Whatever He Says

By Belinda This morning a note that I wrote at some point in my copy of the   Daily Light  for August 10, reminds me that it is the feast day of St. Lawrence, and that  Martha , a woman who impacted many lives,and who lies in the graveyard of St. Laurence Church in Alvechurch, was born on this day in 1817. On my first day home in Canada, it is special to be connected with Alvechurch in this small way--like a final wave from an old friend. Today's Daily Light has verses that could describe Martha; this dear lady, who, like another dear woman; Trudy Cluderay ; still living in Alvechurch; shone for God in her quiet way and influenced a community for good. Blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. Philippians 2:15—“You are the salt of the earth, . . . the light of the world. . . . Let your light shine before others, so that ...

(Written in 2010 and updated for the 200th anniversary of Martha's birth: August 10, 2017) Years ago, on one of my visits to Alvechurch, a friend gave me a great treasure; a little book, the story of a woman who lived in the village all of her life and loved it so much that she could not be away without becoming unbearably homesick. The tiny book was written after she died in 1904 in her 87th year, by one of her many friends, so that her memory would not die. On the fly leaf it says simply:   The Story of Martha Written for her Neighbours and Friends And there is a quote: A good heart is the sun and the moon; or rather the sun, and not the moon,--for it shines bright, and never changes, but keeps his course truly I wonder if the writer of the 27 page booklet ever imagined that 113 years later, a copy would sit upon a bookshelf on another continent, greatly treasured among other books of history. And I wonder how many othe...