Sunday, February 12, 2017

Lessons-- from the Smoky Mountains to the British Prime Minister

Brant and I were on the way to a conference and spent two nights in Townsend, “the quiet side of the Smokies.” As we had coffee on our balcony in the afternoon, looking out at the beautiful Smoky Mountains, I thanked the Lord for Psalm 121:  “I will lift up my eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help…my help cometh from the Lord, who made Heaven and earth.” Wow! The very Creator of those gorgeous mountains is there to help me!

The very next morning as we were on the same balcony reading our Bibles, the mountains were gone! The clouds had moved in. But…were they really gone? NO! It is just like the times when we are not sure God is there. He is! There are just clouds of sorrow, anger, busyness, or distractions that blot Him from our view. That same Psalm tells us He never slumbers or sleeps.

I have just had the privilege of reading GOD AND CHURCHILL, a book written by Churchill’s great-grandson Jonathan Sandys and Wallace Henley. The most important person in Churchill’s life when he was growing up was his nanny, Elizabeth Everest. She was a passionate woman of prayer, teaching young Winston Scriptures, and explaining the world to him in Christian perspective. This helped him to grasp the horror of Nazism.

 Even later in life, he often quoted verses from the Bible that she had taught him. Psalm 46 (“God is our refuge and strength...”) was one of his favorites he had memorized with his nanny.  Churchill said: “I did not hesitate to ask for special protection when about to come under the fire of the enemy; nor to feel sincerely grateful when I got home safe to tea.” J Elizabeth Everest’s picture was by his bedside when he died in 1965, at the age of 90 years old.

From my reminder in the Great Smoky Mountains, hidden by fog, to the example of the Prime Minster of England, striving to “save Christian civilization from Nazism,” this magnificent truth is for all of us...”God cares for me, too!”

 --Maylou Holladay



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