Being an Apple, Inc. fan, my businesses have always used Macintosh technology, as long as it was around. So, I'm a fan of Steve Jobs. After his death, reading the various accounts of his personal life and relationship with employees and family, she seems a true enigma. His sister, author Mona Simpson, was by his bedside with other family members when he died, and this is what she reports where her brother's last words:
Before embarking, he’d looked at his sister Patty, then for a long time at his children, then at his life’s partner, Laurene, and then over their shoulders past them,” she recalled. “Steve’s final words were, Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow.
Did he catch a glimpse of heaven and St. Peter's gate? Did he, in those final moments, confess and believe in Christ's redeeming mercy? Seems like that's possible. We don't know, but we can hope, as the Church does about all that die.
Marolyn Ford called me this morning. I did not know her before she called. She's a public inspirational speaker, author, singer, and the wife of a Baptist pastor in Memphis. She was looking for outlets for her books and CDs and was curious about our production capability. As we talked for about 20 minutes, mostly about production issues regarding books, she said there were a couple videos about her miracle of sight on YouTube. (It's below, embeded in this post. If it doesn't play well, double click on the image and you can watch it directly on YouTube.) It's so good, I called her back. She said it was produced by a man who works for TBN. The combination of great content, a great inspirational speaker, and a great production, makes this short video exceptional. Watch it and then I have a few more things to say. You can reach Marolyn through her website: http://www.marolynford.com.
Please pass this on.... the video link at least. Too few people have seen this video for its quality and message. Here's the link you can put in
an email: http://youtu.be/JfCDTJq9uGE
Did you notice her words at the end where she says the doctor told her that medically she was sill blind, although she could see perfectly? That's a definition of a miracle because it involves other dimensions of time and space that we usually do not have access to, except by supernatural providence. I just finished reading Padre Pio: The True Story biography by C. Bernard Ruffin. I recommend this particular "Revised and Expanded Edition" of St. Pio's life because, although it is published by Our Sunday Visitor (a Catholic publisher), Ruffin is a Lutheran cleric.
Pio of Pietrelcina (Wikipedia)
Consequently, while very thorough 185,000 words (448 pages, including 28 pages of footnotes and indexes), it is most notably objective and not triumphant in tone. In other words, even the skeptic would take what is reported here seriously. It even documents the immoral abuses toward Pio by Vatican officials. And what is reported is miraculous. Mostly notable are the miracles reported that have no medical explanation....meaning that medical examinations say the person should NOT be able to see or walk, etc, when in fact, the person is seeing, hearing, or walking. This is what the Vatican looks for when proclaiming a Saint (in part) and is one reason why Padre Pio (1887-1968, proclaimed saint 1999 by John Paul II, who had met Pio) became a saint so quickly after his death. Indeed, Ruffin is so objective that he places two Appendixes in the back that I think should be forwards. One is an explanation of how the Vatican goes about the process of proclaiming a person a saint, and the second is a short biography of Ruffin and how he came to write the book. Read these first.
Well, Marolyn Ford is not Padre Pio. She's not a Catholic, mystical, bi-locating, Capuchin priest from Italy. But the doctors at the Mayo Clinic are mystified how Marolyn can see. A true miracle. Prove of the supernatural dimensions that I believe we will "live" in when we get to heaven. Can't wait.
