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The old woman hummed softly when a knock came to her door.
“Come in.” she called out.
“Grandma Maggie!” came a cheerful reply.
“Sandy, is that you?”
“Yes, Grandma, it’s me.”
“Oh, let me take a look at you. I’ve missed you so since you went away to college.”
Sandy took her grandmother’s wrinkled hands and placed them on her youthful face. The gnarled fingers trembled as they flitted back and forth reading with each touch.
Maggie gushed as she felt the length of her granddaughter’s long hair.
“Oh, Sandy, your hair has gotten so long, but you feel like you’ve lost some weight. Your shoulders are too bony. Don’t they feed you at that college?”
Memories marched like soldiers in a parade in Sandy’s mind’s eye. Reminiscing of when her grandmother was younger. Remembering when she wasn’t old, feeble and blind.
“Oh, I get plenty to eat. I’m just so busy with my classes.” Sandy continued, “Speaking of classes I have some homework I’ve got to get done while I’m home on break. One of my assignments is to find out how our family came to know Jesus.”
Maggie beamed. “Well, I know that story like the back of my hand. It began with an apple.”
“An apple?” Sandy laughed.
“Yes, an apple! My mama and daddy had just moved to southern Illinois. They were just newlyweds and Daddy had a hard time finding work, but some farmer needed an extra farmhand. That farmer and his wife had this old shack, that nobody had lived in for several years, and told Mama and Daddy they could live there for free if they fixed it up. Then, the farmer would pay Daddy for helping him on the farm. Mama said late one morning she was out in the yard hanging clothes on the clothesline. She looked up and here comes a neighbor lady walking toward her carrying a freshly baked apple pie.”
“Did great-grandma ever say what the lady’s name was?” Sandy asked.
“Yes, she did. Miss Mamie was her name. She took a liking to Mama and Daddy. Took them right under her wing, she did. She gave Mama that apple pie and told her how happy she was that they had moved into the neighborhood. Mama thanked her and then just before Miss Mamie left, she told them that her church was having some revival services and would love for Mama and Daddy to come. She told Mama that she’d come by and pick them up. Mama said she looked at Miss Mamie, and then looked at that apple pie. How on earth could she say no to this lady, who had just been so kind to her. Mama and Daddy went to the revival meeting that night, and the next night. In fact, they went every night of that revival and on the very last night they both gave their hearts to Jesus.”
Sandy chuckled. “Don’t you think it’s kind of funny, Grandma, how that sin came into the world through a piece of fruit, but for our family, it was through a piece of fruit that we came to know Jesus.”
Maggie’s dimmed eyes glistened. “Yes, Mama said she never could never see an apple, or eat a piece of apple pie, without remembering Miss Mamie and how God used her and her apple pie to bring her and Daddy to Jesus.”
Sandy knelt by her grandmother and whispered, “And we are still coming to Jesus four generations later, Grandma. May God bless all the Miss Mamie’s wherever they are.”
**
In loving memory of my great-grandmother, Maggie Meadows Holtz, who loved to share how our family came to know Jesus.
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