Through Bible stories, a pastor shares the peace found through Jesuswith a dying woman.

The call came from the hospice people in Elizabethton. Helen Neptune was in hospice care. She was being eaten up with cancer, and she wanted to speak to a Lutheran minister. Would we be willing to come? Yes, of course!

When I went to visit Helen, I found her lying in a hospital bed in her living room. We chatted, and I learned that her life had been challenging. She had one son and a granddaughter. She'd been involved in church only a little and hadn't been involved for a long time. She recounted some things for which she was ashamed; her conscience was bothering her, and knowing that she was nearing the end of her life, she was understandably nervous, even afraid. Cancer was ravishing her body; guilt and fear were torturing her soul.

So we began to talk about Jesus. The first time there I told her the account of Jesus and his disciples on Easter evening. Remember? The disciples were locked in a room, afraid even though some of them had already seen the risen Jesus. Jesus came popping into the room and said, "Peace be with you," then he showed them his hands and his side. Helen and I talked about that: "Those nail scars on Jesus' hands were the proof positive for the disciples that Jesus loved them and forgave them. Jesus loves and forgives you too, Helen. And just like those nail scars brought peace to the disciples, they bring you and me peace too."

Helen told me that she'd never heard that before. Then she said, "Now that makes me feel better!"

During the next few weeks, my vicar and I visited Helen several times. We told her the account of Jesus healing the paralytic; she'd never heard it. I told her about how when Jesus died, he said, "It is finished," that our sins were forgiven in full, completely. Again, she said she'd never heard that.

Helen was pretty weak, so usually the visit would last 15 to 20 minutes. We'd chitchat for a few minutes about her past, about her son, her granddaughter (on whom she doted!), or whatever. Then I'd say, "Well, let me share a segment of the Bible with you." She'd say, "Okay!" and she'd rally her strength and pull herself up on the bed as much as she could, eagerly leaning forward.

One time I told her about Jesus walking on the water. That day he'd fed the five thousand. Then he'd sent the disciples across the Sea of Galilee, and it had gotten to be about the middle of the night. "And so the disciples were tired, they were worn out, they're working their tails off trying to row across this windblown sea, and they look up and . . . they thought they saw a ghost! But do you know who it was?"

"No! Who?"

"It was Jesus!"

"Really!"