empty chair

[Adam Blatner]

I realized my way of prayer is to have dialogues with God, like Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof.
       I role reverse and answer, too. My role expectation for God is simple: I'm in this big 'ol role and my only task is: How can I help each individual become more wonderful in whatever way?  I don't pretend to know how God sets up the cosmos to be so fine-tuned, or what happens in other dimensions or stuff like that. I just choose the human-consciousness-uplifting role. 

 Anyway, I liked this story:

   MOM'S EMPTY CHAIR 
 
A elderly, very ill woman's daughter had asked her minister 
To come and pray with her mother.
When the minister arrived,
He found the woman lying in bed.
An empty chair sat beside her bed.
 
The minister assumed that the woman
Had been informed of his visit.
'I guess you were expecting me', he said.
'No, who are you?' said the mother.

The minister told her his name and then remarked, 
'I saw the empty chair and I figured you knew
 I was going to show up'.
'Oh, the chair,' said the bedridden woman.

'Would you mind closing the door?'
Puzzled, the minister shut the door.
'I have never told anyone this,
Not even my daughter,' said the woman.
  
'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 went right over my head.'


'I abandoned any attempt at prayer.'
The old woman continued, 
'One day four years ago, my best friend said to me that
Prayer is just a simple matter
Of having a conversation with Jesus.'
 
She suggested that I sit down in a chair
And place an empty chair in front of me.
Then with faith see Jesus in the chair.

'It's not spooky' she said, 'because he promised,
I am with you always'. She continued,
'Then just speak to him 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 lot 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 woman to continue her talks.
Then he prayed with her, anointed her with oil,
And returned to his church.

Several weeks later the daughter called
To tell the minister that her mother had died.

'Did she die in peace?' he asked.
'Yes, I left the house to run an errand,
Before I left I went to her bedside,
She told me she loved me and kissed me on the cheek.

When I got back an hour later, I found her.
But there was something a bit strange about body.
Apparently, just before Mom died,
She leaned over and rested her 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 could all go like that.'
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