A long and faithful life – Happy 100!

Later today Becky and I will drive nearly the full length of the Pennsylvania Turnpike as we head west to Beaver, the town near Pittsburgh where we lived for ten years prior to coming to Langhorne two years or so ago.  We’ll be gone for no more than thirty hours and back in plenty of time for Sunday worship. A lot of miles in a short time to be sure, but well worth it.  It’s Ruth’s one hundredth birthday party and we wouldn’t miss it.  Oh, Ruth may have slowed down some, but she’ll still be the life of the party with her quick wit and flirtatious ways.  
Ruth is a member of Park Presbyterian Church and an amazing person. Someone at the party is sure to mention the fact that she was astronaut John Glenn’s Sunday School teacher during his growing up years in Ohio, and she was. That was sometime in the late 1920’s or early 1930’s.  She was still teaching Sunday School, the women’s class at Park Church, into the Twenty-first Century.  And providing transportation to some of the “old ladies” in that big old Oldsmobile she’d drive around town. Rarely under the speed limit.
 
On a good day Ruth might manage 4’11”, but she is a giant of a person.  For all her good humor and mischievous ways, she has known her share of sorrow and sadness, having cared for her invalid husband for many years before his early death. She prays every day for two of her three sons who don’t share her deep and abiding faith in the love of God and his grace given in Jesus Christ.  
 
We’ll be glad to make another trip to Beaver for Ruth’s 101st birthday party and all those that may follow. No matter how many follow – or if none follow – Ruth’s long life has been a great gift to Becky and me. The life of Ruth, the giant, declares loudly and clearly that faith in the goodness of our loving God and obedience to his life-giving Word are always worth it, no matter what.  Happy 100th, Ruth.
 
See you Sunday