“Who will pray for us now?” asked Rodney. My friend Carol was talking with her younger cousin as they mourned the death of their grandmother. This grandmother had served as a dorm mother at Hardin Simmons University in Abilene. As children, they had gone to stay with her and heard her pray for them by name after putting them to bed at night. She had died. “Who will pray for us now?”
Faith is transmissible. Contagious, really! Timothy, Paul’s younger associate had been raised by a godly grandmother and mother. Eunice and Lois possessed a sincere faith which they passed on intact to Timothy. Their living faith sincerely lived in their descendant and in those who believed what he preached.
Each of us has the competency to trust in Christ. But some of us received a head-start from a godly parent. This does not guarantee that we will serve the Lord, but it shows the way. A grandmother’s prayers lived on in the memory of her grandchildren. At Carol’s funeral, her cousin said he knew the minute he asked the question, Carol silently took up the gauntlet. Her husband bore witness that Carol prayed for every family member by name, out loud, every night.
Christian ministers and vocal artists Phillips, Craig and Dean sang, “Momma loved to burn the midnight oil, down on her knees in prayer. If you asked her why she did it, she says she did it because she cared.” Susanna Wesley stopped throughout the day to pray for her large family. Her sons Charles and John Wesley became ministers ushering in an awakening in the United States and starting the Methodist church.
Steffany Gretzinger sings a remarkable song, “Let my children tell their children. Let this be their memory. That all my treasure was in heaven. And You were everything to me. No one ever cared for me like Jesus. His faithful love has brought me all this way. When I’m old and gray and all my days are numbered on this earth, let it be known, in You alone, my joy was found.”
Rodney’s story about his cousin Carol is still echoing in my heart today. I will assume this practice in my family, each name, by name, lifted into the presence of the Holy One. Someone in my family may overhear me someday. The Holy One will hear us every day.
