She had sad eyes and a weary expression. She appeared to be in ill health. As we conversed I learned that she had worked all her life as a waitress. Her husband had died as a young man. They had been married only seven years. She had been left to rear her daughter as a single mother. Her life had not been easy.
Her expression brightened as she talked about her only child. She proudly told me how her daughter has made a success of her life, helping hundreds of families through her profession as a pediatric dentist. I congratulated my new friend on being a good mom and giving her daughter a good foundation for life. I asked, “How did you manage to do it?”
She answered, “I couldn’t have done it without the Lord. He was with me. He helped me.”
This humble Christian woman is living proof that John Lennon was a false prophet. He was a cultural hero during my high school years. In the 1960s he famously and foolishly predicted that the Beatles would, in ten years, be more popular than Jesus Christ. Lennon is long gone and so are the Beatles.
But here, in the year 2024, is a woman testifying to the living presence of a living Savior who has been with her all her long life and remains with her today. How are we to explain this?
Dallas Willard provided an answer in his book The Divine Conspiracy. “I think we finally have to say that Jesus’ enduring relevance is based on his historically proven ability to speak to, to heal and empower, the individual human condition. He matters because of what he brought and what he still brings to ordinary human beings, living their ordinary lives and coping daily with their surroundings. He promises wholeness for their lives. In sharing our weakness he gives us strength and imparts through his companionship a life that has the quality of eternity.”
The woman with the sad eyes and weary expression has had a hard life. But she is praising Jesus and looking forward to eternity with him. She has had an indirect influence on every life touched by her daughter. To me she is a real hero. I think she will be at the front of the line when the rewards are handed out in heaven.
Pastor Randy Faulkner