What follows is a conversation I dreamt I had with my son:
My cell phone rang and I looked to see who it was. "Unavailable" showed on the screen. I flipped the phone open, "this is Jeff" I answered. "Hi Dad" was the response, "what are you doing?" My mouth dropped. The voice was right, the words were right, that was what he always said when he called me. "JJJosh" I stuttered, "how can this be? I thought there was a chasm we couldn't communicate across?" "Dad, you're not going to believe this, but the angel Gabriel loaned me his cell phone to call you. Don't say anything, Gabriel told me God frowns upon "cross chasm calls". "Mums the word" I chuckled.
Then my mind started racing, I had so many questions, I didn't know what to ask first. I blurted out, "have you met Jesus yet?" "Oh yea" Josh answered. "But he doesn't look anything like the pictures. But I'm pretty sure you'll know him when you see him." I laughed again and as I was ready to get on with my twenty thousand questions Josh interrupted, "It was pretty awesome what that brigade of angels did for Cory and me, they're around us all the time".
That stopped me. There was an awkward silence when finally I said, "What are you talking about Josh? You and Cory died in that accident, how can you talk about how 'awesome' angels are? There must not have been any around at all!" I could feel a bit of anger within me but before I could vent further Josh said, "Dad, they stopped Satan from doing what he was planning to do to us." My anger turned to confusion and I asked, "What was he planning to do?"
"I can't answer that, dad. You don't want to know." Josh replied. "All I can say is that if Satan had his way that night many of you would have lost your faith. But the way it is now your faith will get stronger." Again there was a silence. "Josh", I finally said, "I'm really looking forward to seeing you again." "I know dad", he said. "Hey, I gotta go, I hear the big man coming. Gotta give Gabriel back his phone." "Okay Josh", I started choking up. "see ya later!" My phone went quiet while I started sobbing. I slowly calmed down and eventually a grin crept on my face.
Josh was in heaven, I thought to myself. He knew he didn't deserve to be there. He knew he was there because Jesus died for him. He knew he was there because Jesus beat death and Satan. Yea, I started grinning because I knew I would see Josh again.
From the book of John chapter three verse sixteen: "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."