Good morning…
My maternal grandmother told fascinating stories. Even though she lived in Kansas and I lived in Ohio, visits with her as I aged became increasingly meaningful. Two of her life stories I remember most vividly have shaped my life of faith.
First, my grandmother was raised as an oldest child on the western frontier. When she was five years old, her little brother died at age two, taken by a sickness before the traveling doctor could arrive. She says that as she stood watching beside the grave while her brother’s body was being put in the ground, with her own eyes, she saw an angel come down from heaven to cradle the boy in her arms before flying away. She remembers saying to her mother, “Momma, wasn’t that angel so, so beautiful?” Not raised in a family of faith, my great grandmother said, “What are you talking about? There are no angels. Stop making up lies.”
Second, when my grandmother was twelve years old, she and her brother went to a revival that came to town, and she was so moved by the Spirit that she accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. She was so excited about her powerful experience that she burst into the door of her home and told her parents all about her conversion. They made fun of her story and chastised her for being tricked by such lies. She said she burst into tears and ran to bedroom. She cried and cried because she knew what she had experienced but could her parents be right? She cried and cried all night long, not sleeping a wink. She cried and cried then when her mother came to wake her, she had such a stomach ache from being torn up inside that her mom let her stay home from school for the very first time.
Why do I tell you these stories? Because my personal faith stands on the shoulders of a grandmother who was the first person of faith in my mother’s family line. I did not see her often, but her life has influenced my life so profoundly because she chose faith in God over faith in her family.
Therefore, [inheriting] the promise depends entirely on faith [that is, confident trust in the unseen God], in order that it may be given as an act of grace [His unmerited favor and mercy], so that the promise will be [legally] guaranteed to all the descendants [of Abraham]—not only for those [Jewish believers] who keep the Law, but also for those [Gentile believers] who share the faith of Abraham, who is the [spiritual] father of us all–(as it is written [in Scripture], “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the sight of Him in whom he believed, that is, God who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist,
Romans 4:16-17 (AMP),
Sue
