Faith, Religion, Fiction, Short Story
By Joseph Toth
It was a warm summer night on a weekend with clear and dry conditions. I just finished talking to a friend I ran into at a local shopping center and had to cross the street to get back to my car. As I walked away from the mall, I thought about what we were talking about. My friend was getting religious on me, trying to tell me that the lord feels our pain. I wasn’t sure about this, but yet I didn’t doubt it. This got me thinking real hard about the creation of life and who is responsible for creating the world we live in today, …. the earth, skies, trees and other life around us. I felt I sincerely and genuinely wanted to know. Perhaps I was seeking a answer I will never get. Suddenly my thinking was interrupted by the sound of a car horn. I immediately looked up seeing my car in the next lot, … in a split second I turned my head to the left discovering I was in the road and a car was coming at me fast from less than twelve feet away.
The next thing I knew, I was looking up at the night sky and it’s beautiful stars as numerous people started to surround me looking down into my eyes and trying to help me. One man yelled out “call 911, this guy is really really bad”. Another man standing at a distance was trying to keep people back as I could hear him softly say “this one is really gory, please folks stay back”.
I’ve come to realize I’ve been involved in a accident. I’ve been struck down by a motor vehicle. Strangely, I felt no pain. I was really surprised with the number of total strangers I was looking up at. People I didn’t know and never met before were helping and caring for me as if I were a member of their families. This gave me a sense of hope. Then, slowly, … I watched my own eyelids close against my wishes. Total silence, darkness and peace is all there was.
My eyes then opened. I found myself looking down on the inside of a church filled with people attending a mass. A Priest was praying just below me. I tried calling out but wasn’t heard by anyone in the silence of the church.
Closely I looked over the people in the church. I looked down on a little boy who kept sniffling, as I looked into his eyes my nose itched really bad. On the other side of the church sat a very obese man. As I looked into his eyes I could feel my breathing get tougher as I noticed aches and pains in my back, legs and feet.
Toward the front of the church sat a man who had to be about 70 years old and kept rubbing his hands. As I looked into his eyes my hands and other joints became very painful.
I looked into the eyes of a woman and was overcome by the sensation of worry as I visualized a small child laying in bed coughing really bad. This must have been her child who was at home sick in bed.
Then, my eyes closed again, … never opening again. I was puzzled by the experience I just encountered. I was in a state of peaceful existence. This gave me time to think about what I experienced at the church.
I’ve come to realize I was deceased. After thinking about it for a while, I was certain my visions in the church as I looked down on the people was no puzzle at all. It was the answer to what I was thinking about when it was my time to go.
The answer is ‘yes’ he can feel our pain, and for that short moment he answered my question by showing me.
I couldn’t help but think of my accident. Remembering the way I was looking up at the stars, and now trying to imagine the incredible pain he must have felt as I laid on the road while my life came to a end.
