by Brenda Sullivan (Redstone/ArrowHawk Ministries)
(This is a true story of Brenda’s aunt, who is still living, 86 years young.)
Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. (Matthew 11:28-30)
The day was so full of beautiful sunshine, though it was so bitterly cold. Everyone was looking for a fire to huddle around. The only heat was the wood stove in the middle of the big room. Luke was keeping it constantly filled so that Grandma Billie would be warm in her little corner of the big house. Grandma Billie and Grandpa Joe had lived in their log home for over 50 years. When the cancer took him in 1990, she stayed in their home, keeping watch over the children they shared and the ones that became a part of the family through circumstances unknown. Grandma Billie has become a part of the only source of Christ that her family has seen. She never gives up on them, though she’s seen so many tragedies in her lifetime, including the murder of her own child through the beating by cousins, just because of a misunderstanding.
She has never wavered in her relationship with Jesus. She stands in the gap bringing her little ones with her to church. Though she can hardly see anymore and can hardly walk, she gets someone to take her and the little ones as often as she can to hear the Word of God. She knows that is why she has lived these long 57 years in her adopted homeland, so far from her family and loved ones. The Lord has given her a long life so that she can see her little ones come to know the Christ she met so long ago with her parents, Pastor and wife to the Indian Nations.
She reminded me of this verse when we were talking after the passing of my own parents. She said the Lord would make my hurting less difficult when I trusted the Lord. She was right.
I keep that verse close to my heart as I think of her now at the age of 86 and how her age is beginning to show. God has made our burden light; as we know and she has said, “It is well with my soul.”