The Joyful Burden

ecently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard,
climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his mother asked him what he had said to the
neighbor, the little boy said, "Nothing, I just helped him cry."
John and Nora Romanosky formerly served in Utah from 1971-1990. Presently John is pastor of
Sullivan Community Church in Ravenna, MI. John has been a member of IFCA since 1972.
Reprinted from Nov./Dec. 1998 VOICE.
A Widow's Christmas
Lorna Simcox
The worst Christmas I ever had was the year my first husband died. It wasn't the loneliness that
did me in; it was the self-pity.
As a young widow, I was faced with raising my four-year-old daughter alone. I didn't know for
whom I felt worse--her or me.
I knew I couldn't stay home. So I packed our things, loaded up my car, and made the long drive
from New Jersey to North Carolina to spend the holiday with my mother-in-law and my
husband's family, as we had always done when James was living. As usual, everyone was
wonderful to us. But it's easy to be miserable when you decide to feel sorry for yourself.
Looking back on that Christmas twenty years ago, I realize that God was bringing me through
something, so He could bring me to something. The lovable American baseball player Yogi Berra
once said, "Sports is 50 percent physical and 90 percent mental." Although his percentages didn't
add up, his point was well taken.
The apostle Paul made almost the same point when he said, "Let this mind be in you, which was
also in Christ Jesus" (Phil.2:5). Life is filled with profound agonies that God uses to conform us to
the image of Christ for our good and His glory. And though widowhood is lonely, it is not a curse
unless you make it so. The Lord loves widows deeply and reserves for them extraordinary
blessings that many other women never receive--providing they set their minds on walking with
Him.
Anna was such a widow. The entire Bible contains only three verses about her, but they have
exalted her for more than two thousand years as a woman who put God ahead of self and service
ahead of self-pity:
"And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher; she was of
a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity; And she was a widow
of about fourscore and four years, who departed not from the temple, but served God with
fastings and prayers night and day" (Lk. 2:36-37).
Some say Anna was eighty-four. But I doubt it. She was probably more than one hundred years
old--"of a great age"--and had been a widow eighty-four years. Jewish women were eligible to
marry when they turned twelve. She likely married young and was widowed in her twenties. The
Bible does not say if she had children. Nor does it say who supported her.
But during the four hundred "silent" years, when God sent neither prophet nor angelic messenger
to His people Israel, there was Anna--a prophetess. Undoubtedly, he blessed her with a
remarkable, personal relationship with the God of all creation. She communicated with Him
faithfully, diligently, and daily, "with fastings and prayers night and day"; and He communicated
with her. Her life revolved around the Temple and service to her Lord.