I was
listening to the radio this morning when the speaker told this story:
It was August 1926 when
the funeral took place in NYC. One
hundred thousand people were estimated to have lined the streets and crowd the
entrance to the funeral home. The ensuing
scene was described in the newspapers as a “madhouse”. NYC police officers were deployed to restore
order and there were even reports of suicides among the despondent mourners.
So whose
funeral was this? It was the funeral of then
movie legend Rudolf Valentino, who died of complications after surgery for a
ruptured ulcer at the age of 31.
Not long ago
I heard of the death of a “legend” of a different sort. This person was
not at all famous by worldly standards.
She didn’t live the lavish life style of the rich and famous, as
Valentino did. There were no throngs to
follow her while she lived and no hordes of mourners at her death. Although I don’t have firsthand experience, I’m
sure there was no need at all for police to restore order and no one would have
been inclined to end his or her life because this woman had come to the end of
hers. There were no headlines announcing
her passing.
So who was
this woman whose passing was noted by a few but whose life and way of living made
her a “legend” to all who had the privilege to meet her? Her name was Miss Moxey and if you have
visited this blog spot before you will remember her name.
I met Miss
Moxey three years ago at All Saints Aids Camp in the Bahamas on my very first
missions trip with our church’s senior high students. Not wanting to intrude, I never did ask her
how she came to be at All Saints, but I found out two years later on my second
trip when I overheard someone else asking her.
She was not an AIDS sufferer but the victim of a hit and run accident
that left her physically disabled. She found
herself at the camp when her family could not care for her themselves. I never did find out how long she had been a
resident, but I know it had been for some years.
Miss Moxey
made an impression right from the start.
While the other residents tended to be quiet and private, this tiny
woman had the capacity, with expansive gestures of her arms and hands, to make
you feel abundantly welcome in the cramped quarters of her cabin. In that way she was most experienced in practicing
hospitality, although she had little by way of material possessions to
share. The senior high students and I, responding
to her extravagant welcome, squeezed around her, sitting on her bed, until we
could give and receive hugs easily. Miss
Moxey’s sweet spirit just drew us in.
She was warm and welcoming and easy to love, but that’s only part what
made her the stuff of legends for us short term missionaries.
What elevated
her to legendary status was the love Miss Moxey had for Jesus. Entering her world was like being treated to
a little glimpse of heaven where love for Jesus is openly shared, hymns of
praise are sung, and words of Scripture quoted and read. Visits always consisted of reading the Bible,
singing together Miss Moxey’s favorite hymns and unashamedly gushing about the
greatness of Jesus.
Miss Moxey
had somehow managed, with all her limitations and trials, to do what I, without
any physical limitations and with minor trials, have such difficulty doing –
she had managed to be absolutely and completely content in Jesus. I have heard someone ask the question, “If
everything was stripped away from you and all you had was Jesus, would He be
enough?”. I KNOW how Miss Moxey would
have answered that question! Yes, yes,
and yes!!!
We didn’t
know when we visited with her last summer that that would be our last
visit. I was so saddened when I heard
that she had died this July. But I know
that I was only feeling sorry for myself because Miss Moxey and the blessing of
seeing her and being with her again at All Saints had ended.
I’m not sure
whether the following quote attributed to Pastor Dwight L. Moody is accurate,
but I thought of Miss Moxey when I remembered it.
One day you will wake up and hear
that Dwight L. Moody has died. Don’t you
believe it! On that day I will be more
alive than I have ever been!
One day this
summer I woke up to hear that Miss Moxey had died, but I don’t believe it! She may have left THIS world but because
Jesus lives, so does Miss Moxey. Leaving
all that held her back, she is absolutely MORE ALIVE than she has ever been,
looking into the eyes of Jesus, whom she loved and served faithfully even in her
suffering. She is undoubtedly singing,
quoting Scripture and livening up heaven with her praise!
And I can
hear her too, saying: “Sure enough!”
Thank you
Lord for allowing me the privilege of knowing one of Your legends. May I spend my life pointing others to you
the way Miss Moxey did.
And Miss
Moxey, after the face of Jesus, yours will be one of those I’m longing to
see!
Welcome
home!
