Olympic Hopeful Has Near-Death Experience That Teaches Her "God Has A Plan For Us All"
After champion skier Aubrie Schmidt suffered a horrific accident during a race, she had a near-death experience that revealed Heaven is real and God has a beautiful, loving plan for each of us.
"Oh Lord, it’s so gorgeous today," 19-year-old Aubrie Mindock Schmidt prayed, drinking in the blue skies and snow-capped mountains as she took her mark to ski the giant slalom. Going into her second race of the day, she was in first place overall, and if she won this one, she’d be on her way to the Olympic qualifiers.
The buzzer sounded and Aubrie sped down the steep slope, but as she rounded a blind bend, her right ski began to rattle. Aubrie’s pulse quickened…something was terribly wrong.
Suddenly, she heard a SNAP and her ski flew off. Aubrie was thrown forward, violently hitting metal fencing and icy snow headfirst at 70 miles per hour. Everything instantly went black.
In that moment, Aubrie died…but her new life was just beginning.
Learning that Heaven is real
At the age of 2, Aubrie’s mother took Aubrie skiing for the first time, and by age 5, Aubrie was already winning races. As she got older, skiing became more than just a passion: It became her calling. But she never imagined that the sport she loved and considered a gift from God could lead to her death on that clear day in January of 2007.
The instant Aubrie’s head had hit the ice, the world as she knew it blinked out: “Suddenly, I woke up wearing a white robe in a garden full of vibrant red and pink flowers,” she remembers. “The blooms were brighter and prettier than anything I’d ever seen. I stretched out my hand and felt the soft petals. My body was warm, whole, unbroken and pain-free and I knew then it was more than a dream.”
As Aubrie drank in the beauty that surrounded her, she says her grandfather — who’d died several months earlier — appeared beside her with a loving smile. “PopPop looked younger and healthier,” Aubrie smiles. “He was so happy to see me, but he never spoke to me. He didn’t want me to be alone, so he stayed with me.”
The next thing Aubrie remembers is watching a glorious white light fill the sky. “It held this deep peace, complete forgiveness and immense love,” she describes. “I instantly felt very safe, like a warm blanket was wrapped around me and knew I was in God’s presence. I didn’t see Him, but I felt a love so strong that it was overwhelming. The closest thing I can compare it to is the love a mother has for her child, but it doesn’t do it justice. God’s love felt so deep and powerful.”
It was then, Aubrie says, that God began to speak to her — not audibly but in the form of thoughts. “He made it clear that it was my choice to stay in Heaven or go back,” she recalls. “God said if I returned to Earth, I’d face challenging times, but He’d be with me the whole way. But I wasn’t going back. No way! I was going to stay there with Him!”
The next words God spoke still echo in Aubrie’s heart today. “He stated, ‘Aubrie, I have a plan. My plan is perfect. Trust Me,’” she says.
Aubrie describes walking toward the garden with her grandfather until a sound tugged her heart. She could hear her mother’s desperate voice and felt her squeezing her left hand. “Aubrie, come back!” her mom wailed. “Please open your eyes!”
That instant, Aubrie was pulled back to Earth.
Struggling to understand
Aubrie blinked open her eyes to find that she was lying in a hospital bed, both her parents at her side. “I began fighting right away to get back to Heaven,” she admits. “I started screaming, ‘Where’s the white light? Where’s my garden? This isn’t Heaven. Where’s PopPop?’ I knew in my heart it had ultimately been my choice to come back because God wasn’t going to make that choice for me, but I was disoriented.”
It became more apparent God was still at work when despite a brain contusion, a fractured skull and a broken neck, arm and knee, Aubrie felt very little pain. Her injuries were so extensive that her doctors told her she’d never ski again.
“Since opening my eyes, I heard God’s voice loud and clear: ‘You will ski again,’” she shares. “I prayed, ‘But, God, they’re telling me I’m not going to,’ and He’d reply, ‘Trust Me, you’re going to ski!”
Aubrie was discharged a few days later, but was in and out of the hospital with seizures and complications with her knee injury. Despite God’s assurances, Aubrie still struggled. “I just wanted to be back in Heaven,” she confesses. “There were many nights I’d cry myself to sleep, missing God and PopPop. It was all just so beautiful.”
Aubrie admits she felt confused about what God wanted and why He’d chosen her. “I’d ask Him, ‘What is Your plan?’ and then I’d keep remembering how He told me to trust Him. So I did. I trusted God was going to take this hardship and turn it into something good,” says Aubrie. “I knew that included helping me ski again.”
And a mere two weeks after waking up in the hospital, God kept His promise.
With her arm in a cast, two black eyes and her knee in a brace…Aubrie skied. One month later, she experienced what all her doctors called a miracle: Aubrie raced in Nationals and came in fourth place.
God's perfect plan
Soon Aubrie’s story spread, and she began sharing her journey to Heaven with more and more people. “To my surprise, people began thanking me for easing their fears of death, for helping them cope with the loss of a loved one,” Aubrie says. “It became clear that bringing this peace to others was part of God’s plan.”
Today, Aubrie travels the world and is working on her goal to ski all of Colorado's 14000-foot peaks. She's raising 3 children, Finley Peter (5), Dylan John (4) and Sarah June (2), who also enjoy skiing and playing in the snow.
No matter how much changes in her life, Aubrie will never forget the special visit to Heaven that changed her life. Now, her bigger mission is to share God’s immense love and faithfulness.
“I want others to know that Heaven is real and death is nothing to fear because there’s no suffering, no disease, no pain,” she says. “There is love like nothing you could imagine. In the meantime, God has a plan for each of us here on Earth, and it’s so good! It is perfect. To discover it, we only have to trust Him.”
Read more about Aubrie’s life-changing journey in her book, When I Saw Heaven:
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