Mrs. Buchanan - A Contagious Christian

During our study of the book"Becoming a Contagious Christian", I started to ask myself "how many people had I personally known that were really Contagious Christians?" I could think of a few, but the one that stood out the most was a little white haired lady named Mrs. Buchanan.
I taught a Bible Study in the early nineties to a group of elderly ladies. It was such a blessing to hear the wisdom that they shared each week. But there was one little lady that I would strain to catch every word she uttered because each tidbit she shared glorified the Lord and stirred my spirit. Desiring to know what made her so different, I asked her could I come to her retirement center and visit with her. She said, "Oh honey, I would just love that.
A few days later, I entered her tiny apartment with an eagerness to know the secrets of her journey. She said, "Honey, I have been through many things, and I want to tell you that the Lord has never failed me once. And she began to tell her story..."On a hill in Texas stand five little crosses, four mark the graves of four of my six children, and one marks the grave of my husband."
Then the story unfolded and since I was the mother of a handicapped child, she first began by telling of her own experience with a handicapped child, a precious little girl who lived to be only two and died in her arms. She told of the heart break of that day.... then she shared of the full term baby who had died when the placenta ruptured and how near death she herself had been on that day. Her life blood was almost drained from her body when her husband found her and rushed her to the hospital. There the staff of the hospital lay her husband on a bed beside her and since he had the same blood type, they quickly transfused blood directly from his arm into hers. She told me that was the day she learned that life is in the blood because it was then that she felt life literally flowing back into her dying body. Then she shared of a vacation time when their family was visiting with friends and another of their children was playing on a hammock and was bounced off the hammock falling head first into a concrete sidewalk. He suffered brain damage and only lived a few days.
She continued, "With three of my precious children already buried on that hill, I thought I was clinging to God as close as anyone could." But she said, "that was before!" Before what, "I wondered?" Then the rest of her story poured forth. She and her husband lived on a farm and as they entered their early fifties, her husband decided to turn their acreage into a dairy farm. He went heavily into debt and purchased all of the necessary cattle and equipment. She said she remembered saying to him one day, "Honey, if something happened to you, what in the world would I do?" He told her, "Sweetie, don't you worry, if something happened to me, Charles (their 30 year old married son) would know how to handle everything."A few weeks after that discussion her husband and son flew a small engined plane to a cattle show a few hours away. In flight, the plane crashed and both her husband and son were killed. The pain of that call was still evident on her face as she talked about it and recalled, "there were all those cattle that had to be milked that night, and I had no idea which way to turn." She said that neighbors and church friends kept things up and running through the funerals...then the reality of her situation slowly sank in. She had no education, no money, much debt, a dairy farm to run, and two children to still raise. She said it was then that she really learned how to cling to God. Literally she would write her many needs on paper and shut herself into the bathroom because there she could be alone with God, and she would kneel with those requests tucked inside her bible and pour out her heart to Him, saying, "God either you are Who you say You are, are you are not! Here are my needs and You know I have no way to meet them." AND she said over and over He showed Himself mighty and strong on her behalf making a way where there seemed to be no way.
As she continued her story, I learned that in the years that had followed that last tragic event, Mrs, Buchanan had sent her two remaining children to college, had fought and won a battle with breast cancer, and I could certainly see that she had come forth through that fire with a contagious love for her Lord. He had more than proven that He was Who He said He was....and it was evident that He continued to do so as she approached the age of 90. She radiated His love and His presence as she sat there sharing about her journey. What a beautiful lady she was. She truly was a contagious Christian.
Thank you, Lord, for the beauty of Mrs. Buchanan's testimony. Thank you that You have not changed....You still meet us right in the middle of our needs and You still are our Provider. May we all seek you with our whole beings just as Mrs. Buchanan did and may we also become contagious with our love for You and mirror You to others.

FOR FUN!!!

Okay, ladies, you know I am a proud grandma!! I have a picture that I just had to share with you. My daughter-in-law took this last week. Some have asked "How did she get Sam to sleep in that tub?" He went to sleep in his swing and was transported unsuspectingly to the tub while he slept! Some have said, "He surely looks big!" Well, at his check up last week, he weighed in at a whopping fifteen and a half pounds and is in the 100 precentile for his age group....so he is big boy! Hope this brought a smile to your face!