Missionary-Evangelist Esther Thornton
Mama was born in 1899. Her parents had come to
the United States from Russia in a sailboat, but they were full-blood
Germans. They settled in Oklahoma on a farm where they raised their
twelve children.
As a child, I would awaken on the farm to loud voices speaking
the German language. It was conversation between Mama and her mother, who
was very hard of hearing!
I was the youngest of four children, and so went with Mama
everywhere that she went, as my older brothers and sisters were in
school. Mama was faithful in the house of the Lord, and took me along to
such things as missionary meetings and funerals!
She was always in a hurry, and so one day, as she was pulling me
along with my short steps, I asked her, "Mama, will we have to hurry
when we get to Heaven?" She thought it was so cute that she never
forgot what I said!
My father was a small town dentist who rarely got paid what was
due to him; and so, we thought we were rich when we had two pieces of fruit in
our lunch boxes!
We moved often, and I remember that I went to three different
schools in the first grade! But, Mama always seemed to adjust to the new
move. She would find a good church and take things from there.
When I was seven years old, we moved out West to Washington
state. My half-sister saw to it that we got there and that we were cared
for. But, less than a year later, my father died.
Mama had never finished school, only up to the eighth grade, due
to finances, so she could not get an easy job. She cleaned houses to
raise us kids, until the doctor told her that she would die if she continued,
due to her heart condition. She cried hard, but then accepted it, and we
were raised on government funds.
I remember Mama reading the Bible and praying with us after she
woke us up in the morning. I guess she knew we would be too tired to
argue with her at that time!
Mama was a woman of prayer - I used to think that her prayer
list was a mile long! She had a bulletin board with missionaries'
pictures on it that she remembered in prayer every day. They were her
friends, and when they were home on furlough, she would invite them over for
meals.
She never had much, but she always said that she had
plenty, and would give to others consistently! And, it seemed the
more she gave, the more was given to her!
She always paid her tithe, but when she couldn't, she would put
a little IOU note in the bank where she kept this fund. And, she always
paid it back!
We were the poorest people in the community. The church
would give us their yearly box at Christmas time. Yet, Mama kept a thankful
heart and we always had enough to eat.
Mama didn't possess any great talents. She couldn't sing
or preach or do great things in the work of the Lord. But, I remember her
making cinnamon rolls and placing them in the pastor's mailbox. He said that
the smell was wonderful when he got his mail!
Mama wasn't beautiful by nature, nor did she have money to dress
in expensive clothes. But, she was clothed with kindness and good deeds
and always lent a helping hand to those in need.
This never stopped, even up until the day that she died, when
she was almost eighty-five years old. I was told by some ladies in her
church, that she was disturbed the day she died because she didn't feel
well, and it was her day to go to the nursing home to take diabetic
cookies and tell flannel graph stories to the old people there. (She
never did think she was old!).
They told her to rest, as the flu had been going around, but she
said that the people there waited for her on Tuesday, and she didn't want to
disappoint them! But, finally she listened and went to lie down to
rest.
She was found the next morning, but it was only a shell that was
found - Mama had gone to be with Jesus!
She had wanted me to have her little freezer, and so it was
given to me after she was gone. And, in it were still little packages of
diabetic cookies - two in each piece of aluminum foil, for the "old
people" at the nursing home who never saw her again!
What did I learn from her life? - So much! Yet,
nothing impressive to the world.
________________________
I learned to accept things that cannot be changed and to make
the best of them
I learned to put God first and "all these things will be
added unto you."
I learned that you don't have to have physical possessions to be
thankful and blessed.
I learned that generosity always pays big dividends
I learned that people who put others before themselves are
always happy people
I learned that the little things we do for Jesus each
day are the things that count
I learned to take my calling seriously, though to some it might
seem small
I learned to have a mentality of richness even when I am poor
I learned to be faithful in the little things
I learned to honor God's servants
I learned to give God what is due unto Him
______________________
I haven't seen Mama for about twenty years, as she has
been with Jesus. But, she is still very much alive, in that, what
her life taught me will never end.
And every so often, I see a recipe with her handwriting on it
stuck inside my old cookbook; or use her comb for my hair which says, "Let
the Beauty of Jesus Be Seen In Me".....
And, I REMEMBER MAMA!
God bless all of you, mothers, and cause His beauty to be
seen through you.
Esther
