Celebrity

My husband, Jim, and I were busy packing up our first apartment and getting ready for moving day.  We were soon going to leave our little house in Lima, Ohio for a little house on Ohio Avenue in Congers, New York.  Jim was going to attend seminary.

We had all those "last" things we had to do--close our bank accounts, attend farewell parties, rent a U-Haul, oh, and have dinner with Miss Rose or Gwen as she was known to all at church.  Gwen was an older single lady who lived in a tiny apartment in the city's elderly housing complex. 

When we arrived at Miss Rose's, we entered her little two room home piled high with Bibles, books and devotionals.  There were scraps of paper tucked everywhere among her few treasured possessions.  We could smell dinner cooking and she had set a card table for us to share a meal with her. 

Gwen greeted us in her modest housedress.  Her wide smile made us feel as though we had done her a huge kindness by coming to her home for dinner.  But it was completely the other-way-round!

Miss Rose invited us to the table and asked the "future minister" to say grace.  Almost before Jim said, "Amen," Gwen said, "So! How can I pray for you?" (No small talk.  No niceties.  There was only one purpose for this visit!) 

Gwen took out paper and a pen and as we answered her question she wrote, seemingly unaware her dinner was getting cold.  She wanted to know our needs and she wanted to remember them so she could pray.  When she was done writing she looked up and said, "I'll be praying for you every day." 

Jim and I knew it was not an empty promise.  The slips of paper all over her house were evidence of her life of prayer.  Miss Rose found purpose in praying for others and she prioritized her life accordingly.  She was a wonderful steward of her giftedness. 

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary says a celebrity is "a celebrated person."  Our friend, Gwen, was a celebrity.  She honored God by being who he designed her to be, and for that Jim and I celebrate her. 

Miss Rose never spoke at a national convention.  She did not write a book.   She never took up a guitar and sang to a packed-out stadium.  She was not created to do those things.  She was created to pray and she did!  And that deserves celebrity status.