The heart-rate monitor was beeping and the liquid was slowly dripping through the IV. Her arm lay limp on the crisp white sheet and her eyes were fixed to the ceiling. She blinked continuously and smiled slightly from time to time. Those were the only movements she made. Although physically she seemed inactive, her brain was busily working its way till the last minute. She couldn’t explain the pain in her heart.
She had so many questions but less answers. She wanted to know what she had done, where she had gone wrong and why God was taking her away from her family and the ones she loved. She had barely started life. Her wedding was scheduled a month away but she wondered if she was going to be there. She knew she wasn’t going to make it to her wedding. Talk of a wedding with no bride. She sighed and shifted her gaze to the finger on which her wedding band would have been securely lodged. She imagined it on, the sun pouring over it, making it sparkle. He had been there the day before and had cried and begged her to live. She had been too weak to talk back but even then she knew she was going to die. Death was very close. She was happy he wasn’t around to watch her go. It would have been too much for him.
She shut her eyes. Doing the right thing hadn’t been easy. The world hadn’t made it easy to do the right thing but she fought through. A world in which good was rejected and evil hailed. It hadn’t been easy to shun them all; the sex, the drugs, the alcohol. She lived against the world. She had been happy though. She had been happy with her life with God and the church. Meeting Agyekum had been another of God’s miracles. If he was the one for her, why then was God taking her away? Why was she never going to be with him? Didn’t she deserve to be happy with him? She had been made to only see the Promised Land and she didn’t understand why.
She couldn’t help thinking. Was it worth depriving herself of all the excitement of sin, all the pleasures of the world, and ferociously fighting sin and temptation? Young men and women her age were still out there having fun in spite of all their wrongs and she was dying... dying so young. Life was being snatched from her even before it began. And the darkness, the darkness also confused her. She could feel herself slipping away yet it was still so dark. Where was the light at the end of the tunnel? Where was the God she had passionately served? Where was the peace she needed? Why was she still in pain? She didn’t understand.
And then, all of a sudden, the beeping filled her ears. The liquid ceased dripping and she felt herself floating as her heart skipped. Her body was covered in goose bumps and her eyes narrowed. The words of her favourite hymn run through her mind;
Forever with the lord
Amen! So let it be
Life from the dead is in that word
‘Tis immortality
Here in the body pent
Absent from Him I roam
Yet nightly pitch my moving tent
A day’s march nearer home.
My father’s house on high
Home of my soul, how near
At times to faith’s foreseeing eye
Thy golden gates appear
Ah! Then my spirit faints
To reach the land I love
The bright inheritance of saints
Jerusalem above.
So when my latest breath
Shall rend the veil in twain
By death, I shall escape from death
And life eternal gain
Knowing as I am known
How shall I love that word
And oft repeat before the throne
Forever with the Lord!!
She smiled so unbelievably wide and joy filled her soul. That was because finally, she saw it. A small stain of light in the darkness, which kept stretching until it burst out into blinding bright light, incomparable to any earthly light. It surrounded her and she was at peace. She got all the answers and she knew the reason why she was being taken. The world was too cruel to contain such a pure soul. A better place was fit for that worthy soul of hers. She couldn’t stop smiling and she couldn’t feel the pain in her heart anymore. She thought of no one and thought of nothing. She had the peace of God which passes all understanding in her mind and heart. It was an indescribable feeling...
Agyekum looked shattered when the nurse lifted the sheet off her face so he could see her. It looked like she was sleeping but no, Christina was dead. I couldn’t even say goodbye, he thought. He broke down in tears, and framing her face with his hands, kissed her on the forehead. The nurse had described how she had died to her fellow nurses on duty and she had said it with awe. “I can’t judge sir, but with what I saw, she is most definitely in heaven”, the nurse said. And she couldn’t help adding, “It was the most wonderful thing I’ve ever witnessed.” But how could Agyekum understand? The woman he loved had been taken away from him and it was being described as wonderful? It was cruel, that’s what it was. Cruel and heartbreaking! He wouldn’t understand. No one ever does, for somewhere in the Methodist hymn book, these words are written;
But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God. And there, shall no torment touch them. In the eyes of the unwise they seem to die and their departure is taken for misery. And their going from us to be utter destruction, but they are in peace. For though they be punished in the sight of men, yet is their hope full of immortality. And having been a little chastised, they shall be greatly rewarded. For God proved them and found them worthy for Himself. As gold in the furnace hath He tried them and received them as a burnt offering. And in the time of their visitation they shall shine and run to and fro like sparks among the stubble. They shall judge the nations and have dominion over the people. And their Lord shall reign forever. They that put their trust in Him shall understand the truth, and such as be faithful in love shall abide with Him; for grace and mercy is to His saints and He hath care for His elect.
So you see? Death had been Christina’s greatest blessing.
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