It was a quiet night about two months after my wife and longtime best friend – suddenly died. In the middle of the night, I heard my dogs stirring. They had all gotten up – I think I saw the last of their waking up and moving. They were walking around in little circles and making somewhat pathetic little whining sounds.
I wondered what was going on. The house was okay, no problems or break-ins. They all seemed healthy, had eaten, had water; none were acting like they had to go out.
They kept milling around in small circles, making these little whining sounds. Very unusual. I had never seen or heard them do this, and they never all got up in the middle of the night, making small circles while whining.
I must have asked for help, because what I did next was highly unusual. I think, by hindsight, Holy Spirit was leading me.
I told them something, and then two true short stories. It went something like this:
First, I told them that my wife Britta was gone and they would not see her again on earth. In heaven, likely; but not on earth. Never again.
Second, I told them about something Britta had said to me one day. She asked, “When you get to heaven, what is it you want to hear?”
I had never thought about that before. I replied, “Well…probably…’well done, you good and faithful servant.'” I felt like I had borrowed someone else’s idea, stolen it, actually. But it is the best I could come up with.
One or two beats later, I asked her – and by this time, as I was telling about this, the dogs were all standing still now – not milling around any more. Silent and staring at me. So I went on with the story. I asked Britta, “What do you want to hear when you get to heaven?” I suspected she had really thought about this. It turns out that she had.
She told me, “All your previous pets are here, in heaven, waiting for you. Wondering where you’ve been all this time. And they are eager and keen to see you.”
Then I told the dogs about something else. About six people had come to me right after she died, telling me they had seen a vision. Most were similar. They saw Britta looking down from the Cloud of Witnesses, some said with one, others said with with two angels by her side. Saying that she was fine, everything was okay – even very good! And sometimes of sending greetings. Sometimes waving.
One of them, a Pastor of a good friend and a man of great integrity, told me that he’d seen two angels and the power from them was so strong it sent him stumbling backwards.
There was one interesting variation. One person saw Jesus next to my wife. Jesus gave her a puppy. (Something that made more sense if you knew how much she loved dogs and if you knew what she first wanted to hear when getting to heaven.) What a wonderful and personal gift!
After I told the dogs all that – it was as if this is what they wanted to hear – they each turned around, quietly making little circles as dogs often do when laying down. And quietly, they went to sleep.
I went to sleep also; I think we all did, having been comforted by Holy Spirit.