Okay I told you I’d share this story from the NQC. I just hope I can do it justice. It brought tears to my eyes when my husband’s friend from Canada told it to us.
Jason and my husband, Darrell, met at a singing school some years ago and hit it off because they are both bass singers and enjoy talking. Jason comes down to the National Quartet Convention every year and comes by to talk with us at the Patriots’ booth in the Exhibition Hall. This year as he was leaving, he told us this story.
He is one of several brothers and sisters. Jason has been a Christian for a long time, and so when his father who had multiple health problems became ill with what proved to be his final illness, Jason told him he should bring each of his children to his bedside to ask them pointblank if they knew Jesus. Jason’s father was a strong Christian who had no doubt of where he would be spending eternity after he drew his final breath. So the father encouraged each of his children to make a decision for the Lord. Then with his body wasted away by various diseases, he died.
At his funeral, the preacher looked down at the casket and compared the man’s body there to an ugly bug. Then he said that bug had split open and the man’s spirit had risen out of it like a beautiful, graceful dragonfly. That dragonfly was on his way to heaven to be with the Lord. Jason said they were outside at the gravesite when suddenly a dragonfly appeared and slowly flew past his mother and then circled around through the gathering of mourners as if saying goodbye to each of them before it simply disappeared.
But that wasn’t the end of the story. There was more. The father had a grandson whom he loved and had led to the Lord by his example of faithfulness and his witness. This grandson got married in an outdoor wedding some time after the grandfather passed away. The photographer took numerous pictures of the wedding party as is customary with weddings. When he showed the grandson the picture of the newlywed couple, he apologized for the dragonfly that he hadn’t noticed in the corner of the picture and offered to airbrush it out. The grandson had not noticed the dragonfly on his wedding day, but treasured the picture that showed it there with him. An unseen blessing.
Time passed. Jason’s mother died and they buried her beside his father. On the day of her funeral, a person who lived next door to the gravesite commented on how many dragonflies had been in the area the day before. The person had never heard the story of the dragonfly at Jason’s father’s funeral and so was amazed when Jason shared it with her. She said she had always noticed an unusual amount of dragonflies around his father’s grave.
That’s the story as Jason told it. Some things can’t be explained with logic, but Jason had no trouble accepting with faith what could not be explained. The appearance of that dragonfly made his family feel loved and comforted.
So here’s a quote to go along with the story. While you might not think the appearance of a dragonfly qualifies as a miracle, it definitely qualifies as love.
“Where there is great love, there are always miracles.” …Willa Cather