"The 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 impending visit. "I guess you were expecting me?"

"No. Who are you?" said the father.

"I'm the new minister at your church," he replied.
"When I saw 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 preacher talk about prayer, but it went right
over my head."

"I abandoned any attempt at prayer," the old  man
continued, "until one day about four years ago my
best friend said to me, 'Joe, 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 on the
chair.  It's not spooky because He promised, 'I'll  be
with you always.'  Then just speak to him and listen
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 guy to continue on the journey.
Then he prayed with him and returned to the church
building. 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. Then 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 all could go that way."

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