Love and Acceptance

My name is Belinda. When I was about 7/8 years old when I had a near death experience. All these years I just thought it was my imagination. I’m now 33 years old and what happened to me was the following: (Please excuse my spelling errors since I’m Afrikaans speaking)

I was playing at our neighbor’s house and was on my way to give her dog a piece of my snack when he suddenly attacked me severely. My cousins could not even drag the dog off me. I was lying on the ground while he was on top of me, biting my neck, ear and face. My cousins realized they could not drag him off me; they ran to my parents and left me alone. At that stage the dog were eating a piece of my cheek above me, and I realized that I will die if I do not do something. I do not know at that stage where I got the strength from (I do know now of course, it came from God) and I kicked him so hard that I saw him fly in the air. No one believes me of course since I was so small. Then I stood up, and walk back to the house, fearing that my mom would shout at me since my new shirt were full of blood. On my way to the home everybody came running to me with a gun to shoot the dog. My mom almost fainted when she saw my face and everyone was crying. At that stage my face were swollen about 2/3 times its size. I however felt no pain and could not understand why everybody was in such a state. I went to the mirror to see why they are in such a state. I saw my whole body from feet up to my neck, as well as the blood stains on my blouse. However no matter how hard I looked I could not see my face. I told my mom that I do not know what’s wrong with the mirror and asked her if she could see my face. Around my face were like a mist.

Then I was out, when I woke up I lied on a nurses lap on the back seat of a car with my mom crying without stop saying I’m going to die. The nurse just told me not to fall asleep no matter what, and I heard her telling my mom that if I fall asleep I might be gone. At that stage I saw my uncles face who was driving looking back at me with fright written all over his face. He fainted for a second and almost drove off the road. My mom shouted at him to look at the road.

When I woke up again I was in hospital on the operating table. I just saw all the doctors with there masks and remember that the table was cold. The next moment I saw the doctors from the top with the lights shining down on me. I could not understand how its possible to see the doctors from the top almost close to the ceiling. Then in a moment I was above the passage. I saw my mom walking up and down crying with a tissue in her hand. Then I was in a tunnel with light stripes/flashed of light all around me going up what felt like speed of light.

Then I was on top. The first thing I saw were 7 doors of gold, decorated with the most beautiful diamantes, rubies and all the most colorful stones you can imagine. I panicked and an intense fear overcomes me since I did not know what door to choose. In the second the fear came the LIGHT appeared, and I felt calmness and love, and all my fear disappeared. I cannot remember what we spoke exactly but, what I do remember is that we talked (although not verbally) and that I felt love and exception like never before. I felt so good being with the LIGHT (which I believe was GOD) and just did not want to leave. But then the LIGHT told me that it’s not me time yet and that I had to go back. For an instant I thought that I saw my mom crying again, and I understood that I had to leave although I did not want to. It felt so wonderful being with the LIGHT.

When I woke up, it was the next day (after my operation) and I awoke with my mom and my mom’s best friend beside me. They were in a state still and crying over my face that was not looking great at that stage, and I just felt to calm then and tell them that they do not need to cry. Everything is ok, and that things like that does not matter. Then I turned my head and I looked out of the hospital window, and outside I saw the most beautiful green grass I had ever seen in my life. I could not believe it, and told my mom and her friend about how green and beautiful it looked. They of course could not understand and obviously thought I was having hallucinations. A while ago my partner describes it so perfectly – I was looking at it through God’s eyes.

For years I just thought I was dreaming and never told my mom or anyone up until a while ago. What I do carry with me to this day is ACCEPTANCE. I feel that one should look at life through eyes of child and all that matters is love and acceptance. Churches, people makes life so complicated with rules and regulations and what a Christian is suppose to be, but I feel that its so simple. Just love and be loved and accept one another no matter what there race or sexuality or any of man made rules.

But who am I to say, that’s just my opinion and what I believe….

Note: I received this story from Belinda in my email the other day and it touched me to the core. How a little girl so small and fragile could go through such a tradgedy with such strength, love and acceptance is a miracle in itself. There are many lessons to be learned in Belinda's words. Thank you, Belinda.
If you would like to contact Belinda Kleyn, you can email her here.