Word
Gems
What is a
man but the sum of his thoughts?
Suffering:
- Dr. Frank Oski
In Dr. Melvin Morse’s book Parting Visions, the
following angel encounter is documented:
In my own research I have found angels to
be an integral part of visions of all kinds. At least 50 percent of the children in my
studies see "guardian angels" as a part of their near-death experience. I have
also found that guardian angels lend their help at other times of crisis, when a person
needs answers to bolster his or her flagging spirit.
Angels are reported under a variety of
circumstances. Another account comes from Dr. Frank Oski, a professor of pediatrics under
whom I trained at Johns Hopkins University. Oski is not a new-age guru. Rather he is a
demanding pediatrician with an encyclopedic knowledge of medicine who insisted that his
students come to the hospital having read the latest medical-journal articles. Yet to my
great surprise Dr. Oski has been touched by the same mystical light described by people
down through the ages who have had visions, including near-death experiences.
As a medical student Oski was enthusiastic about
the potential of modern medicine, but frustrated by the fact that children die of
congenital defects that are beyond anyone’s control. One night he went to bed
pondering the fate of a dying patient. Although he was doing his best, the child was not
improving. He felt powerless to help and went to sleep wondering why this child had to
die.
About an hour after falling asleep Oski was
awakened by a bright light, one that shone in his room like a private sun. Oski could make
out the form of a woman in the glow of the intense light. She had wings on her back and
was approximately twenty years old.
- In a quiet and reassuring voice
the woman explained to the speechless Oski why it was that children had to die.
"The angel (I don’t know what else to
call her) said that life is an endless cycle of improvements and that humans are not
perfect yet. She said that most people have this secret revealed to them when they die,
but that handicapped children often know this and endure their problems without
complaining because they know that their burdens will pass.
- Some of these children, she said,
have even been given the challenge of teaching the rest of us how to love.
" ‘It stretches our own humanity to
love a child who is less than perfect,’ said the angel. ‘And that is an
important lesson for us.’ "
Oski has been courageous enough to talk freely
about his experience. He has even written about it for a major pediatric journal. In that
article he wrote, "I will make no attempt to convince you as to the reality of my
story. But I would merely ask that you keep an open mind on the mysteries of life which
occur to you on a daily basis."
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