Dear Friends,

God works through each and every one of us through story. He is the Great Storyteller. Not only is He the Great Storyteller, but He is also a character in the story. This is the story of my son, Chase and how the Great Storyteller played a role in it. I am Chase’s dad.

Chase was born on October 22 nd, 1996 to Jim and Cheryl Morrison in Maypearl, Texas. Chase has an older brother, Jimmy, who is 22 months older than Chase. Childhood days were fun, life was good. When Chase was about three and a half years old his mom and I came to realize that there was something different about Chase. It turned out that Chase was autistic. I learned that autism is used to cover a wide variety of symptoms and that one autistic child could be nowhere near another in terms of symptoms. Chase was a mildly autistic boy as time would later reveal.

News of this hit me hard, to be told that my son was defective, but I decided that this was the card that God had dealt me and I needed to play it. Chase became my battle. We went through numerous evaluations by so-called experts and I learned that through their testing many of them did not know who my son was.

My marriage had been strained by many factors, mistakes that were made on all sides and eventually my family and I paid the price of those mistakes as Cheryl and I were divorced in 2003. My boys continued to be my focus and probably even more so after we separated. In my darkest hour God was there for me. I had accepted Him in my teenage years, but never grew out of my infancy in my walk with Jesus. I knew there was more; I just didn’t know what or where to find it. He put people around me to show me the way. Another reason I was planted in Maypearl.

When I finally figured it out myself, I tried to teach my boys the things I knew about God. One of those is how He speaks to us through creation. On November 26 th, 2004 I took both of my boys for a ride through the woods behind our house to look at creation. Chase didn’t come back from that ride. He struck his head and lost consciousness. We spent four days in the hospital and Chase was eventually declared brain dead on November 30 th, 2004.

Many things happened in those four days and continue to happen to this day. Chase had massive stroke damage to his brain stem and his mom and I were told “we recommend that you remove life support from him and you make a decision within the next forty eight hours. Our fear is that if we wait a week or two that he may begin to support his respiration and he may go into lockdown”. Lockdown is that state where you know what is going on around you, but you cannot do anything, not even blink your eyes. I thought what a horrible place to be. I knew the decision that needed to be made. God called me to be Chase’s dad and we need to be parents not only when they are good, but also when they are in deep trouble. I prayed, then I prayed some more. I told Him that I would be that dad for Chase, but that I really would appreciate it if He would take this one for me. He answered me as you will find out.

That night, I, his mom and brother went to the hospital to spend the night with Chase. After his brother Jimmy fell asleep, his mom and I got in Chase’s ears and told him it was OK to let go. Chase never regained consciousness, but you could see responses from voices and touch through the monitors he was hooked up to. About 4am, Chase started to have some spikes in the readings on the monitors and they eventually flattened out and as I reflect back, I fell reasonably certain that is when Chase left.

The next morning we realized that Chase was probably brain dead and we needed to start the long process of officially determining that. During the afternoon the question arose of organ donation. Where was Chase at that point? We are there in Chase’s room watching his chest go up and down with the help of a respirator and watching his heart beating on the monitor, which he was doing on his own. My Pastor had been there all day, and the only thing we could come up with was ---------- “to be absent in the body is to be present with the Lord”. God finally impressed upon me that He would take care of Chase and not to worry about that. That made any decision about organ donation easy. Later that night we reached the last series of tests and were just moments away from declaring Chase brain dead. One of the last tests was to remove the respirator to see his response. As I stood at the foot of Chase’s bed I could see his heart beating just below his rib cage, but there was no attempt for him to breathe. One side of me wanted him to breathe because I wanted him to fight, but the other side of me didn’t want him to breathe because I knew what it would mean for him. As all of this was happening I started to crumble inside. I had been very strong through out all of this and even though I was falling apart inside I don’t think anything was visible from the outside. Just as this was happening, my Pastor who was standing next to me said quietly in my ear “M an, he is dancing around the throne”. The power of that statement picked me right back up and put me back where I needed to be. This all happened in an instant. There is no doubt in my mind where those words came from. The power that they had could only come from one place; it was exactly what I needed to hear when I needed to hear it. I love my Pastor, but he isn’t smart enough to provide that kind of comfort and power. God is the only one that can do that. I am so thankful that my Pastor’s heart is open enough for God to work through him. Another reason I was planted in Maypearl.

During the last few months since Chase’s death, God has provided so much in the way of comfort and peace that I know that this is His plan and I have certainly looked at passing from this world in a whole new light. Every time an occasion would arise that, in our earthly view, should be sorrowful, He has provided something that takes away the pain. I must say that we have to allow Him to do these things. Just last week, Jimmy and I were going by the cemetery on our way home. It lies on a back country road close to our house and is on the way to town, so we go by quite often, when we noticed that the monument company had set Chase’s headstone. We stopped to take a look; it was late afternoon with the sun in the western sky. Rain showers had been building off and on all day. I stood facing the east looking at Chase’s headstone and as I turned to the west to leave I saw the western sky. There was one lone cumulus cloud building into a thunderstorm, but set directly behind it was the sun. I could not see the sun but I could see many rays of light that extended from around that cloud and they were unusually bright. It stopped me in my tracks. Jimmy and I stood there and marveled at the beauty. I knew God had something to say to me and I listened. I heard from my heart God say “I am in charge, everything is under control and I love you”. Then it was very still and I heard two owls talking to each other, as we listened more we could hear three wild turkeys calling each other.

Remember in the earlier part how one of the ways He speaks to us is through creation? It lasted about three or four minutes and then everything was gone. It was an awesome moment and as I lay in bed that night reflecting on what happened. I thought how neat that my God would give me that present in a time that you would think we should be sad. I must say that seeing your son’s headstone, something that isn’t supposed to happen, my son is supposed to see mine, was an awesome experience with peace and comfort that transcends all understanding.

Chase’s passing has also brought many other things that have brought much joy to see God at work. I have gotten to meet two of Chase’s organ recipients and their families, watched numerous kids come to more understanding of God’s ways and probably something that is more powerful than anything else has been a close friend of mine who is also our family doctor come to search for God and try to answer some of his own questions. If he came to know Christ through my son’s death, everything bit of pain I suffered has been worth it. In fact, since God won’t use His power to make us come to Him because He wants true love, the fact that my friend is searching brings me great comfort.

There are so many other stories of peace and comfort that I could fill pages. Our God is very generous. Please don’t misunderstand me, I miss my son terribly, but I have hope and peace in a way that I have never had before.

To all of those who are here because of a loss, Phil Lazo has said it best when he told the woman from Minnesota “ If we let Him, He (God) will take us places here on earth we never imagined, use us in ways we never dreamed, through circumstances we would have never asked for . "

The MOST important part of that is “If we let Him”. It takes total surrender and that is hard to do. There is an enemy that stands between us and God. But once you taste the spring of living water that He provides it is wonderful. Being used by Him to further His kingdom is a great place to be. Peace be with you and may God bless you and your family.

You may email Jim Morrison at: jimmorrison@aircanopy.net