God's Chair
--Author
unknown
A man's daughter had asked the local pastor to come and
pray with her father. When the pastor arrived, he found the man lying in bed his
head propped up on two pillows and
an empty chair beside his bed. The
pastor assumed that the old fellow had been informed of his visit.
"I guess you were expecting me," he said.
"No, who are you?"
"I'm the new associate at your local church," the
pastor replied. "When I saw the
empty chair, I figured you knew I was going to show up."
"Oh yeah, the chair," said the bedridden man.
"Would you mind closing the door?"
Puzzled, the pastor shut the door. "I've never told
anyone this, not even my daughter," said the man. "But all of my life
I have never known how to pray. At church I used to hear the pastor talk about
prayer, but it always went right over my head. I abandoned any attempt at
prayer," the old man continued, "until one day about four years ago my
best friend said to me,
'Joe, prayer is just a simple matter of having a
conversation with Jesus. Here's what I suggest: Sit down on a chair; place an
empty chair in front of you, and in faith see Jesus on the chair. It's not
spooky because he promised, 'I'll be with you always.' Then just speak to him
and listen in the same way you're
doing with me right now.' So, I
tried it and I've liked it so much that I do it a couple of hours every day. I'm careful, though. If my daughter saw me talking to an
empty chair, she'd either have a nervous breakdown or send me to off to the
funny farm."
The pastor was deeply moved by the story and encouraged the
old guy to continue on the journey. Then
he prayed with him, and returned to the church. Two nights later the daughter
called to tell the pastor that her daddy had died that afternoon.
"Did he seem to die in peace?" he asked.
"Yes, when I left the house around two o'clock, he
called me over to his bedside, told me one of his corny jokes, and kissed me on
the cheek. When I got back from the store an hour later, I found him dead. But
there was something strange, in fact, beyond strange--really weird. Apparently,
just before Daddy died, he leaned over and rested his head on a chair beside the
bed."
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