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In the summer of 1941, Ruth McCue Bell, a 21-year-old college graduate with a razor-sharp mind, made a decision that today might seem, as they say in her adopted state of North Carolina, somewhat peculiar.
She planned to become a missionary in China, where she had spent her childhood. Then her good-looking preacher boyfriend asked her to marry him. “Woman was created to be a wife and mother,” he told her.
“Not I”, she responded.
But several agonizing weeks later Ruth said yes, and she spent the rest of her life as a Ruth Bell Graham, preacher’s wife, sculpting and polishing the raw talent of the Rev. Billy Graham.
Her life was filled with common things, but she was no ordinary woman. Rather, she was extraordinary in that she trusted God explicitly. Most people don’t realize what a difficult life Ruth Bell Graham had. Because Billy traveled all the time, she was essentially a “single mom” in many ways.
For an absolutely memorable read on Ruth Bell Graham, go to her Memorial web page. The video alone is inspiring and made me cry.
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The Common Things
Lord, let mine be
a common place
while here.
His was a common one;
He seems so near
when I am working
at some ordinary task.
Lord, let mine be
a common one, I ask.
Give me things to do
that others shun,
I am not so gifted or so poised,
Lord, as some.
I am best fitted
for the common things,
and I am happy so.
It always brings
a sense of fellowship
with Him who learned
to do the lowly things
that others spurned:
to wear simple clothes,
the common dress,
to gather in His arms
and gently bless
(and He was busy, too)
a little child,
to lay His hand upon
the one defiled,
to walk with sinners
down some narrow street,
to kneel Himself
and wash men’s dusty feet.
To ride a common foal,
to work with wood,
to dwell with common folk,
eat common food;
and then upon the city dump
to die for me
Lord, common things
are all I ask
of Thee.
From Ruth Bell Graham’s Collected Poems
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