Pictures depicting Jesus that are kind of close.

Pictures depicting Jesus that are pretty close.

This is a figure on top of a church that is barely rising above the fog bank. The gold tone of the fog bank is close to the color of the Glory cloud and the statue is silhouetted in the cloud like Jesus.

I score it 7.

Direct experience with Jesus

“His Sign in the Sky” 

It was now December 13, 1978 on a Wednesday. Boyd and I had left work and were riding home in his pretty black Ford truck with the bright yellow graphics painted all over it. It was growing dusky as we got off the interstate. We crossed Percy Priest Dam and turned left off of Bell Road onto Dodson Chapel Road, heading north toward Dad’s house. I was almost home. As we passed by the Nelson’s mansion, I was thinking about Boyd going to the Baptist church. I thought to myself that he really should learn the doctrines of the Churches of Christ. It was Wednesday and there were church meetings that night. I turned toward Boyd and asked him, “Boyd, would you like to go to church with me tonight?” Boyd appeared thoughtful for a few seconds and then replied, “No, I guess not.” I left it at that and turned back forward in the truck.

Just then I noticed something bright up in the dusky sky that was beckoning my eyes. It was ahead and slightly to the left of our direction of travel. I looked up to see what it was. When I set my eyes upon it, this is what I saw: In the sky before us was a bright white upright oval of lucid light. Around its perimeter there appeared several rings of light like the effect of a rainbow; auras that I seem to recall were the colors of lavender and yellow and maybe rose. But I can’t recall the third color for certain or if there was actually a third color for certain. But the lavender and yellow were there. Within the oval of white light, there stood a cross of heavy wood. The grain of the wood was very clear and the cross was gray. The cross itself was glowing as if it were a hollow plastic imitation wooden cross with fluorescent lighting inside it. The scene was very clear and distinct as we rode along.

I immediately realized I was seeing another manifestation, and my habit had become to turn my eyes away from such things. This was no exception and I averted my gaze and moved my eyes toward the eastern sky. Before the cross left my peripheral vision, it jumped as if reacting in surprise to my averted eyes, and then chased my line of gaze across the sky following my eyes only a few degrees behind my direct sight. I stopped my eyes on the north eastern sky, and immediately the light with the cross moved directly in front of my eyes. I again averted my eyes all the way toward the north western sky, and the cross light again chased my line of sight just as quickly and moved in front of my eyes again as I looked at the north western sky. I averted my eyes again, but this time I looked down into the truck at the floor in front of my feet. I noticed the light with the cross in it, remained in the sky this time. As I sat there I reasoned: “A cross is a good thing that's about Jesus. I shouldn’t be suspicious of this or refuse to look”. Reassured, I decided to just look at the cross in the light. I raised my eyes to see the light of the cross again, and this time to intently observe it. But it was gone! It was replaced by something else even more wonderful.

          “He Lifts Up His Countenance Upon Me” 

I looked back into the sky to see the cross and the light. But this time I saw the color of amber in the sky. It was a broad field of amber directly in front of us. Then I noticed a conspicuous patch of blue within the amber field in the sky. I focused on the blue area and my eyes struggled for a few moments to resolve the blue patch into sharp focus. I studied the blue area and realized as I resolved it, that I was seeing the silhouette of the figure of a man there within the amber. At first I had trouble understanding the situation of the man’s figure, until I realized the man was seated waist deep in the amber. The amber itself was now to me apparently a kind of mist like a cloud. The man was a silhouette of blue, and the word “sapphire” came into my mind concerning the nature of the blueness of his silhouette.

As I looked at the man I was meeting the sky, I was quickly realizing I had just seen the sign of a cross in the sky as a kind of an annunciation, and the man being announced was Jesus Christ! I realized I was looking at Jesus sitting on his throne in the amber cloud. As I realized this, the Lord was listening to my thoughts, and knew when I realized it was him.

With my realization, the Lord responded in those moments, and he started arising from his seated position standing up from his throne. As he arose up in a very natural motion, he lowered his arms down to his sides and stood there before me. I noticed that he was robed within the context of his silhouette, and the robe was gathered at the waist. When he lowered his arms to his sides, the motion revealed that the sleeves of his robe were belled and they loosely swayed at his sides. His form was apparently average slim as if he were a man of about a hundred and seventy pounds. His shoulders and stature reminded me of Rex. I saw no details of his face because it was the same blueness as the rest of his silhouette. The shape of his head was smooth and round as if he had no hair, or maybe as if it was oiled down against his scalp. The whole shape of his ears showed clearly on each side of his head and the view of them was clear and unobstructed. The whole shape of his silhouette was sharply defined against the amber cloud, except for where his waist entered the mist, and there it was misty.

As I beheld the appearing of the Lord, meeting him in the air on this amber cloud, and as I watched the Lord arise and stand before me, and as I was looking directly at him, I thought about the rude awkwardness of my silence. It occurred to me that I was in the presence of the ultimate person that anyone could ever meet. I felt like a child before a hero. I thought to myself, “There’s Jesus and I can’t think of anything to say!”  Then I gathered the situation in my mind again and thought, “Jesus is so perfect and never sinned and I’m just a sinner!” I suddenly felt some shame and humiliation as I looked at him and quickly I was too ashamed to look at him anymore. In utter self consciousness I lowered my eyes down from him and lowered my head in the truck.

I struggled to think of something to say to the Lord. The only thing that came to mind, I offered to him in a silent prayerful thought, “Lord, forgive me of my sins.” Immediately I was embarrassed at how redundant this was to say to him, because I had already prayed about sin and asked his forgiveness a thousand emotionally crushed times already. I knew with all my heart I was forgiven. I thought to myself, “Good grief! All I can think of to say is the same thing I’ve said already.” But with that thought, a gracious impression came upon me. Not in audible words, not even a clear word from the ethereal, but like a whispered statement into my spirit which was, “I already have.” I took it as a gracious encouragement from the Lord and I felt better, less ashamed. So feeling acceptance from the Lord, I ventured to look back up at him. But when I raised my eyes, he was gone! I was shocked at his disappearance and wished he hadn’t left. Where did he go? Why did he leave? Was he upset? Then I realized he surely wasn’t upset with me. He just has his way of doing things is all that his disappearance means. I thought to myself, “Though I can’t see Jesus now, I still know he’s present and still watching me.” With this confidence, I directed my thoughts of gratitude toward Jesus.

Everything had happened in a few seconds. I knew I was good at hiding the fact that I was seeing spiritual manifestations. I looked over at Boyd as he drove along, and realized he had noticed nothing at all. I looked down the road and immediately I wondered if the world was going to start burning up. “Was this the Second Coming?” I asked myself. I couldn’t understand the event from anything I had read. I was wondering why I wasn’t arising. The Lord had arisen to stand, but I didn’t arise at all. I had met the Lord face to face and He was in the air, but I stayed on earth. I was confused and silent. What did it all mean?

Within a couple of minutes, Boyd let me out at Dad’s house. I hadn’t uttered a word of anything about seeing Jesus to him. I walked across the yard and went into the house. I saw Mom, but held back from telling her about what I had just now seen. It was very dusky now. Somehow it all made sense that all the terror, all the manifestations, all the conflicts and trials, and all the harsh teachings of the angels that I had gone through, was leading up to this. I was happy the journey had found a destination. I had been brought along to be ready to meet the Lord. I had a lot to be grateful for. I was still an emotional wreck, but I knew I was blessed beyond all imagination. I offered thanks to God, for Jesus my close companion!

The starry angels were still all about me. Among them I knew was the one that accused me. But I knew I had a constant companion. My faith in Him had caused my fear of the angels to subside to a great degree. They could still mess with my head, but I largely ignored them and tried not to converse with them. Life was now going to move along under these encouraging circumstances.