Through my hospice work in prisons, and now as a pastor, I have often found myself at the bedside of the dying. It is a sobering experience, as you witness the last vestiges of life appear and then disappear, often in predictable order before the person is gone.
But as a believer in Christ, I always wonder where they have gone to. Have they gone to be with their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Or have they arrived at a place where they are eternally separated from God?
It is for these reasons that I describe the deathbed as a sort of portal through which a person arrives at their eternal dwelling. For while they are on it, they are days, hours, or even minutes away from finding out the truth of Christ’s words, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”, and arriving at the place where they will spend eternity.
So, when I am at someone’s deathbed, if I know that they are an unbeliever, I pray that they would come to know the truth of Christ. And sometimes this prayer is offered even when it is unclear if they can even hear me. But I entrust such situations to God, knowing that He can speak to people’s hearts in ways that we can’t.
I must tell you though, while I’m praying, I can’t escape feeling that it is too little, too late. And this starts me wondering about the many times in life when this person had opportunity to hear the Gospel, for they were in the presence of one of Christ’s ambassadors, and yet the Gospel was never shared. I must confess that I have failed to be a faithful witness in many such instances, even though He has committed to me, and for that matter to every Christian, the “ministry of reconciliation (to God)”.
Through the years I have heard believers say of their non-believing loved ones who have recently passed away, “I hope that someone, somewhere along the way shared the Gospel, and that they called this to mind, believed, and were saved.” This is indeed a hope we can have. But we don’t have to leave such things to hope. We can make “God’s appeal” to someone before they end up on that “portal” to their eternal dwelling, and by His grace, and through the conviction of the Holy Spirit, they will believe.
“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us.” (2 Corinthians 5:18-20 NIV)