Daddy's Empty Chair {Insp}

"Daddy's Empty Chair"

A man's daughter had asked the local minister to
come and pray with her father. When the minister
arrived, he found the man lying in bed with his head
propped up on two pillows. An empty chair sat
beside his bed. The minister assumed that the
old fellow had been informed of his visit.

"I guess you were expecting me," he said.

"No, who are you?" said the father.

The minister told him his name and then remarked,
"I saw the empty chair and I figured you knew I was
going to show up."

"Oh yeah, the chair," said the bedridden man.
"Would you mind closing the door?"

Puzzled, the minister shut the door.

"I have never told anyone this, not even my daughter,"
said the man. "But all of my life I have never known
how to pray. At church I used to hear the pastor talk
about prayer, but it went right over my head."

"I abandoned any attempt at prayer," the old man
continued, "until one day four years ago, my best
friend said to me, "Johnny, prayer is just a simple
matter of having a conversation with the Lord. Here
is what I suggest. 'Sit down in a chair; place an
empty chair in front of you, and in faith see the
Lord on the chair. It's not spooky because he
promised; 'I will be with you always'. Then just
speak to him in the same way you're doing with me
right now.' "

"So, I tried it and I've liked it so much that I do it a
couple of hours every day. I'm careful though, if my
daughter saw me talking to an empty chair, she'd
either have a nervous breakdown or send me off
to the funny farm."

The minister was deeply moved by the story and
encouraged the old man to continue on the journey.
Then he prayed with him, anointed him with oil,
and returned to the church.

Two nights later the daughter called to tell the
minister that her daddy had died that afternoon.
"Did he die in peace?" he asked.

"Yes, when I left the house about two o'clock, he
called me over to his bedside, told me he loved
me and kissed me on the cheek. When I got back
from the store an hour later, I found him dead."

"But there was something strange about his death.
Apparently, just before Daddy died, he leaned over
and rested his head on the chair beside the bed.
What do you make of that?"

The minister wiped a tear from his eye and said,
"I wish we could all go like that. Let me tell you
about your father . . ."
Received on Sun Dec 2 01:46:01 2007