Call this out-takes: a few snippets about near-death experiences that didn’t make the final cut in our current “Special Report.”

That doesn’t mean they’re not interesting.

And instructive?

Take the case of Randy Kay, a former chief executive for a medical company and one-time agnostic who succumbed for thirty minutes from pulmonary emboli and sepsis.

He has a new book out called Revelations From Heaven, follow-up to previous ones about the extraordinary sights and insights that came with a “ride” to the other side of death.

One of his chief lessons has to do with you.

“To say that you are special would be a gross understatement,” writes Randy, of Carlsbad, California. “You are the last of your kind. A failure to fulfill your singular purpose on this earth will leave a void in this world forever.”

We bet you never look at yourself that way.

God does.

The Creator, as Kay puts it, “revealed my uniqueness in Heaven, exposing my truest self.” He knitted our souls; ordained each of us from the beginning of our existence, the author, who now runs a video channel with similar experiences of others, points out.

You are as important to God as anyone — as important as popes, kings, presidents. Join us for our retreat tomorrow for more of this.

Often those who suffer the most, causing them to desperately seek after God, have the closest relationship with Christ, Kay emphasizes. “Brokenness can often lead to breakthrough,” he says. Rarely do we poor humans in the flesh view things that way!

“Each one of my fellow Christian near-death experiencers with whom I have interacted say essentially the same, ‘I didn’t feel judged, I felt accepted,'” says Kay. “Some like me experienced what is called a ‘life review,’ but even the failures were not condemning, they merely reflected the Grace of God by revealing the damage those failures caused, and the redeeming purpose that God forged through them.”

Look always at the positive.

Is there a negative?

For sure.

Those farthest from God, notes Kay, are “the most arrogant, the proverbial know-it-alls.”

Mull that over.

Kay exudes joy in a contagious way, and the reason, he says, is “because God loves us beyond measure.”

Suffering?

Even death, notes the author, “is no more than a ‘stubbed toe’ to God.”

Oh, Heaven! This agnostic named Randy Kay is far from an agnostic any longer!

“One of the scenes Jesus revealed to me was a group of children joyfully playing in an open field of flowering grass,” Kay tells us (for discernment). “They chased butterflies and petted creatures like mellow wildcats, but with different and ‘softer’ appearance than those I have seen in zoos.

“These creatures were large like lions, and playful like dogs. Heaven is not a wispy place inhabited by vapory figures floating in the clouds. What I viewed in Heaven elicited images and feelings beyond the exact details I viewed, yet very much distinguishable by characteristics as vivid as the physical figures we see on earth.

“The glory of God transformed everything similar to how a master portrait artist recreates a photo from scratch using hand-painted brush strokes.”

Among His original artwork — one of His masterpieces — is you.

[resources: Revelations From Heaven], Michael Brown online retreat, and “Special Report”]

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