The Everlasting Arms

“Even when you are old and your hair is grey, I will carry you.” — from Isaiah 46

In 1977 Betty married a third time. Her husband was Lars Gren. They made their home in Magnolia, a village by the sea in Massachusetts. Valerie grew up and married a minister named Walter Shepard, and they had eight children. The young widow in the jungle was now a grandmother of a big family!

Betty kept writing books. And from 1988 she had a radio programme for women called Gateway to Joy, which was heard all over America and in other countries. Every programme began the same way. She reminded her listeners of two promises from the Bible: that God loved them with an everlasting love, and that underneath them were his everlasting arms.

On the radio she talked about prayer and sadness and trusting God. But she also talked about ordinary things, like washing the dishes, being on time, answering letters and getting up in the morning. She believed that doing small jobs well, for God, is a way of loving him.

When Betty grew old, she became ill with an illness called dementia. Little by little, she could not remember things, and then she could hardly speak. She who had loved words so much could not use them any more. Lars looked after her at home for many years. Now someone else had to carry her, as she had once carried baby Valerie through the forest.

Betty died at home in Magnolia on 15 June 2015. She was eighty-eight. She had trusted God through happy days and very sad ones, and at the end she rested in his everlasting arms.

Betty could not do anything for God at the end of her life, but God still loved her just as much. You are precious to God, too, not because of what you can do, but because you are his.

Dear God, thank you for Betty Elliot and all that you did through her life. Thank you that you love me with an everlasting love, and that your arms are always underneath me. Amen.