One of my best friends is 93 years old and last week I enjoyed a very special time saying goodbye to her. “Goodbye, Mrs. Sherman.” Oh, not goodbye in the normal sense, but it was one of those “Goodbye, dear friend, I will see you on the other side of eternity.” I called her last week when I learned that Mrs. Sherman, someone I’ve known since I was in high school, had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. They had just moved her into hospice. So I called her to tell her that I will see her in heaven.
Now, she couldn’t reply, she couldn’t talk on the phone, but her daughter tucked the phone under her mother’s ear and I could hear Mrs. Sherman occasionally mumble something, almost smile on the other end – especially when I began singing to her several of our favorite hymns about heaven. “Then I shall see him face to face and tell the story saved by grace” and “Beyond the Sunset, oh glorious morning, when with my Savior, heaven is begun.” I knew that my 93-year-old friend was singing along in her heart. Believe me, if she was cognizant at all, if she was able to hear me at all, I know Charlotte Sherman was singing on the inside. It’s something she and I would do together every time we talked on the phone.
I first met Mrs. Sherman and her husband when I was 14 years old. The Shermans were on the Young Life local committee in Baltimore, Maryland. When I broke my neck shortly after my high school graduation, Mr. and Mrs. Sherman would often come to the hospital to visit me. And then, years later when I wrote the Joni book, Charlotte Sherman helped me answer the letters I began receiving. Even after I started Joni and Friends almost 30 years ago, Mrs. Sherman continued to respond to some of the toughest questions people would ask about the goodness of God or their suffering. When she got much older, 88, 89, 90, Mrs. Sherman would often wonder out loud why God was waiting so long to take her home. But I would tell her that the Lord was moving mightily through her prayers… Mrs. Sherman, keep on praying… your intercessions have a very special power with God. Don’t you know He always bends to hear the prayers of those who suffer graciously under affliction… and He is using you Mrs. Sherman, big time.
And now, I just learned this morning that my elderly friend has slipped the bonds of earth and today she is with Jesus. Oh, how I will miss her, but, oh, how happy she must be, walking down that avenue of gold. I tell you, if you have an elderly friend like Mrs. Sherman, thank you for reminding them, too, that soon and very soon heaven will break on the horizon of their life and God will wipe away all their tears. But in the meantime, they’ve got work to do… the work of prayer, because anyone who suffers graciously under affliction has a special ear with God. Just like my friend, Mrs. Sherman.
Used by permission of
JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 93176
© Joni and Friends