You turn men back to dust, saying,” Return to dust sons of men” (Psalms 90:3)

For the past several nights I have been keeping watch over a man who is slowly passing away from this world. Any moment now he will be a person of the past. 
About 3 months back he was hale and hearty, 73 going onto 74, but then it happened suddenly one morning twitching of the right half of the face and difficulty in speaking.

I remember him calling me that morning telling me his symptoms and our rushing him to the hospital and getting him admitted for checkup and management. 
The neurologist diagnosed it as a stroke, the CT scan was inconclusive and he was sent home because the recovery was fast. 
Those nights, after my work in the clinic during the daytime, I kept him company in the hospital and he talked about his former days and their glory with little talk of God.

He was discharged after 5 days and was sent home for rest and recuperation. 
The symptoms reappeared a week later and we planned to get an advanced scan (MRI). 
I still remember the radiologist calling me that evening and giving me his radiological diagnosis-Glioma Grade 3 or 4(a cancerous growth of the brain) 
A biopsy was decided on and immediately we took him to the best hospital in the state.

Here was a man who had never experienced acute physical pain for years together and I as a physician did not know what a stereotatic biopsy of the brain was. 
The neurosurgeon informed us that the biopsy itself caused little pain but the fitting of the rim to the head to do the biopsy was quite painful. 
I left him in the hands of capable doctors and met him an hour later with the rim fitted to his skull.

What struck me immediately was the close resemblance that his head had to the head of Jesus with the crown of thorns. 
The rim was fitted on the head with nails driven into the front and back of the skull with blood marks as evidence of the painful ordeal. 
He shook his head and with tears streaming down his face, with feeble voice asked me,” What’s this? The crown of thorns?”

I couldn’t say much, my voice seemed to be caught unawares temporarily, as he was wheeled to the scanning room where he was made to lie with his modern day crown in the scanning machine and spend another hour to get more scans before the biopsy. 
The biopsy over, we returned home in a couple of days .The biopsy confirmed the radiological diagnosis. Advanced cancer of the left brain, in layman’s terms.

We took him to yet another hospital for yet another opinion from the best of neurosurgeons regarding management but there seemed to be not much hope in the words they spoke.

Surgery-out of question 
Radiation-basically no effect, but then we can say that we did something 
Chemotherapy-no use

Back home, now on essential medication, his speech slurred often and his handwriting went awry. 
His focus now shifted to God and prayer. Though no one ever told him the final diagnosis, it was evident that he realized that his time was running out. 
He was now more alert to the spiritual aspect of his life. His daughter had been praying for the past several years for his salvation.

His right upper limb was just hanging limply by his shoulder soon. 
One night his daughter decided it was time to explain Romans 10:9, 10 and help him pray the sinners prayer with whatever speech was now left and he did it on that wonderful night a month back. 
His right side was totally paralyzed soon and he started getting convulsions. He lapsed into a coma 5 days back; still breathing as I write this, waiting for Jesus’ time to call him back.

What we are glad about is that God gave him time to get ready for eternity. Pain made him look to Jesus and his crown and pay attention to the Creator and forget his own righteousness with which he had been living for the past several decades. Often we wondered whether there would be a miraculous healing for we and several others prayed earnestly for it for the past 3 months. Some who prayed said “yes”, some “no” regarding a healing.

The best was said by Jesus, about him (my father in law), one night to my wife (his daughter) as she prayed…..”Your father will live and walk ….in heaven soon!” 
Praise the Lord!