My Journey to Heaven: What I Saw and How It Changed My Life (13 page)

The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life. . . .

He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen. (Rev. 22:12–21)

O
n December 19, 2011, Marv and I took his co-writer, Lorilee, out for lunch. We wanted to treat her, as well as see her one more time before we left for Arizona, where we had spent the last few winters.

She had one more piece of business for Marv: the dedication and acknowledgments for this book. She walked us through the process of writing those final details, assuring us this was the last book-related task for Marv to do until it was published.

Over chicken salad sandwiches, we dispatched with the business at hand and spent the remaining time together chitchatting, as we always did. Marv and I hugged Lorilee goodbye, and we all promised to keep in touch via email. Marv loved working on the book with Lorilee, but it was also a very difficult project as well. Talking about his heaven experience was emotional and draining for Marv, and working on the chapters about losing our baby son, William, and later, our son-in-law Steve were particularly wrenching.

I knew Marv was relieved to be done. He had faithfully completed the work which God sent him back from heaven to do. Now we could relax in Arizona, golfing and visiting with our friends.

Except God had other plans. Marv had returned to earth almost six years beforehand, and had dearly longed to go back every minute of those years. We didn’t know it that day at Russ’ Restaurant, but God knew: Marv’s time on earth was almost up.

The next day, Marv was hospitalized for pneumonia, and we spent the week of Christmas in the hospital. He was released briefly, only to be readmitted within a couple of days. This time he had pneumonia in the other lung. Marv was very weak, and it was so difficult for me to watch him in such a state, but I fully expected him to spend no more than two or three days in the hospital. During that time, I received more than one hundred emails from friends and family, concerned about Marv. He was so loved on this earth, but so much more loved in heaven.

On January 9, I noticed that Marv was experiencing marked weakness on his left side and had difficulty speaking and gripping the doctors’ hands. A “stat” CT scan revealed a blood clot in the right side of the brain. He was transferred to ICU.

Here’s an excerpt from my email to family and friends on January 13:

Marv has come through some very difficult days. He was able to pull out the feeding tube on Wednesday night. That had to be reinserted today. Swallowing remains a major problem. The feeding tube is necessary to give him many meds and maintain nutrition. He knows me but remains very tired. The doctors have a major dilemma. They reintroduce the anticoagulants and worry about bleeding around the clot in the brain. Or they stop the anticoagulants and worry about another blood clot. He remains very ill and truly in God’s hands.

Marv continued to get worse, and on January 18, I had to make the hardest decision of my life—to have Marv’s feeding tube removed. Another email:

After many tears, prayers and questions, we decided to stop all medication, food and keep him comfortable with pain meds. . . . This has been such a difficult decision but I know Marv would not want to live this way. Those of you who have heard him speak about his trip to Heaven know how much he wants to go back. This time it will be a one-way trip.

So many friends and family visited Marv for the next three days, including his co-writer, Lorilee. With tears rolling down her face, she held his hands and told him those two angels were coming for him, again. “Will you wait for me at the gate?” she asked him. Marv was barely coherent or lucid, but we could both tell he said “yes.”

Our children and grandchildren were able to express their deep love for Marv, one more time.

On January 21, 2012, at 6:15 in the evening, Marv flew back to heaven. I had sat by his bedside that day, doing all I could to make him comfortable, and whispering words of devotion. I loved him with all my heart. I knew he was at the departure gate, waiting for the angels.

A friend had brought me the devotional
Jesus Calling
. That day’s reading gave me profound comfort. I also read it to Marv in those final hours:

I want you to be all mine. I am weaning you from all other dependencies, Your security rests in Me alone—not in other people, not in circumstances. Depending only on Me may feel like walking on a tight rope, but there is a safety net underneath:
the everlasting arms
. So don’t be afraid of falling. Instead look ahead to Me. I am always before you, beckoning you on—one step at a time.
Neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation can separate you from My loving Presence
.
[1]

That day, God beckoned his child Marv straight into his everlasting arms. My dear one was at rest, back where he so longed to go.

Did those same two angels pick him up this time?

Was Peter there to greet him this time, and if so, what words passed between them?

I don’t know the answers to those questions. But I know he has been reunited joyfully with our son William John and with our beloved son-in-law Steve.

I know that no intangible doorway separates him this time from those he cherished: his parents, his grandparents, and many friends.

Marv was sent back to us because God told him, “I have more work for you to do.”

I believe that work was, in large part, this book you hold in your hands, a book completed one day before my husband’s health began to fail, and filled with love from Marv to you, the reader. Of course, it is filled, much more than we can imagine, with love from the God who sent his stubborn servant back to write it.

Marv’s dearest hope was that many others would glimpse the peace and glory he experienced in heaven. “Heaven is just love, plain and pure, something for us to enjoy forever and ever and ever,” he wrote in these pages. Marv is basking in that incomparable love today!

—Ruth Besteman,
Byron Center, Michigan,
May 9, 2012

T
o the following people, my abiding gratitude:

To my precious Guild: Ann Byle, Alison Hodgson, Angela Blyker, Cynthia Beach, Shelly Beach, Sharron Carrns, and Tracy Groot, for unending support and love. Jana Olberg for sharing your beloved Dagny with me. Tracey Bianchi, Pastor David Beelen, Jamie Young, Gordy Van Haitsma. My agent, Esther Fedorkevitch, who never gave up on this project, and who was so good to Marv and Ruth. My old and new friends at Baker Publishing: Dwight Baker, the sales, marketing, editorial, and publicity teams, and especially to the smart and skilled Vicki Crumpton, who chose this project over so many others.

To my family, my love and thanks: Linda Reimer; Ken and Linda Craker; my husband, Doyle, and children, Jonah, Ezra, and Phoebe—it was my joy to share Marv’s slice of heaven with the people I love most.

To Ruth Besteman: Thank you for your huge help in every aspect of this book. Marv and I couldn’t have written it without your support, encouragement, savvy insight, medical knowledge, and great memory. I came to love you and Marv dearly.

And to Marv: Thanks so much for trusting me with your story. It is one of the great honors of my life to write this book with you. Thank you for embracing me like a family member, and for being so sweet and funny and open-minded through this whole process. I miss you, but I know you are shining like the sun right now, with your God and those you love. When I die, I know you will be there at the gate, waiting, with a big smile on your face, and probably a crack about the Red Wings beating the Jets. We’ll have to wait and see. Until we meet again, my thanks and love.

—Lorilee Craker

Marv Besteman
(1934–2012) was a graduate of Calvin College, a veteran of the US Army, and a retired bank president. He spoke frequently during his last few years of life about his experience of heaven. He and his wife, Ruth, are the parents of three children and the grandparents of four. Marv passed away in January of 2012, joyfully anticipating his return to heaven.

Lorilee Craker
is the author of twelve books, including
Money Secrets of the Amish
, nominated for a 2012 Audie Award;
A Is for Atticus: Baby Names from Great Books
; and the
New York Times
bestseller
Through the Storm
with Lynne Spears. A native of Winnipeg, Manitoba, she lives with her family in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she also moonlights as an entertainment reporter for the
Grand Rapids Press
.