A Mother Who Found Her Niche in Life
Illustration★★★★Many years ago there lived in the city of Dublin a beautiful and talented young lady, the wife of a young captain. The young captain was fatally wounded in a duel, and the young lady became a widow before she was eighteen.
First she tried solitude to rid herself of her grief, then she tried the gaieties of life — but all in vain. One morning, early, she went down to the river to take her life. Just as she was about to take the fatal plunge, she saw in a distant field a farmer ploughing. He called to his horses and whistled cheerily as he followed the plough; and she said bitterly, “Happy man!
He has something to live for; he has a niche to fill.” And there came to her a message as from God: “You have a niche to fill, too. You have life, talents, opportunities. Why throw them away?”
Turning from the river bank, she hurried home, saved from a suicide’s death and doom. Soon afterwards, upon hearing a sermon on John 3:16, she received Jesus Christ as her own personal Saviour. Some time later, she married a fine Christian man and into that home was born a son. The mother, realizing her niche was to train that child for God, brought him up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
That son was Dr. Grattan Guinness, who was mightily used of God in leading thousands to Christ in the British Isles in the great revival of 1859. Grattan Guin- ness later got the burden of world evangelization and began training young men for Christian service on the mission fields of the world. The mother of Grattan Guinness, in bringing up her son for God, probably did more for God’s kingdom than all the great statesmen of her century.
Every mother who trains her children for God is doing a service, the value of which only eternity will reveal.
The point
A widow on the verge of suicide sees a farmer plowing and hears an inner voice reminding her she has a niche to fill. Years later, her son, Grattan Guinness, becomes a mighty evangelist. A profound illustration of how one faithful mother's faithfulness to her calling produces kingdom fruit for generations.