29
“Tonight I’m Going to Take You to Heaven”
Grieving the loss of his son, Trevor Yaxley didn’t have to die for a visit.
A few days before Christmas 1986, the residents of northern New Zealand got what they’d been praying for—an end to the punishing drought that had left the island’s normally verdant landscape parched and brown.
But they didn’t expect the first rain in months to arrive on the powerful and destructive winds of Cyclone Raja, currently making its way northward in the Pacific toward Fiji.
On the evening the storm arrived, Trevor and Jan Yaxley had just finished leading an evangelical rally for several hundred local teenagers at a meeting hall not far from their home. Darkness had fallen by the time they left the building and headed into the torrential rain and lashing wind. They were soaked the moment they stepped out the door.
Trevor pulled onto SH 1 for the short drive. He hadn’t gone far when a fierce gust pushed the car effortlessly across the pavement into the oncoming lane. He steered back to the proper side and commented to Jan how fortunate they had been that no cars were coming toward them just then.
“It was absolutely blowing a gale,” Trevor said. “Really terrible weather and very dangerous driving conditions.”
As they carefully made their way through the storm, they thought of their two children who’d left an hour earlier and headed home along the same route. Sixteen-year-old David was driving, his sister, Rebecca, with him. The concerned parents said a prayer—and tried not to worry about the hazardous stretch of road ahead.
The Yaxleys were familiar with highway accidents. As well-known ministers in the area, they often accompanied emergency responders to provide spiritual assistance as needed. Only a week ago they’d been present when a young person died in a terrible wreck. In other words, they knew better than most people what was at stake on a night like this.
“By the time we reached Dome Valley, just a few miles from home, we saw that the road ahead was completely blocked by an accident,” Trevor said. “It was a horrendous sight, with flares burning and lights flashing everywhere. A helicopter was trying to land to assist.”
There were no other cars ahead of them, and he pulled right up to the police barricade.
“I turned to Jan and said, ‘Honey, brace yourself, I think something terrible has happened.’ I told her to stay in the car and I would go see.”
Jan said, “It’s David! It’s David! I know it’s David!”
Although their daughter was also in the vehicle, their hearts told them that something awful had happened to their son.
As Trevor crossed the barricade and walked into the scene, he saw immediately that the cars involved were “totally wrecked and torn apart.” The rain continued to pour, drenching him to the skin, but his only thought was the growing stone-cold awareness that one of the cars belonged to David.
Just then a teenage boy named Andrew, a member of David’s youth group who’d been traveling in another car, approached and fell into Trevor’s arms, sobbing and unable to speak. His presence confirmed what Trevor suspected. Pain and dread flooded his body. He raised his hands to God.
“Somehow I said to him, ‘Though you slay me, yet will I trust you’” (see Job 13:15). “Even at that time I felt God clearly speaking to me. ‘You just watch what takes place now, and you will see what I can do in a person’s life.’”
Trevor and Jan buried David on Christmas Eve. To attend the funeral, they had to leave thirteen-year-old Rebecca in the hospital’s intensive care unit, being treated for injuries from the crash. She eventually recovered.
And life went on. Sort of.
The couple decided to continue their work with Lifeway Ministries, the organization they founded when Trevor left a lucrative career in business to realign priorities to his family and community. The calendar was already packed with speaking engagements and rallies.
But nearly two years after David’s death, the pain was still fresh for him. The joy and light had still not returned to his life. They had seen thousands touched by God in their ministry, but his heart was still wounded and raw.
In 1988 the Yaxleys embarked on a trip to the South Island. After twelve days of leading as many as three daily meetings, Trevor and Jan, physically and emotionally exhausted, arrived in the city of Invercargill for the tour’s final rally. That night, waiting to begin, Trevor looked out over the packed auditorium. Every seat was filled—except one. It was in the front row, right where David always sat when he accompanied them to meetings like this one.
“David was a very hip kid, very cool,” Trevor recalled. “The other kids loved having him around. He was also a Christian leader. He was my chief cheerleader at these engagements. When I saw that empty seat that night, I felt his absence very strongly. Then the devil said to me, ‘See, he’s gone. Everything will be a shambles. Nothing will happen tonight, because you don’t have anything to say.’”
It didn’t work. Trevor told Satan to stand aside. And the evening was a tremendous success.
That night Trevor fell into bed worn out, body and soul. He missed David as much as ever. He began to pray. Despite everything he could see the Lord doing through their ministry, he asked God for reassurance that he and Jan were in the right place, doing the right thing.
God answered: “Yes, you are. And, by the way, tonight I’m going to take you to heaven.”
What was that? He’d learned to trust the sound of God’s voice when he spoke in times like this. But had he heard correctly what God was promising?
“Somehow I knew that didn’t mean I was going to die,” he said. “But I was amazed at the possibility it might really happen. I tried to go to sleep. But when God says he’s going to take you to heaven, you can’t go to sleep!”
Trevor tossed and turned most of the night.
“At about six o’clock it was still dark outside. I was lying on my back, and I said to God, ‘You haven’t got much time left, only a couple of hours.’ As the words left my mouth, an absolutely incredible thing happened.”
Suddenly he felt as if he were flying upward so fast he could barely breathe. He felt pressure on his body, like the wind resistance on a speeding motorcycle—only greater. The tremendous rate of travel made it difficult to open his eyes. He had the impression of moving past many bright lights.
Then he felt an enormous “thump” as his feet landed on solid ground.
“At first I felt really wobbly,” he said. “As I opened my eyes, the sights and sounds and scents just flooded my senses. All of them were instantly heightened beyond anything I’d ever experienced. I was especially aware of the most amazing fragrance. It is completely impossible to explain how wonderful it was. You don’t just smell it. You experience it. It affects your whole body. It affects you.”
Trevor instantly felt an overwhelming sense of well-being. His body was flooded with an intense feeling of acceptance, love, and understanding.
He looked to his left and beheld an immense, beautiful tree.
“I immediately noticed incredible differences between this tree and the ones we have on earth,” he said. “It was emitting its own light. Light didn’t shine on things there—it came out of everything. I was surrounded by light.”
Trying to cope with his heightened emotions, he noticed he was standing on a path that wound its way downward, away from the tree. Then he sensed someone standing behind him. He turned and saw a person who emitted light in the same way as the tree. Trevor noticed only his radiant face that exuded love and kindness—and that he was speaking without moving his lips. Communication was forming in Trevor’s mind without the need for sound.
“Hey, how are you doing?” the man asked, matter-of-factly. “How long have you been here?”
“I told him that I’d just arrived,” Trevor said. “But I was stunned, because it was like he was speaking with two voices. Underlying what he’d said was this stream of affirmation that continuously kept telling me what an amazing person I am and what wonderful qualities I have. I will never be able to express the joy I felt at this.”
As the person was speaking, Trevor noticed a nearby building that looked like a child’s playhouse. The man beckoned him to follow inside. He ducked his head through the low doorway and saw a spacious room filled with equally radiant people.
“As I looked at all these people, I saw an expression come on the face of the one who’d been speaking to me. Everybody looked up at me and smiled. Suddenly I just knew everything had been prearranged. You just know, you don’t have to ask. I knew God had set this up for me as a father. I knew my son was behind me. I turned around, and there he was on the path.”
Just as he’d done often in life, David smiled at his father and enticed him to play a game of chase. “See if you can catch me!” he called, turning and running down the path past the tree.
“My son looked so full of life!” Trevor said. “This wasn’t a dream. It was utterly real.”
He didn’t want to chase David. He wanted to hold him. He excused himself from the people in the playhouse and took off running. He noticed he wasn’t expending energy at all as he would have on earth. He didn’t grow winded or tired. He felt as if all heaven’s energy was one, and it was all fused into himself.
“As I was following David, I noticed I was standing on these unbelievable flowers. They were transparent, with incredible colors like you can’t imagine—and they were humming. I know how crazy that sounds, but they were humming praise to God. Nothing was broken. I felt guilty about even standing on them, but they would just stand straight back up again.”
He continued running after David. The path led through a stand of trees where leaves were falling to the ground in a carpet of light. Again he was struck that there was light everywhere, coming from everything. Then he caught up with David, and they embraced.
“I could feel the muscles on his back and could smell him again. The look on his face was one of absolute delight and peace. His eyes were so clear, and he was so pure it was almost scary. There was nothing in him other than purity. He was changed, and yet he was still himself. He was perfect.”
David said, “How is Mom’s garden going? I’m glad to see you’re still growing things.”
Just before he died he’d helped Trevor plant a garden in the yard for Jan.
“I said it was doing great, but I didn’t want to talk about Mom’s garden. I asked him, ‘How are you?’”
“Wonderful! Let me show you around.”
David took his father’s hand and led him through a field covered in what looked like “freshly mown velvet.” Everything was arranged with a “random perfection.” There were houses spread across the field that Trevor knew were waiting to be occupied by God’s people. He was overcome by the beauty of what he was seeing and by the joy of being with David. He began to cry.
“Don’t cry, Dad,” David said tenderly. “Nobody cries here.”
“I’m just so happy, I can’t help it!”
“But there is no need to cry.”
As they were speaking, David’s voice started to fade, and things felt to Trevor as if they were “going in reverse.” He felt himself moving again—backward this time—at incredible speed. He felt his body hit the motel bed where he’d spent the night back on earth. It landed with a jolt and a thump.
He immediately burst into tears. Jan jumped out of bed and ran to his side. For a long time he only sobbed while she comforted him.
“I couldn’t talk about my experience to anybody but Jan for a long time,” Trevor said. “Everybody told me, ‘You’re different, what’s happened?’ But I couldn’t tell the story. It was too close. Even so, from that day on I was a totally different man. My grief had gone and my joy had returned. I was able to smile and laugh and play again.”
His trip to heaven that night energized his desire to tell others about God’s grace and salvation—something he and Jan have continued to do through various ministry opportunities. Having seen firsthand the wondrous eternity people give up in exchange for a few years of earthly pleasure, he’s determined to spend his life helping them make a different choice.
“God loves us so much and has put so much effort into what he’s prepared for us. I see now that I’m living my life for future generations and for heaven as well. I want heaven to be proud of my life. That is a profound responsibility.”