One day, while at work in the RAAF, I received a postcard from my mother. She told me that they (father, friends, and her) were staying an extra week ,or so, at their holiday destination (Mermaid Beach, Qld, Australia).
That day, a new sergeant was visiting our work space and introduced himself to us. I was the last one. After the preliminary greetings, he decided to tell me how his son died. I thought this was very odd, since we were total strangers to each other. His share of grief took till end of duty, about two hours.
As I walked back to my barracks, my mind was still on his story. When I reached my room, the Base Chaplin was waiting for me. He asked for my ID, then took me for a walk so he could tell me that my mother just passed away by drowning. Mother drowned during the time the sergeant was sharing his grief. I instantly knew that God was preparing me for the traumatic news.
One night, a few weeks after the funeral, I had trouble sleeping. After awhile I remembered the best remedy was not to count sheep, but to talk to the Shepard instead. So I asked Jesus where my mother was, and prayed to Jesus on my mothers behalf. Then while I was starting to fall asleep I had this beautiful vivid image appear in my mind.
Sorry about the handwriting. If you need a transcript, please say so and I'll type it out for you.
At the end of the image play, the image zoomed onto one of the roses worshipping Jesus, and I realised that this rose represented my mother. I instantly sat up in bed praising the Lord for His answer.
The next day I thought it was odd to have seen roses without thorns. However, many years later I read a book about how the roses in Christ's garden have no thorns, Well, that was a great revelation and a boost to my faith.
