At this point, I felt better than ever, as if nothing bad had ever happened. I was eating, felt good, and still had every bit of knowledge packed into my brain that had been presented to me while I was out. And now that I had all of this information, what was I to do with it? I needed to talk to someone but wasn’t sure who.
My dad had no religion and wouldn’t understand. My brother was a good friend, but not someone I felt I could really share this with. I have a sister, but she wasn’t at the house that evening. My mom was a good, faithful, practicing Catholic woman; she might listen, but I wasn’t comfortable talking about God with her.
So there I was, a Catholic teenage boy with all this knowledge, but too unable to tell anyone about it.
That night, I never went to sleep. I was afraid that I would lose everything God had shown me. Instead, to pass the time, I grabbed a calculator and started quizzing myself on the most difficult math questions I could think of. But I knew the answers long before I could even push the equals sign. There seemed to be no mathematical problem that I could not solve in half a second.
The next morning, I asked my brother, when he woke up, to ask me a math question. He blurted out a problem, and I instantly gave him the answer, which he verified on the calculator. I was right again. As the day went on, I started to think that maybe I should talk to a priest or something. But I was a little shy and didn’t know the priests well at my church. So, I told no one.
I fell asleep that night still remembering everything. Thoughts of Moses, the battles, and the universe all ran through my head. I was on top of the world knowing that I still had all this knowledge. I say this possibly because I was pretty ignorant of what all God had shown me. With many of these visions, I just didn’t know who these people were.
One of the greatest parts of these visions is the fact that I was actually there in person. I was above the Israelites, slightly above their heads, going through the Red Sea, while at the same time I was in the midst of all that was happening. Time was of no essence; I was living it as though it were live.
I slept well that night, but when I woke up the next morning, something was different—everything but the memory that my experience in Heaven had happened. I no longer had the math answers. I was no longer on cloud nine, feeling blessed beyond life.
Very thankful to God to be alive; His plans for me were unknown. He knew I would eventually meet my beautiful wife, Kathy, and have 2 beautiful daughters: Julianna and Lillian. But, for now, the Lord allowed me to slip back into the world of a typical 17 year old.
Prayerfully, until next time…
