I know it is a little late in posting about Billy Graham, but I was admitted in the hospital right after the announcement that he had passed. Although, I was able to watch funeral coverage at the hospital and it was such a beautiful tribute to his legacy.
I have known who he was my entire life, and emember growing up watching multiple crusades on television with my parents. Also, I worked at Camp Cedar Cliff on the property of BGEA each summer. However, before it was Cedar Cliff, and the ownership change, it was called “The Cove Camp.” Regardless of the new ownership the camp would not have been created initially if it had not been for Billy Graham and his ministry. I was working at Cedar Cliff the summer Ruth Graham passed away and the amount of media was amazing. Just like her husband she had her own testimony and story to tell. What a wonderful woman who supported Billy Graham in all he did. Since his passing, I have read so many testimonies of how Billy Graham affected their life and walk with the Lord. One of those comes from Author DiAnn Mills. With her permission, I am sharing her story below.
So many wonderful online and print posts are honoring Billy Graham. While heaven is rejoicing in his homecoming, we will miss a great man of God. The best way for me to pay tribute to Billy Graham is to post a devotion, one you may have already read from 8-1-17.
As a child, I looked forward to summer visits at my grandparents’ farm along the winding Ohio River in Kentucky. From their living room window, I watched barges float by, picturesque and peaceful. I loved every moment—picking wild berries, helping in the vegetable garden, and watching my grandfather hook up milkers to the many cows. In the evenings, aunts and uncles arrived bringing cousins. We caught lightning bugs and had the kind of fun that should have gotten us into trouble. Many memories were made on that Kentucky farm.
On Sundays, we attended a small country church. No air conditioning, only a soft breeze to cool us. We sang and listened to how Jesus wanted us to live.
Many of the people in the church frightened me. Their gentle words and kind actions should have soothed and welcomed me. But instead something in their eyes chilled me, as though I’d entered an alien world. I inwardly referred to the people at my grandparents’ church as Eagle-Eyed. I shied away from them, afraid and confused about how they made me feel.
Some years later while watching a Billy Graham TV Crusade, I saw the same piercing eyes in Dr. Graham. The Holy Spirit spoke to me, and I realized the look in his eyes meant he had a relationship with Jesus Christ. I asked Jesus into my heart and became one of the Eagle-Eyed people.
John 9:25 “. . . I was blind, now I see.”
