A rose bud waiting to bloom in heaven

Her Precious Book

It was her constant companion.  She read it frequently.  She loved to hear people read it, expound upon it, and talk about it.  She was quick to counter if someone spoke against it.  There was hardly a page of her book that didn’t have some word or phrase highlighted or underlined.  She wrote many things in the margins to help her remember the words and ideas of her precious book.  She memorized as much of her book as she could, just in case it was ever taken from her.  She sought to live out the words that she read in her book, for those words she accepted as the guide for her life.

“How precious is the Book divine, By inspiration giv’n!

Bright as a lamp its precepts shine, To guide my soul to heav’n.”

Her family says that she began to read, study, and follow her book earnestly when she and her husband lost an infant child, Betty Jane.  She recorded the date of her baby’s birth and her death in the flyleaf of her book, and wrote these words beside those dates:  “I sure hope I see you again, my sweet darling baby.  Nothing can take her from Christ now.  A rose bud waiting to bloom in heaven.”

She continued to turn to her book when years later she lost an adult child, Patsy.  Her daughter had been a diabetic and experienced kidney failure.  When it was determined that only a kidney transplant would prolong her daughter’s life, she gave one of her own kidneys to her.  Patsy lived a few more years until she passed away at the age of 42.  Her mother found solace in her book.   

“It sweetly cheers my drooping heart, In this dark vale of tears; Light to my life it still imparts, And quells my rising fears.”

She loved to share her book with others.  Late in her life, she befriended a 94-year-old woman who could not see very well.  Since her friend couldn’t see well, she read aloud from her book to her.  She read aloud from her book to many others.

At the age of 80, she befriended another 80-year-old woman, Nora, who lived in same apartment complex.  She shared her book with her new friend.  They studied the book together.  Soon Nora accepted the book as the guide to her life.

“This lamp through all the tedious night Of life, shall guide my way, Till I behold the clearer light Of an eternal day.”

Her name was Thelma Clark.  The book that she held dear was, as L.O. Sanderson entitled a song about the same book, “The Precious Book Divine,” the Bible.

“Holy Book divine!  Precious treasure mine!

Lamp to my feet and a light to my way To guide me safely home.”

-- L.O. Sanderson

Thelma Clark loved the Book because it is God’s Word.  It tells of the great love of God that sent His Son into the world to die on the cross so that Thelma and the rest of us can be saved from our sins and receive the gift of eternal life (John 3:16).

Thelma loved to tell others about how to receive the gifts of salvation and eternal life by the instructions given in the Book: we must place our faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from our sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and be baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of our sins (Acts 2:38).  Then, the Book should continue to be our guide: “a lamp to our feet and a light to our path” (see Psalm 119:105).  In other words, the Book should be as precious to us as it was to Thelma Clark.

Won’t YOU turn to the Book and follow its precepts?                                                  

– David A. Sargent