There are no statistics on how many people are given an opportunity to answer this important question. Some people know what their answer would be while others have not thought about it. If asked, another segment of the population will say it depends on their circumstances at the time. Where do you stand?

This is an experience told to me by a friend of a friend.

Roberta’s Near-Death Experience

It was November 6, 2006 when Roberta and her husband, Al, left Alaska to winter in Arizona for the fourth year. The nighttime flight landed in Phoenix in the early morning after which they had a 3-hour drive to their winter home.

Upon arriving, Al started turning on the utilities and preparing their home for occupancy. Roberta went inside and shortly thereafter experienced the worst headache she’d ever had. When he came inside, Roberta told Al about her headache and he suggested that she lay down. As she turned to do so she blacked out into his arms. As their phone was not yet connected, Al ran to the next-door neighbors to ask them to dial 911.

To the outside world, it looked like Roberta was unconscious, but, for Roberta, there was much more happening. She was drifting toward a light that gradually enveloped her. It was pure and peaceful like nothing she had experienced before. Roberta saw no one, no deceased family, no angels…she was totally alone but unconcerned. It then came to her mind that she had a decision to make. She was being given the choice between heaven and earth…between additional life in the world or eternal life in paradise.

Which would you choose? Would your health or financial situation cause you to select heaven? Or do you have family that you are not ready to leave? Is the prospect of paradise more enticing than your life on earth? Or do you have unfinished projects that you want to complete? This is a big decision that you may get to make, but probably only once…what would you do?

Roberta decided to spend more time with her family and she was immediately returned back in her home. As she was being lifted onto the stretcher, the medics asked what medications she was taking and, surprisingly, Roberta woke up long enough to tell them. This was her last memory until one month later when she awoke in the hospital, survivor of a bleeding brain aneurysm.

It wasn’t until her release and arrival outside her Arizona home that she realized the enormity of what had happened when a neighbor happily greeted her with “There’s our miracle!” Roberta had been a woman of faith but now she was a woman of knowledge. There is an afterlife.

Relevant Scripture

2 Corinthians 6:2 Living Bible (TLB)

For God says, “Your cry came to me at a favorable time, when the doors of welcome were wide open. I helped you on a day when salvation was being offered. Right now God is ready to welcome you. Today he is ready to save you.