My Grandma Graham passed away in April of 2002, but I have 3 special memories that I will always keep tucked within my heart. The first one took place when I was in elementary school. As a young girl, I was always burdened that Grandma was not a Christian. Any time someone asked for prayer requests, I almost always asked prayer for Grandma’s salvation. One day, the Holy Spirit convicted me that I needed to do more than just pray for her. I needed to confront her about her relationship with Jesus Christ. I decided to write her a note. We were in the car and I wrote on a piece of paper, “Do you know where you would go if you were to die today?” Grandma read the note and told me, “We don’t talk about things like that.” Today, I would be very sorrowful if that were the end of my story, but thanks be to God it is not.
Next, I would like to jump ahead quite a few years to October of 1996 when Grandma was 88 years old. My husband, Greg, and I had been married a little over a year and Mom called to tell me that Grandma wanted to tell us something. As soon as Grandma said “hello,” I could hear a difference in her voice; it had a peaceful quality that I really can’t explain. Grandma told me that she had accepted God’s gift of salvation and she was saved! There is one thing about that conversation that I distinctly remember. Grandma asked me to forgive her. I was dumbfounded! She had just asked for forgiveness from God. What did she need my forgiveness for? She was sorry that we had prayed for her for so many years. She said that she wished that she had gotten saved earlier. What a wonderful work God had done in her life!
That year, after Christmas, Grandma wrote Greg and me a thank you note for our gift. What a blessing that note was to me! In it, Grandma told us that she had been praying for us as we traveled back to South Carolina. That may seem like an insignificant thing to you, but considering the fact that many years earlier, it was this same woman who told me that we don’t discuss spiritual things, it was a blessing to have her praying for me. Only the work of a powerful God could change a life like that!
Katie Habegger
