My aunt worked as an in-home hospice care-giver for a number of years, and was the only witness to the final moments of several lives. She shared something with me about the passing of one particular elderly lady--a very spiritual Christian; and she witnessed something that still moves me, which I'd like to share.

My aunt could not bear the thought of someone dying alone, and because the end seemed near, the day the lady passed, she spent most of the day just sitting by her bedside, reading. The lady had been sleeping most of the day, when suddenly, eyes still closed, she raised her frail little arms upwards--toward someone only she could see, and then died peacefully in her sleep.

I believe with all my heart that my aunt witnessed this elderly child of God--in a transition between this life and the next--reaching out to an angel sent to to pick her up and carry her to heaven, just as Jesus described the departure of the beggar Lazarus. Because of her compassion and desire to stay at the lady's bedside, my aunt was blessed to have seen something that people rarely get to see: something that should thrill every child of God, and renew in us the truth that when we die, we will be carried by an angel into the presence of our God.