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 see the empty  chair; 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 Jesus. Here is what I suggest. Sit down in a chair; place an empty chair in front of you, and in faith see  Jesus sitting in the chair. It's not spooky because He promised; 'I'll be with you  always.' Then just speak to him in the same way you are 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."     [back to stories index]