THE CHAIR
A man's daughter had asked the
local
minister to come and pray with her
father.
When the minister arrived, he
found the man
lying
in bed with his
head propped up on two
pillows.
An
empty chair sat beside his bed. The
minister
assumed that the old fellow
had been informed
of
his impending visit.
"I guess you were expecting me," he said. "No,
who are you?" said the father. "I'm the new
minister at your church," he 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 minister shut the door. "I have
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
preacher talk about prayer, but it 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 is what I suggest. Sit down in 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 off to the funny farm."
The minister 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 building.
Two nights later the daughter called to tell the
minister that her daddy had died that afternoon.
"Did he die in peace?" he asked "Yes, when I left
the house about two o'clock, he called me over to
his bedside, told me he loved me 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 about his death. Apparently, just before
Daddy died, he leaned over and rested his head on
the chair beside the bed. What do you make of
that?" The minister wiped a tear from his eye and
said, "I wish we all could go that
way."
Author Unknown