God's Chair

--author unknown

A man's daughter had asked the local pastor to come and   pray with
her father. When the pastor arrived, he found the man lying in bed
with his head propped up on two pillows and an empty chair beside his bed.

The pastor assumed that the old fellow had been informed of  his visit.

"I guess you were expecting me," he said.

"No, who are  you?"

"I'm the new associate at your local church," the pastor  replied.
"When I saw the empty chair, I figured you knew I was going to show up."

"Oh yeah, the chair," said the bedridden man. "Would you  mind closing the door?"

Puzzled, the pastor shut the door.

I've  never told anyone this, not even my daughter," said the man.
"But  all of my  life I have never known how to pray. At church I used
to hear the pastor talk  about prayer, but it always went right over my
head. I abandoned any attempt  at prayer," the old man continued,
"until one day about four years ago my  best friend said to me, 'Joe,
prayer is just a simple matter of having a  conversation with Jesus.
Here's what I suggest: Sit down on a chair; place an  empty chair in
front of you, and in faith see Jesus on the chair. It's not spooky
because he promised, 'I'll be with you always. 'Then just speak to him
and listen in the same way you're doing with me right now.' So, I tried
it and I've liked it so much that I do it a couple of hours every day.
I'm careful, though. If my daughter saw me talking to an empty  chair,
she'd either have a nervous breakdown or send me to off to the funny farm."

The pastor was deeply moved by the story and encouraged  the old
guy to continue on the journey. Then he prayed with him, and returned
to the church.

Two nights later the daughter called to tell  the pastor that her  daddy
had died that afternoon.

"Did he seem to die  in peace?" he asked.

"Yes, when I left the house around two o'clock, he  called me over  to
his bedside, told me one of his corny jokes, and kissed me  on the
cheek. When I got back from the store an hour later, I found  him
dead. But there was something strange, in fact, beyond  strange-really
weird. Apparently, just before Daddy died, he leaned over and  rested
his head on a chair beside the bed."