention you hear or read, especially from sources you trust, the more you can trust the evidence you collect. As the volume of evidence increases, so does your ability to trust your conclusions.

  As you “look around” at the world and the many stories of others, I am confident that not only will you find ample evidence that God is real and His promises are true, but your awareness of God’s work in the world will fundamentally change. Rather than just seeing musical notes written on a piece of paper, you will begin to hear the music of heaven on Earth.

  ACTIONS AND REFLECTION STEPS TO HELP YOU “LOOK AROUND”

  For each of these steps, write your responses in a journal or other record that invites you to be thorough and allows you to return to them again and again for contemplation and prayer.

  1. Look out of every window of your house, dorm room, or apartment. Keep looking until you see evidence of the supernatural. What is it?

  2. What helps you most to “wake up” to God and the supernatural in your day? Is this a onetime event, or do you make it a practice?

  3. If you could capture the truth about God that you see most clearly in a photograph of the Milky Way, what would it be?

  4. When you look at the human body, what evidence of a trustworthy God do you see?

  5. When you look at the historical record, including the Bible, what evidence of a trustworthy God do you see? What evidence do you see that argues against a trustworthy God?

  6. What evidence have you gathered from others about heaven- and miracle-related stories in their lives (including coincidences, synchronicities, visitations, dreams, angels, and NDEs)?

  Chapter 16

  STEP 3: LOOK WITHIN

  Finding Signs of God’s Presence in Your Own Story

  “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched; they must be felt with the heart.”

  —HELEN KELLER

  I’ve noticed that certain times and places seem to heighten my receptivity to the reality of heaven. Have you? I’d point to travel, solitude, immersion in nature, time at a spiritual retreat center. These can shake us free of our routines in a way that we become more sensitive to the divine. I’ve found the same to be true of both times of sorrow and times of celebration.

  The date June 21, 2014, stands out in my memory because something happened that day to remind me that I’m never alone and that God’s grace is always present and available.

  That year my husband and I were traveling in the Turks and Caicos Islands. By the time we returned to our tiny hotel room at the end of the day, we were exhausted—not just from the physical activity of the day, but also from the pain and emotional strain of deeply feeling our loss. You see, it was the five-year anniversary of our oldest son’s death. Looking for distraction while we showered and dressed for dinner, we turned on the little television. As the set powered up, we were shocked at what we heard coming over the airwaves: my voice!

  An interview I had done with Randi Kaye on Anderson Cooper 360° was airing at that very moment. That alone was an amazing synchronicity. On the broadcast, I happened to be in the middle of explaining the joy God taught us to feel, even in the midst of our pain. What could have been an increasingly challenging day for us turned into an opportunity for even more joy as we embraced this small miracle and felt the warm embrace of God’s love.

  I believe we all are created to feel heaven breaking through. But sifting through the static of daily living to find the “signal” in the noise takes effort. Socrates famously declared that the unexamined life is not worth living. I’d reframe his adage here to say: “The examined life is priceless, because our experiences are containers holding the treasure of revealed wisdom—if we look.” The verb examine is active, implying focused resolve and intention. We need to make time to meditate, listen, and watch.

  This chapter invites you to be intentional about uncovering evidence of God’s involvement and handiwork in your life story. I will first ask you to record the time line of your life, and I will offer ways to look for signs of God in your story. I will then close this exercise with a helpful list of prompts for where and how you can “look within.”

  FIRST, WRITE THE STORY OF YOUR LIFE

  Create a simple chronology of your life that highlights significant events. This is not about producing a work of literature, by the way; it’s about creating a helpful, private record. If you feel pressed for time, aim for a bulleted time line of key events—just one page, maybe two. Even if you fill an entire journal, what matters is that when you’re done, you can sit back and see your story from start to now.

  The main point is to prompt your memory to write down the major (and even minor) events that tell the story of your life. Your aim is still to gather information that might help you become more aware of how a loving, active, and present God has touched your life in ways that you might not have noticed at the time. But first you have to collect the facts.

  Possibilities are practically endless, but your record could include: early memories; formative friendships; moves; schools attended; memorable disappointments; shining achievements; your first broken heart; marriages, divorces, and deaths in the family; your first job; and so on. You’ll have to focus, and it may not be easy to get it all down, but you’ll find it’s well worth the trouble because the end result will constitute a map that shows you where to concentrate your attention.

  Once your chronology is done, pick an event or time period in your life that has particular significance to you, and dig deeper. What made this time or event so important? What choices, circumstances, or coincidences made it what it was? What emotions did you experience most then? What people were pivotal in your life then? What obstacles did you face and overcome? Which ones still remain? Be specific. What caught your attention? Did you cross paths with someone who provided unexpected help or encouragement when you needed it the most? Did you experience any divine appointments, nudges, or small miracles? Were there times you stepped out in faith and flourished or were surprised to see the path made straight?

  There is power in recording—in writing—the ways God has shown up in your life and proven His promises to be true. Transferring recollections from your brain to paper excavates forgotten events and crystallizes them in your consciousness.

  THEN, LOOK FOR SIGNS OF GOD IN YOUR STORY

  After you collect the facts you can begin to “look within” your life for meanings, connections, traces of that larger world of the spirit breaking into your story.

  I’ve found that God shows up in small (or large) miracles, in hard-to-explain synchronicities, or in improbable encounters with people who nudged me toward my higher purpose. For me, God’s sustaining grace is often most apparent during my darkest days when I have felt most abandoned and alone. Another reassurance from scripture pictures God like an eagle who “hovers over its young,” spreading his wings to catch us and carry us aloft (Deuteronomy 32:11). Of course, we may be too distr
acted by our own distress at the time, but that is why it’s so important to look back now.

  Spend some time with your story once you have it sketched out. Go back through each event you’ve marked down. To look for signs of God there, go beyond the basic facts to reflect on how you felt and what you learned in the event or each encounter. Ask others who lived those times with you to help you recall some of the ways God clearly was—or might have been—present in your life.

  Look closely at what psychologists and spiritual directors call liminal or threshold times, where you found yourself between one season of life and another, one identity and another. Times of significant loss, change, or brokenheartedness, for example, often leave us feeling the tension of liminality—hanging, as Franciscan Richard Rohr says, “betwixt and between” in our spirits. People of God down through the ages have felt that the spiritual world comes very close during those times—as the psalmist noted, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted…” (Psalm 34:18).

  Take time to meditate and pray as you process this step, asking God to open your eyes to see the kingdom of heaven hovering over your life.

  Can you see patterns?

  Can you think of why you may have missed them at the time?

  Can you see outcomes now that only became apparent later?

  I’ve found that the more I unearth evidence of God’s fingerprints in my past, the easier it becomes to see those things as they happen in the present. That strengthens my commitment to lean on God for real transformation in my life.