From December 8, 2015
Continued from More Light Bulbs
Sometimes it is difficult to find human words to adequately describe visions.
Soon after Roma passed through that thin veil dividing the world we inhabit from the one we are all steadily approaching, two friends, unknown to each other, contacted me about clear visions they had of Roma the night he made that journey. I’ve asked each of them to share, in their own words, what they saw. They both had these visions the same night. Cheryl contacted me first, so I will share her vision first.
I met Cheryl in 2013 through an adoption and orphan-hosting Facebook group. She got to know Roma and me better by reading But the Greatest of These is Love. We began to message and discovered she lives an hour north of me. Then we realized another member of the group, Sue had also just read my book. The only two who contacted me about reading my book were close enough to meet for lunch! Only God! So we met at Cheryl’s home in the middle, and as is the case when God puts people in our lives, immediately connected on a “soul” level. We have become a bond of three. We message often. We have met for lunch a few times now, and even gone away on a four-day retreat to my West Virginia lake house to discuss the remarkable ways of God, as best we can understand Him. Telling our families in September we were going to a cabin by a lake in remote West Virginia with people we met on the internet sounded so wrong. Unless God is involved, and, in our case, it turned out to be just right.
So, here is Cheryl’s vision in her words.
I am awestruck by how many lives this little boy from the border of Russia and Georgia has touched. So many became a part of this story and have held the Michael family and Roma deeply in their hearts. Roma’s giant personality made us all feel that he was a part of our everyday lives. We grieve as his bigger-than-life presence stepped over to the other side; while still leaving the memory of his wide open arms and radiant smile that remains forever etched in our thoughts.
I have read and re-read “You are Mine,” from the “Family Connections” series about the miracle of finding Roma’s birth family. I read it each time with the same pause. It was as if God was putting His hand on my shoulder to make certain that I saw.
From Part Eight, You are Mine “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine!” (Isaiah 43:1)
I was overtaken by a stillness, as I read the foreshadowing words of the last line of Debbie’s post, “And now He has called Roma.”
After Debbie and I texted that fateful night, I sobbed as my heart ached deeply for my dear sister and her family. I cried out with the words from Romans 8:26: the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
In the early morning of December 7th, I was awakened by God to pray over and over again. I talked to God and Roma out loud. I was lost in time in this prayerful realm. At one point, I drifted back to sleep, then awakened by this noise that filled my room overhead. The sound resembled the beginning of a wind storm with the gentleness of a ocean breeze. The deep warm embrace was like a thick warm cloud that was all encompassing.
It was Angels, and Roma was with them. They were going to and fro accompanied by this systematic flowing sound. In my humanness, I called out loud to Roma to be strong and voiced that he did not have to leave. The breeze forcefully whooshed a few more times, then faded, and disappeared . . .
The veil between heaven and earth is truly so thin.
The next morning, I lit a candle to remind myself to pray every time I passed throughout the day. A candle much like the one that burned in Georgia in Roma’s homeland for him. As it flickered, it held the sadness of loss and the gratefulness for a family that embraced their Roma with complete and immense unending love. A love that reminds us all, “But the Greatest of These is Love.”
I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” (John 14:18)
Note: Cheryl references Part Eight of the Family Connections series, but you can read all eleven posts of that popular series starting at Part One.
Next read another Sister-in-Christ’s visions, in her words. Vision Two
Consider it all JOY 