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CEYLON and INDIA GENERAL MISSION and Pakistan Christian Fellowship W A N T E D R E C R U I T S for both India and Pakistan Member I.F.M.A. Write for Free literature 107-K N. Hale Street, Wheaton, III. 60187
by Joyce Landorf
I T w a s a t A Christian Women’s Club luncheon and I was seated at the head table. While toying with my food, as most singers and speak ers do, and trying to ignore the but terflies that were holding their regu lar convention inside of me, the love ly woman seated next to me began a routine conversation about weather, clothes (we had both made our out fits), children, and our husbands. I began to be very aware of her great poise and beauty. It was not so much an outward beauty but a tremendous inner glow that so often accompanies a dedicated, relaxed Christian. As she spoke I was entranced by the very peace of God that quietly en veloped me. She was speaking about her children, their ages and then softly (I almost missed it), “ Our son would have been sixteen this year but he’s gone.” No bitterness, no tears nor self-pity just: “ He’s gone.” I asked her to tell me about it and for the next few minutes the three hundred other women in the room faded from my view as I be came absorbed in her story. She had been waiting for him to come home from school, just a year ago, and had looked out her living room window to watch for his bike. Just as he came into view, a drunk hit-and-run driver struck him. For a moment she stood frozen, then she raced for the door. “ As I began running down the road I knew he was already gone and when I reached him, he had gone, our high school honor student in science, our pride, our joy of a son, had gone. I threw my arms around his broken body and sobbed for the utter loneliness I felt. As I held him there, I thought for an in stant I knew what it was like for God to see His Son die. What utter heart break God endured for us! Then a quiet voice said, ‘He’s gone but if he’s gone from you then he’s with NOVEMBER, 1964
Christ.’ I was still clutching him close to me; our house was in an isolated district and no one else had come. I knew our son was a mar velous Christian so it was true. He was with the Lord, but what about me? What about my heartbreak? What about my loneliness? Still no body came. I thought I’ll never be able to take my arms away from him. I can’t let him go. No one can take him from me! Oh God, I’ll never be able to leave this spot in the street. I’ll never be able to re move this scene from my memory.’ Then the quiet voice again, ‘That’s right, unless you are able to com mit this to Me.’ For a stunned moment I hesitated and then said the words I knew I would have to say. ‘Father, You said to give thanks in everything. Did You mean this too? I think You did, so right now before I try to get up, I thank You for this son o f ours, for his ra diant Christian life and for what he meant to us while he was here. Now he is Yours.’ I then released him from my arms and calmly made the necessary a r r an g eme n t s , carried them out, and ever since t ha t moment this unfathomable peace has never left me, my husband or our other children.” She said all this in a quiet voice with just a hint of tears glistening in her eyes. In the next moment I found I was being introduced to sing and speak and it’s no wonder that I had a rather hard time finding my voice. This woman’s quiet beauty and peace had begun the moment she had been willing to thank God for her greatest tragedy. I began, even as I walked to the piano, to list my heartaches and to thank God for each of them. The first number I sang was for her. The first line reads, “He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater.”
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