Can one person really make a difference? One “ordinary” middle-aged woman made a difference in my life.

I was a good girl, and everybody said so. I was the head girl of my grammar school in England, with top marks in all my exams. I won a coveted university scholarship that included trips abroad. I volunteered every week at a children’s home and worked with severely mentally challenged children in my spare time. I was dedicating my life to helping others through clinical psychology. I had been a Sunday school teacher for years, and didn’t drink, smoke, or take drugs. What could possibly be missing? One person saw it almost immediately.

“One “ordinary” middle-aged woman made a difference in my life.”

At a psychiatric hospital where I was working during my university holidays gaining direct experience with patients, I met a handsome young male nurse named Martin. We began going out together, and he eventually took me home to meet his mother. Grace was a small, rather frail woman, but very straightforward in her questions. “Are you a Christian?” she asked, catching me off guard.

“But of course,” I replied. After all, I thought, wasn’t everyone in England a Christian?

“Isn’t it wonderful to love Jesus?” she asked next. I was stumped. I had never thought of loving Jesus. That sounded far too personal. Respecting Him, yes. Talking to Him in a rather distant manner, yes. Attempting to keep the Ten Commandments, yes. But loving Him? I excused myself and set off on a walk alone.

As I strolled through the outskirts of town, I couldn’t get that thought out of my head. Isn’t it wonderful to love Jesus? Why did I need that kind of a relationship with Jesus? After all, I was very good on my own.

Then I heard a strange voice in my head that could only have been God’s, considering what He said. What about My Son, Jesus?

“Well, I don’t really need Him to be good,” I replied.

Apparently that wasn’t the right answer because He asked again, What about My Son, Jesus? I couldn’t shake that voice!

I continued to walk until I came to some fields. There in the middle of one field, I heard the voice again. Look at this field. It’s fertile and even ploughed, but nothing is growing. Now look at the field next to it. It is full of beautiful cabbages. That could be you if you will just give your heart to Me.

It was then that I realized that I did need Jesus. I knelt there in the freshly turned dirt and opened my heart to Jesus, and my life took an unexpected and wonderful turn from that moment on.

Some 30 years later, on the way to Grace’s funeral, I passed those same cabbage fields. This time both of them were lush and green, almost ready for harvesting, and I thought about how wonderfully God had fulfilled His promise to make my life fruitful, like that once empty field. As I always do when I count my blessings, I started with my 12 children and 9 grandchildren—Grace’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Yes, Martin and I got married, and by this time we’d been full-time Christian volunteers in many countries for over 30 years. As I looked out of the car window at those cabbages, I smiled through tears of gratitude and thanked God again for Grace—Grace who had helped me learn to love Jesus.

Grace had lived a happy but simple life. She had never been rich or famous, and she had never traveled very far from her hometown except in her prayers. But like someone has said, “A life need not be great to be beautiful. A beautiful life is one that does what God made it to do.” That was Grace!

She had also left some rather unusual instructions for her funeral. For music she wanted the ’60s song “Spirit in the Sky,” because she had loved to dance to it. It’s a happy, full-of-life song, and that’s how she wanted to be remembered. Her second request was that everyone attending her funeral wear something red, her favorite color.

As Martin and I entered the church where her funeral service was about to begin, I wondered if people would remember or had even heard about that second request. Tears welled up again as I looked around at all the people who had come to thank God for Grace—over three hundred people, all wearing something red and all having been touched in some way by her passionate love for Jesus.

After the service, people came to us with their stories: “She visited me in the hospital every day while I was sick.” “She would listen to all my problems and pray for me, no matter what time of the night I phoned.” “She told me about Jesus.” It went on and on—hundreds of lives touched and quietly changed by this one little woman.

That day, instead of a doleful funeral, we celebrated Grace’s earthly life and rejoiced with her over the thrilling eternal life she had just begun. Now she knows how truly wonderful it is to love Jesus, because she’s experiencing it to the full. ■

(Rachel Aird is a full-time volunteer with the Family International in South Africa.)

If you haven’t yet discovered how wonderful it is to love Jesus, you can right now by praying the following prayer.

Dear Jesus, thank You for giving Your life for me. Please forgive me for the wrong things I’ve done. Come into my heart, and give me Your gift of eternal life. Teach me more about Your love, and fill me with Your joy. Amen.