Perfect Love Casts Out Fear of Ghosts
Perfect Love Casts Out Fear, even in ghosts. A true story of how Jesus’ Love calmed the restless spirit of a 12 year old ghost.
Are you spooked by the thought of ghosts and spirits of the dead roaming this earth?
Perhaps you are one with enough confidence to say “I don’t believe in ghosts.” End of story.
Christmas is an unusual time to talk about ghosts. Hallowe’en, maybe, but Christmas? So bear with me today as my thoughts take us to places we don’t usually go at this time of the year.
The Christmas story is the antidote to fear.
If you believe the Story, truly believe the love that is Jesus Christ, you will have no fear.
Let me tell you a little story.
Our girl g’littles stayed with us yesterday evening. It was a long evening, and when little bodies got weary of activity we settled on couches with books and stories. We listened to a story about a little boy who drowned by falling through ice. His parents were devastated at the loss of their firstborn, and never spoke his name again. And forbade their other children to mention his name.
His name was Johnny.
Johnny was buried in a little country graveyard, under a stone marker built by a kind parishioner. In due time, the stone deteriorated, and Johnny’s family bought a new beautiful granite headstone for the spot. The local museum wished to preserve this last handmade grave marker, so they carried it into their building and placed it beside an old church that was part of a historic village display. They made signs telling Johnny’s story for the museum’s visitors.
In the telling of the story, my littlest g’little looked up at me with big, round eyes from time to time. She wanted to quit listening to the “witch” story. I told her, it’s okay, the story turns out okay. (Now, I’m not one to tell ghost stories to little children just to put fear in their little hearts. I lived with too much fear myself as a child to ever wish that on anyone. But I felt this story was one I should have heard as a child to gain a little understanding.)
Back to Johnny.
A museum worker, alone in the building, working on the computer, suddenly felt the hair on his neck rise. He felt watched. He left the office, flicked on some lights in the main room, then saw a 12 year old boy running through the “village.” As soon as the worker saw him, he disappeared. This happened another time, another evening. And then, one evening, busy at work, he heard the scrape of concrete on concrete. He thought he knew where the noise came from, and sure enough, when he went to the village, he saw Johnny’s stone had been moved. The worker felt spooked; he went home and didn’t go back to the museum unless other workers were present.
The worker told the story to his fellow workers at his “day” job in a hospital. One of the nurses asked him for details on Johnny. When she heard that Johnny’s family had not been allowed to mourn him and put him to “rest” she said it was no wonder his little spirit roamed restlessly. She said the museum worker should go to the stone and talk to Johnny, explain about moving his grave marker, that his loving family had placed another beautiful one in its place, and he could go back to where he had been resting before his original marker got moved. And above all, she said, tell Johnny not to follow you to your home.
Perfect Love Casts Out Fear.
The museum worker did just that. He went to the original stone in the museum and talked to Johnny’s spirit. He remembered to tell him not to follow him home. Then he added, “And Johnny, you don’t have to, but it would be nice to know if you heard me.” And he calmly left the museum, confident Johnny would be okay.
Then, as he walked past an old dress shop display, a clock pealed out one loud dong. The worker paused. This one hundred plus year old clock kept perfect time. One dong at 1 am, one at 1 pm, and every half hour. This was not 1 am or pm, nor a half hour! In fact the clock said 3:14 pm. Johnny must be sending a message!
Johnny went back to his resting place, and no one has seen him since.
The g’little’s ghost questions…
Our g’littles love Jesus. They spent a good part of the evening singing Christmas songs and reciting Christmas program parts. Their sweet, innocent hearts have been taught the love and care of Jesus from the day they were born. They’ve heard all the stories, such as this one, this one and this one.
So why, you may wonder, did Grandma tell them ghost stories?
Here’s why…
Johnny’s story is a good ghost story. It explains ghosts and spirits in a manageable way. If you understand the ghost, you don’t have to be afraid.
So after the story was told, the girls had questions, and we tried to explain all about Johnny’s ghost. Why he wasn’t happy, and what he needed to feel rest again. And since these girls have an inner knowledge of Jesus’ love and God’s ever-loving care, they grasped the fact that showing love to a ghost could help the ghost feel rest again. That Jesus’ love even helps ghosts.
There was no lingering fear. The story of Love conquered their fear.
And my grandma heart wished someone had sat my young self down and told me about making ghosts happy and the way to live without fear. Because as a little girl, I was even afraid of dust bunnies swirling out from under a bed.
Perfect Love Casts Out Fear
In this is love perfected with us,
that we may have confidence for the day of judgment,
because as he is so are we in this world.
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.
For fear has to do with punishment,
and he who fears is not perfected in love.
