Aunty Tracy returns from heaven

We were surprised to see Aunty Tracy outside Silveira House when we attended the funeral of Mrs Kambuku. She came running towards me, gave me a big hug, and said, ‘Father, I’ve come back; I’ve come back from heaven.’

Aunty Tracy had been very ill and was dying. She had stayed at the Community House for a time and although it helped her when we prayed for her, she seemed to be getting generally worse and we saw she was on her way. She had then gone to some relatives in Chitungwiza and we lost contact with her. To see her now fit and strong, physically and mentally, was a wonder to us.

She told us she had gone to heaven and seen a street with houses, and further on it was like it was the king’s palace and it was very bright. She had entered different houses on this street and been told that this was not her house; her house was not yet completed. Someone told her to look behind her and when she did, she saw a vision of her son, Peter, sitting alone and forlorn with no one to look after him. She heard a voice saying clearly, ‘You have to go back and look after Peter’.

I asked her if she had been dreaming. She replied, ‘If it were a dream, I would have forgotten it. No, it was not a dream, it was real.’

It is often hard to know where the reality is with spiritual things. She might have gone to heaven, or the outskirts of heaven, or the Holy Spirit may have given her a vision or a meaningful dream, a Holy Spirit dream.

An ordinary dream, however, would not have produced the healing and well-being that we saw in her now.

Aunty Tracy is now telling everyone, ‘Heaven is there; heaven is there’, and I am left wondering whether there are really houses in heaven or whether this is symbolic of some kind of reward. Your house is not yet finished because you have not yet finished the task God has for you on earth. But if it is ‘some kind’ of reward, why should it not be this kind, a real house. Jesus did tell his disciples He was going to prepare a place for them (see John 14: 1-3).

In the end, we can only say that God is the One who knows what it is like in heaven, and as for us, we will see when we get there.

But I wonder, I really wonder, what sort of house…??