Judson B. Palmer relates the story of the Reverend A.D. Sandborn, who preceded him as pastor in a church in Iowa. Reverend Sandborn called on a young Christian woman who was seriously ill. She was bolstered up in bed, almost in a sitting position, looking off in the distance. “Now just as soon as they open the gate I will go in,” she whispered.

Then she sank upon her pillow in disappointment. “They have let Mamie go in ahead of me, but soon I will go in.”

Moments later she again spoke, “They let Grampa in ahead of me, but next time I will go in for sure.” No one spoke to her and she said nothing more to anyone, and seemed to see nothing except the sights of the beautiful city. Reverend Sandborn then left the house because of the press of other duties.

Later in the day the pastor learned that the young woman had died that morning. He was so impressed with what she had said that he asked the family about the identity of Mamie and Grampa. Mamie was a little girl who had lived near them at one time but later moved to New York State. As for Grampa, he was a friend of the family and had moved somewhere in the Southwest.

Reverend Sandborn then wrote to the addresses given him to inquire about these two individuals. Much to his astonishment he discovered that both Mamie and Grampa had died the morning of September 16, the very hour that the young woman herself had passed into glory….

Aristides, a first-century Greek, marveled at the extraordinary success of Christianity and wrote to a friend, “If any righteous man among the Christians passes from this world, they rejoice and offer thanks to God, and they escort his body with songs and thanksgiving as if he were setting out from one place to another nearby.”

One Minute After You Die, Erwin W. Lutzer, Moody Publishers, copyright © 1997, “used with permission of the publisher.” P. 78,79.