Jewish Teen Crushed, Saw Jesus’ Smile & Sat on God’s Lap
Jewish teen Heidi Barr experienced a freak accident when the horse she was riding stumbled off a hillside and crushed her underneath. Although raised Jewish, Heidi found herself holding hands with Jesus and going to Heaven.
In this excerpt, she shares her sudden death and the detailed description of Jesus, Heaven, and sitting on God’s lap.
When I was 16 years old, I was riding my horse bareback out at the ranch where we boarded her in Iowa where we lived.
My sisters were there with me. My 14-year-old sister stayed in the car with the windows rolled up because she is allergic to horses.
After riding for about an hour I decided to go back to the barn because I figured my sisters were getting bored. I headed back to the barn and above the barn was what we called the Ridge Trail. It was a trail along a hill that overlooked the barn and the valley on the far side and in front of the barn. I rode to the end of the Ridge Trail, which was a dead end. The only way to get off the trail was to go back to the barn. I was sitting there enjoying the view when suddenly I heard hoofbeats behind me. I knew exactly who it was. It was a man on an out-of-control Arabian.
He was coming fast, so I just stayed on my horse because most horses when they are running out of control will run back to the barn. I assumed his horse would do that, but instead the horse with the man flapping wildly and crazily on his back came down the Ridge Trail.
I froze because I did not know what to do. I did not know if I should jump off my horse because I was afraid I would be trampled if there was an interaction between the two horses. I thought, Okay, once this horse sees my horse standing calmly, he will stop. But he did not. He ran right into my horse and my horse reared up. The first time she reared, I dropped the reins and just grabbed her neck. The second time she reared up, she stepped backward off the Ridge Tail and flipped over upside down onto me. We flipped off the trail and down the slope. She rolled across my body, and as she hit my chest, I knew I was dead. Every cell in my body stood stock still. I instantly left my body and was 30 to 40 feet up in the air. I saw my horse roll over my body and my body being tossed like a rag doll. I did not care. My body meant nothing to me. I knew it was me immediately, but I did not care.
I saw my horse slide down the slope, right herself, and head to the barn. My middle sister put her hands against the car window with a look of horror on her face. My little sister screamed and covered her face with her hands. I saw the man on the Arabian run. The Arabian turned and ran down the other trail toward the barn. I saw a lot of commotion in the barn, which was odd because the barn faced away from me, but I could see into the barn. The one thought in my head at that moment was that I wished my sisters did not have to see me die. I did not care that I was dead.
At that moment I noticed there was a light over my shoulder. As I had that thought, I saw that the light was illuminating everything before me, and suddenly I realized it wasn’t a light but a man. The light was emanating from this man. He moved forward until He was beside me. I looked at Him and recognized Him immediately. It was as if I said, “Hi, how are You?” I knew Him. I had always known Him. I had known Him since I was a small child. It was Jesus, which did not strike me as being odd at all. At that moment, it should have been odd because my father was an atheist and my mother was an agnostic. Even though we were part of an Orthodox community, my father told us on an almost daily basis that Jesus Christ is the biggest hoax ever perpetrated on humanity, Christianity is a hoax, and Christians are stupid for having hope—all this because my father believed there was no Heaven, hell, or God. When you die, you are buried and forgotten. You are no more significant than the tiniest speck of dust in this infinite universe. So Jesus was the last person I should have encountered, yet He was the first person I encountered.
Jesus and I immediately recognized each other. In fact, we were talking the entire time we were together. I cannot tell you everything we said now, because even though I was dead, I knew everything that was going on. And what I realized was that all of my questions were answered. You know, all of those existential questions, those nagging questions: Why am I here? What is the meaning of life? Is there a God? Is there a Heaven? It was all answered. I had no more questions and Jesus and I had all the time in the world, because time was immaterial. It simply was not a factor. When we communicated, did my lips move? I do not know if my lips moved, but we could still communicate. It was heart to heart. It was mind to mind.
Stories of Heaven and the Afterlife
Randy Kay & Shaun Tabatt
We talked about my life. We discussed everything. And the thing is, I had known Him since I was a little girl. I had always believed in God, despite my parents, and I realized that He was the one I had been talking to my entire life when I prayed at night. And I would have conversations with God every night. That was Him. He had been by my bedside. And I always had a tangible feeling that He was there.
When I met Jesus, it was recognizing an old friend. I had known Him since before I was born. I had always known Him and I recognized Him and had no difficulty recognizing Him. And as weird as it is to say this, it did not surprise me. It did not shock me. It was a reunion. Jesus and I had a joyous reunion. That is the best way I can describe it because I just turned to Him and He said, “I know you.” Then He started to laugh. He didn’t say, “I am Jesus; believe in Me.” People often wonder if He came at me with fire and brimstone or if He announced Himself. No. I simply knew who He was. There was no doubt in my mind. It was Jesus and He had always been with me. He was my best friend, my Father, my Brother, everything. He was everything to me at that moment.
What Jesus Looked Like
I remember how Jesus looked vividly. Jesus is perfect. He is perfection. Randy, you have probably experienced this as well. His hair was about my length. It was a chestnut brown and had some streaks in it. It was wavy. He had a lean face with some scruff, you know, a beard and mustache, but not too long. He had a beautiful mouth, a gorgeous smile. I couldn’t look away from His smile. It was infectious. His eyes radiated all the joy in the universe. This was hard for me to tell anyone at first, but His eyes are blue. They are the most beautiful blue eyes I have ever seen. I did not want to say anything about that because even though people in my family have hazel eyes, my father has green eyes. Most Jewish people I know have brown eyes, but Jesus had blue eyes. I thought nobody was going to believe me if I said Jesus had blue eyes.
In terms of build, he was between 5 foot 9 and 5 foot 11, slender, and around 160 pounds. He was wearing a white robe. His hands were slender and His fingers were long and tapered. He had beautiful nails. His feet were like mine, long slender feet, with long toes, which I thought was cool. The only thing I will say, which it may sound like an imperfection, but it was not: I really appreciated His nose because it was crooked. I thought, Wow, He has a crooked nose. That is so great. It gave His face so much character. He was the most real person I have ever met. His face was the most real face I have ever looked at in my life. So that is what He looks like.
Then I crossed from this world to the other side. The best way I can describe it is that it was like flying with Superman. He was such fun. We laughed the whole time. He took my hand and we left the barn area. I am going to be honest with you, I was so busy looking at His face that it was hard for me to attend to what was happening behind Him. So, what I saw passing was, as I looked at His face, I could see things passing behind Him. It seemed as if we were passing things on Earth. I could see individual things and we were surfing on a wave of light. I looked down and I could see both of our feet and underneath our bare feet was this rolling wave of light.
It was like body surfing on waves of light that were all colors. We kept going faster and faster. I saw that ahead there was a barrier. I cannot explain the barrier, but it was as if we crossed a threshold. Think of it as a door where you are stepping through a threshold or over a threshold. At that point I could not differentiate individual things. Everything seemed to become one thing and that one thing was God. I was still an individual and He was still an individual, but I saw that all of those things were God. And it was after we crossed this threshold that we came into a light.
And once I was there, I saw my life in review.
Life in Review
I was a rather good kid. I was having some issues at that time. I had experienced a great deal of abuse in my 16 years. And at that point I was fighting back and rebelling. I was using drugs and hanging out with kids I should not have been. When I had my life review, Jesus did not focus on that. He did not give me any lectures or point an accusatory finger at me. He did not tell me to stop doing drugs and hanging out with those kids. What I received was a life review that was short because as I said, I was a good kid. I was nice to people, even if I was hurting myself. What He showed me was that I was judging myself.
Jesus was pointing things out. He was there saying, “Well, why don’t we look at this? Why don’t we consider this? What do you think about that?” But He was not judging me. I was judging me. And the one thing I saw and felt was, if I hurt someone, if my words hurt someone, I felt what they felt. I understood the impact my words and actions had on other people and it changed me. I am not perfect, believe me. I can cuss with the best of them and I can yell at my kids and my husband. I get mad. This changed me in that I am very aware of what I do. I am aware of how my actions impact others and I pay attention to myself. But as I said, my life review was short because the only person I was really hurting was me. The things I saw in my life review impacted me when I came back to life.
After we crossed that barrier, this light, the only way I can describe it is to say it was alive. How is it light can be alive? It was love. It was a blemish-free white light. It was perfect. It filled my entire field of vision but did not hurt my eyes. It did not burn me. Jesus and I flew directly into the light. I knew that light was love, I knew it was living, and I knew it was God. Jesus took me straight to God and I sat on His lap. And at that point, Jesus vanished; He disappeared from my view and became part of the light. This part of my journey is difficult to explain, but I honestly could not see God’s face.
As I said a moment ago, I found myself sitting on God’s lap and my face was buried in His chest and my arms were around Him. His arms were around me. I was kicking my feet like a little kid and I never wanted to move. I did not look up at His face and I do not know if I would have been able to see it if I had tried, because it was surrounded by clouds. Sitting on God’s lap was the most marvelous experience. It was beyond words. I felt loved. I felt that I belonged. I felt that I was home. I never wanted to leave Him. I would have sat there for all eternity, with my face buried in His chest, and I would never have moved.
1 in 10 people has had a near-death experience.
Do these NDEs reveal the heaven and hell we read about in the Bible?
All of us long to know with absolute certainty what happens after we die. Popular authors and podcasters Randy Kay and Shaun Tabatt are on a mission to have pointed conversations with people who died and spent time on the other side.
Randy and Shaun personally selected these firsthand accounts of the afterlife from the most popular episodes of their 2 Christian Dudes podcast. These conversations include:
Ian McCormack - Stung By 5 Jellyfish and Encountered Jesus in Heaven
Bryan Melvin - Died from Cholera and Encountered Adolph Hitler in Hell
Heidi Barr - Crushed in a Horse-Riding Accident and Encountered Jesus in Heaven
Messianic Rabbi Felix Halpern - Died and Encountered the Fire of God’s Glory in Heaven’s Throne Room
Each of these encounters will leave you hungry to discover more of the God who is actively engaged in every moment of your life, both now and throughout eternity!
