Had I been Joseph’s mother
I’d have prayed/ protection from his brothers
“God keep him safe./ He is so young,
so different from / the others.”
Mercifully, / she never knew
there would be slavery/ and prison, too.
Had I been Moses’ mother
I’d have wept/ To keep my little son;
praying she might forget/the babe drawn
from the water /of the Nile.
Had I not kept/ him for her/ nursing him the while,
was he not mine – and she/ but Pharoah’s daughter?
Had I been Daniel’s mother
I should have pled / “Give victory!
-this Babylonian horde / godless and cruel –
Don’t let him be a captive – better dead,
Almighty Lord!”
Had I been Mary,/Oh had I been she,
I would have cried/ As never mother cried,
Anything, O God, / Anything…- but / crucified.”
With such prayer importunate
My finite wisdom would assail
Infinite Wisdom. God, how fortunate
Infinite Wisdom / should prevail.
Ruth Graham was born in China; her parents were American medical missionaries at the Presbyterian Hospital 300 miles north of Shanghai. Ruth was a Christian from an early age. She graduated from Wheaton College, Illinois, where she met her future husband Billy Graham. They were married on August 13, 1943 in Montreat, NC when she was 23. Her husband became a full time evangelist preaching the gospel all over the world. She loved to move behind the scenes, away from the spotlight, and helped him craft and research sermons and even books. She wrote as an emotional release, while her husband was so often on the road. Ruth convinced Billy to move the family to Montreat, near her parents, when their first child was on the way. Her ministry flourished in the mountains of western North Carolina, where she built the family homestead and raised five children. Ruth and Billy were married over 65 years and had 19 grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren. Ruth Graham died at the age of 87.
Shalom Talk 