SermonStudio

Expression: A saint

Location: 2 Thessalonians 1:10

Verse: When he [Christ] shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in [among] all them that believe....

I always thought of my dear grandmother as a real saint. I believe that she had to be a notch above many others in the way she lived her life.

I shall never forget the terror that came over my young life when our family learned that Grandma had been struck by an automobile. We didn't know how badly she was hurt or any of the other details.

My mother, father, sister, and I quickly got ready and headed out for Grandma's house, where I so loved to play on the porch, pick up nuts off the ground, and stroll through the trees and listen to the birds. I sat in the car while we drove the ten miles to Grandma's house wondering, "How badly is she hurt?"

Thank God we soon arrived and learned that Grandma's leg had been hurt, but she really wasn't as bad off as we may have imagined during our drive to her home.

Grandma had been hit by a man in a pickup truck, and yes, the police had determined that the man had been drinking. The judge over the case ordered him to pay ten dollars per week to my grandma. Back in those days, ten dollars a week out of a man's pay was pretty rough.

Some members of the family were pleased that Grandma would be getting this help, and they definitely wanted her to take the money. My saintly grandmother didn't want to put a hardship on this man. Some of the family members told her she certainly should take the money at least until her medical bills were paid.

I shall never forget the pain on Grandma's face as she thought of taking money away from this man and his family. This grandmother saint of mine was filled with such love, compassion, and forgiveness that it broke her heart to think of taking this money. She did have to pay her medical bills though. Some of the family members insisted on that.

One day about five weeks later, we were at Grandma's house again when this man came to the door to pay her the weekly ten dollars. I looked on the face of this man who took his hat off and said, "How are you today, Mrs. Thompson?" I saw a man's face that revealed sincere politeness, humility, and great remorse. Over the weeks he had visited my grandmother, and probably for the first time in his life, he had met a person who was truly concerned about him. Later, I recall my grandmother told this gentleman that he didn't have to pay her ten dollars a week anymore.

I don't know what happened to this man, but I would like to believe that he became a child of God just from knowing my grandmother and seeing the Christian love that she had for him.

All of us have heard many times the word "saint" used in referring to someone who is enormously good in heart. All of my life I have been able to say about my grandma, "She was a saint."

My understanding of this expression was that the person referred to as a saint was much greater than normally "good." All of those years I understood the expression incorrectly. In going to the Bible -- the Word of God -- I read this scripture addressed to the Roman Christians by the apostle Paul: "To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints [believers] ..." (Romans 1:7). Then after reading other passages, I looked up from my Bible and realized that the Bible refers to all Christian believers as "saints."

Yes, my grandma was a saint, and isn't it amazing what influence a saint can have over another person's life?