The Other Visitor
An old man lay very ill, and the Rector of the Parish called to see him.
As the Rector sat down on a chair near the bedside, he noticed on the other side of the bed, another chair placed at such an angle to suggest that a visitor had just left it. “I see that I am not your first visitor”, said the Rector. The old man looked up in surprise, and the Rector pointed to the chair. “Ah”, said the old man, “I’ll tell you about that chair. When I first became ill, I found it difficult to say my prayers. I always seemed to fall asleep.
Then I read somewhere about someone who placed a chair opposite him and he imagined that Jesus was sitting in it, and would talk to Him as he would talk to a friend. I have been doing that myself and I find it is a great help. That is why you see the chair placed like that”. A week later, the old man’s daughter knocked at the Rectory door. When she saw the Rector she burst into tears.
“Father died last night”, she sobbed. He died quite suddenly. I saw that he was sleeping peacefully, so I took the chance to lie down for an hour. When I came back, he had gone. He hadn’t moved, except his hand was out on the empty chair beside his bed. Do you understand?”
“Yes, I understand” said the Rector. The old man, by an imagination which had become faith, had accepted the gift of friendship, and made the Master real. The reality of His Friendship is reached, not through argument, but through experience.
From “Spotlight” January 1950.
