I have been asking the Lord lately to let me hear the music of heaven.

Because it’s real. I’m convinced.

Sue heard that music. And if a deaf person can hear it, surely it’s there for me to hear also!

There were two distinct times that last summer before she began to seriously fail in health, that she looked at me and said, “Do you hear it, too? I’m hearing music!”

That was puzzling to both of us because Sue was profoundly deaf with absolutely no sound.

“What’s it sound like?” I asked. (How does a person who’s never heard sound even begin to describe sound?)

I suggested that maybe it was the vibrations from her rather loud oxygen concentrator, or from the semi truck going down the road.

“No!” she responded with an emphatic shake of her head. “It’s voices! I can hear the men singing and the women are singing soprano!” Then she wrinkled up her nose, and laughed. “But don’t tell anyone! They might think I’m crazy!”

I’m pretty confident she no longer is worrying about what people think but would be encouraging me to share this with you!

Because she’s hearing that music of heaven ‘live’ now.

I, too, want to hear the music of heaven. But I know for this to happen I need to be quiet and be listening. My soul also needs to be tuned in and filled with the glorious thoughts of the Lord!

In the rush of the season and all the activities with family and church and the focus to be all merry and bright, it’s easy enough to glibly quip that Jesus is the reason for the season.

But don’t forget that the words Silent Night come before Holy Night for a reason.

We need to be quiet and listen. And above all the din and clamor, we, too, might hear the clear voices of heaven singing in harmony before the Holy One.

“Silent Night, Holy night, Son of God, Love’s pure Light. Radiant beams from Thy holy face, With the dawn of redeeming grace!

“Silent night, Holy night, wondrous star, lend thy light; with the angels let us sing, Alleluia to our King!”

“In everything give thanks for this is the will of God.” (1 Thessalonians 5)

This became one of Sue Thomas’s favorite verses in the Bible! Whenever things did not turn out quite like planned, I would often hear her saying aloud to herself, “in everything give thanks for this is God’s will.”

Or, when a new MS symptom would crop up that would slow her down, she might be quiet for a time, wrestling, but then the crease in her forehead would suddenly soften and she would beamingly blurt out, “in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God!”

She didn’t always have this perspective. I remember how frustrated she would feel. Sometimes it was the small inconveniences, like the slow car in front of us. Or hitting every red light through town. Once in a while it was that unwanted speeding ticket! But after recognizing that it was deserved, she would remind herself, “In everything give thanks…” recognizing that God in His loving care was putting a hedge around her and slowing her down!

Those were the early small steps in thankfulness.

As time marched on there were newer and bigger opportunities to practice a heart of thanksgiving.

A truly thankful heart is shaped and formed through difficulties.

From the time I met her, part of her daily prayer was, “Thank You, Father for my very breath of life.” So when she began to struggle with breathing, first with lung cancer, then with Covid, and had to rely on oxygen, and then a BiPAP machine, she talked to Him quite a bit about that! And then she came to terms with it. She realized that He was giving her a new opportunity to praise Him. She no longer took that Breath of Life for granted. Each breath was seen as a precious gift.

And with that understanding nothing could keep her quiet. A doctor would come in with a lab report showing her kidneys were failing. And Sue would look at me, and say aloud so everyone in the room would hear, “In everything give thanks. It’s God’s will.”

Amy Carmichael captured it this way… “In acceptance lieth peace.”

Whether it feels good and brings us happiness, or whether we don’t understand it and it hurts, we are to give thanks.

Because a thankful heart develops eyes to see the invisible God.

When you begin to see Him in every circumstance,

through every gain and loss,

in every high and low,

whether it feels good or bad,

He will fill your heart with even more thankfulness. It will keep bubbling up until the next thing you know, your heart-cup will overflow!

Sue Thomas in her apartment in Pasadena, California in the mid ’80s

Some people are born with a spirit of adventure. Some people are even adrenaline junkies. They hold on with just one hand, waving their hat with the other and screaming at the top of their lungs!

Not me. I’m a firstborn and I’m cautious. I hang on tightly for the ride and somehow manage to keep moving forward.

My life took an interesting turn 20 years ago when I met Sue Thomas. At that time they were still filming the TV series, Sue Thomas FBEye. Only a few weeks after that first meeting she asked me to travel with her when she did her speaking tours.

After taking some time to pray about it, I came back to her with the ‘yes’ answer. I’ll never forget her excited words…

“You will have to hang on! I can’t promise you much but I CAN promise you it will be an incredible journey!”

She was speaking from experience because she knew that the God Who created the universe was personally involved in even the tiniest and most obscure details of her life…and she trusted Him.

Was she ever right! Life with Sue was quite a ride! A real adventure!

Or, as she would say, life with the LORD is the real adventure!

Not only did we travel to every single state in the US, including Hawaii and Alaska, but because of the TV show, I’ve even rubbed shoulders with movie stars in Hollywood, USA!

We also traveled internationally. Together we went to Japan, where she spoke in schools. We also met with a deaf woman who was a survivor of the atomic bomb that was dropped over Nagasaki. This lady had gone out to the fields to work for the day when the bomb was dropped over the city. Her home was within the epicenter of that atomic bomb. The only trace of her home or her parents was her mother’s tooth left in the ash.

We visited Corrie Ten Boom’s house in the Netherlands and crawled inside “The Hiding Place.”

We ministered in both men’s and women’s prisons in Costa Rica.

Even though she was confined to a wheelchair, we went to multiple villages in South India where mud huts roofed with banana palm leaves have no electricity or running water. In village after village, people crowded in the dirt road to hear the words of encouragement that Sue shared through a karaoke speaker from the front seat of the car.

Whenever God opened a door, Sue boldly and bravely walked through it. Even when she was in a wheelchair. She often quoted, “What God ordains, God will sustain.”

And I simply hung on for the ride!

But today as I stand on the edge…of the rest of my life, I need to take one step at a time, and keep moving forward through the doors my Lord opens.

The Gift of Life is not a computer game. There’s no pause button or delete button. I don’t get to buy another life. I have just one opportunity.

“Only one life. Twill soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.” CT Studd

And I can hear Sue enthusiastically (and loudly) cheering me on, “You can do it, Thumbs! It will be worth it all! Just hang on and trust Him for the most incredible ride of your life!”