To Be Continued in Heaven
When Love Transcends Death
by
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Sharon was forever pointing out beautiful sights along the roads on which we were traveling. I have gone back over some of those same routes since she died, and as I look at the various things she used to point out, I no longer see the beauty in them that I did while she was with me. I now realize that it was her enthusiasm that made ordinary things appear so beautiful.
Several years have gone by since my wife died, but I still recall our time together as vividly as if it were just yesterday. In looking back, I can now clearly see that the single, most important adjustment that has occurred in my life was the one that God, himself, used this whole, extremely painful ordeal to bring about. Throughout all of those numerous times when I literally begged God to bring Sharon safely through one procedure after another, while I pleaded with him to make her well, again and again I saw that man’s very best efforts were simply not good enough. During those days, I had deep reverence for who God was. I consciously tried to maintain the very highest possible level of respect for the Holy God, the all-powerful God, the all-knowing God to whom I was praying. But as procedure after procedure fell short of producing the full potential that the doctors were hoping for, God was making a major adjustment in my faith. Little by little during this entire gut-wrenching process, my faith in highly acclaimed doctors and in all of the very latest medical technology steadily declined to almost nil. And all the while that was happening, my faith in God expanded beyond profound reverence and settled solidly into complete dependence.
While our world rates physicians and systems to determine the very best in their specified areas, regardless of how highly skilled they are, regardless of how effective the latest state-of-the-art procedures might be, only God is perfect. Neither those doctors nor those procedures will ever have a one hundred percent success record.
If it is God’s will for a person to be made well, he can do that completely without involving any known human medical practices or substances. However, he is the one who made everyone and everything that exists, (John 1:3), so it is no less of a miracle for him to choose to make someone well by guiding the minds of physicians, the hands of surgeons, the effectiveness of medications, or the pleading, tender care of a close loved one.
The Bible records a miracle in John 9:1-7 in which Jesus gave sight to a man who had been blind from birth. In that instance, Jesus mixed his own spit with plain old dirt from the ground on which He was standing, and then rubbed that muddy mess over the eyes of that poor, blind beggar. In today’s world, some pharmaceutical company would probably start marketing mud as a new miracle cure for blindness. But it was not that mud that enabled that blind man to see again, it was entirely the will of God that made it happen.
After I had exhausted every reputable human resource that I was able to locate, after every last one of the latest state-of-the-art procedures failed to make my wife well, out of the clear blue appeared the most reputable doctor of all. At 1:20 AM on December 9, 2010, that doctor transferred my wife into his own private facility, that place that we know of as Heaven. And there, He instantly restored her to perfect health. She is now living in a completely germ free and sin-free environment under the care of none other than the Great Physician Himself. His real name, of course is God
As the doctors and surgeons completed each of the many procedures on my wife down here on earth, they always sent a message saying, “Tell Mr. Vornholt that he can come see his wife now.”
I pray that, very soon, I will be receiving that same message from the Great Physician who is taking care of my wife right now.
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. John 1:3
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About the Book
Will we really see our loved ones again in heaven? What kind of relationship might we have with them if we do see them again? Following the death of his wife, Jerry Vornholt received cards, letters and verbal words of comfort from many sources consoling him with advice that he will be with his wife again in heaven someday. Those words became both a beacon of hope and a problematic hindrance in Jerry’s painful journey through the wounds of grief. He wants more than anything for those words to be true, but he could not help but wonder if that really will happen.
Those who are grieving over the loss of a close loved one will appreciate the heartfelt viewpoints and homespun stories that appear throughout “To Be Continued in Heaven” as Jerry searches for answers to these and many other questions following the heartbreaking loss of his wife and very best friend to cancer.
About the Author
For nearly forty-eight years, Jerry Vornholt and his wife, Sharon, were virtually inseparable. After retiring from active careers in the business and education fields, they moved to Florida with the goal of traveling and serving the Lord together as a team. But just four years later, Jerry was completely devastated by the untimely death of Sharon. While struggling with the intense grief that followed, he developed two new goals for his life. One was to learn as much as he could about his wife’s new home up in Heaven, and the other was to concentrate on things that will last rather than on those things that will one day fade away. Pursuing those goals quickly resulted in a deeper empathy for others who were also struggling. It was that empathy that led him into becoming active as a volunteer chaplain at the Avon Park Correctional Institution, writing and designing inspirational greeting cards, and writing two books, The Wounds of Grief and To Be Continued in Heaven. Since the death of his wife, Jerry has continued to live in their former home in Sebring, Florida.