Be merciful to me, Lord, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and body with grief. Psalm 31:9 (NIV)

I’ve sometimes wondered what friends and loved one’s would say to me if they could post a letter or send an E-mail from heaven. Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t believe the dead can communicate with us. Nonetheless, when I came across the following anonymous story entitled The Letter, I felt it was worth including in this blog because . . . well just because.

Sally jumped up as soon as she saw the surgeon come out of the operating room. “How’s my little boy?” she asked nervously. “Is he going to be okay? When can I see him?” The surgeon coughed apologetically and quietly said, “I’m sorry, we did all we could . . . There was nothing more we could do.”

Sally slumped back into the chair and said, “It’s not fair. Why do little children get cancer? Doesn’t God care? Where is He when we need Him?”

The surgeon, at a loss for words, headed for the scrub room and mumbled, “One of the nurses will be out in a few minutes to let you spend some time with your son’s remains before they’re transported to the university.”

Standing alongside the operating table, Sally asked the nurse to stay with her for the final good-bye to her son. As Sally stroked her fingers for the last time through her son’s thick red curly hair the nurse said, “Would you like a lock of his hair?” Sally nodded affirmatively and the nurse cut a lock of hair and put it in a plastic bag before handing it to Sally. As she took it, Sally said, “It was Jimmy’s idea to give his body to the university for study. He said it might help somebody else, and that is what he wanted. I said no at first, but Jimmy said that he wouldn’t be using his body after he died and the research might help some other little boy spend one more day with his mother. My Jimmy had a heart of gold, you know. He was always thinking of someone else and always wanting to help others if he could.”

Sally walked out of the hospital for the last time. She’d spent six long months at her son’s bedside. After setting the bag with Jimmy’s effects on the front seat in the car she drove slowly home. It was a tough journey along what had become a familiar route. It was even harder to go into the empty house, carry the bag upstairs to Jimmy’s room and start placing the model cars and other things back in his room exactly where he always kept them. Emotionally drained, Sally lay down on Jimmy’s bed and cried herself to sleep holding his pillow.

During the night Sally dreamt about waking up and discovering a folded letter lying beside her on the bed. Opening it, she read:

Dear Mom,

I know you’re going to miss me, but don’t think I will ever forget you or stop loving you just because I’m not around to say “I love you.” I’ll think of you every day, Mom, and I’ll love you even more each day. Some day we’ll see each other again.

If you want to adopt a little boy so you won’t be lonely, he can have my room and my old stuff to play with. If you decide to get a girl instead, she probably won’t like the same things as us boys do, so you’ll have to buy her dolls and stuff girls like.

Don’t be sad when you think about me. This is really a great place. Grandma and Grandpa met me as soon as I got here and showed me around some, but it will take a long time to see everything here.

The angels are so friendly. I love to watch them fly. Jesus doesn’t look like any of the pictures I saw of Him, but I knew it was Him as soon as I saw Him. Jesus took me to see God! And guess what Mom? I got to sit on God’s knee and talk to Him like I was somebody important. I told God that I wanted to write you a letter and tell you good-bye and everything, but I knew that wasn’t allowed. God said for me to give you the answer to one of the questions you asked Him about where was He when I needed Him? God said, “The same place He was when Jesus was on the cross. He was right there, as He always is with all His children.”

Tonight I get to sit at the table with Jesus for supper. I’m sure the food will be great.

I almost forgot to let you know – I don’t hurt anymore, the cancer is all gone. I’m glad because I couldn’t stand that pain anymore and God couldn’t stand to see me suffer the pain either, so He sent the Angel of Mercy to get me. The angel said I was special delivery!

With love from,

God and Jesus and me.