Big Faith in a Small Town

Growing up in a small town gave me the best moments of my life — like the long summer evenings with the sun resting on the horizon and the sounds of screen doors opening and closing between innings of back yard baseball games.  My great-grandmother was the town librarian and a faithful member of our church.  She was widowed for the majority of her life after my great-grandfather died in a plane crash during an attempted landing in a field near town.  She never really talked about their marriage or expressed any pain that she may have been feeling.  I always remember her being filled with joy and being a “light” of guidance toward everyone who came to see her for their book reports or to chat about the day’s forecast.  

The years went by, season after season.  Faithfully, my great-grandmother would sit on the front step of the library, which is now named in her honor, and wait for anyone who needed her help in seeking book or the latest issue of a magazine. I would often see her sitting inside the library alone, reading her latest romance novel at the small wooden desk that accompanied her.  “How does she sit in there all day like that?” I would say to myself.  Now, being older and having walked some miles with the Lord at my side, I know exactly how she did it — with peace and assurance of Gods promises.   

I cannot begin to understand the depth of emotional pain and loneliness she must have felt after the death of her husband, or the strength that carried her through the Great Depression, the death of her beloved husband, and the redeeming life she built with the grace of God.  After almost fifty years of laboring in serving God and others in our wonderful small town, she had to leave the library she loved as her health began to fail her.  My great-grandmother has since gone to be with our Lord, to rejoice in God’s presence alongside the husband she loved and longed for through so many seasons of living.

I welcome you to visit my website, http://www.mattsimmonsvo.com, where I write a monthly blog.  My career as a home health therapist has allowed me the honor of being a part of so many lives and sharing my voice for healing, love, and friendship.  I now use my voice to speak into the scripts for others as a voice actor in sharing stories that need to be heard.  I appreciate every second you give, and may God give you the best blessings that God has planned for your life.