I thought I'd like to offer a tribute to Ruth Graham. I've never been a big FAN of the Grahams. I respect their love for the Lord, and their lifelong dedication to living for God and spreading the gospel. But I'm just an old hippie at heart, and a 'renegade' Christian at that, so the Grahams and their revivals, always hit me as 'old time religion.' No disrespect...just a generational and 'style' difference. But   I do have great respect for Mrs. Graham. I'll print a few excerpts of an article I read recently about her.

"Ruth was my life partner, and we were called by God as a team," Billy Graham said in a statement. "No one else could have borne the load that she carried. She was a vital and integral part of our ministry, and my work through the years would have been impossible without her encouragement and support.

"I am so grateful to the Lord that He gave me Ruth, and especially for these last few years we've had in the mountains together. We've rekindled the romance of our youth, and my love for her continued to grow deeper every day. I will miss her terribly, and look forward even more to the day I can join her in Heaven."

Ruth Graham had been bedridden for months with degenerative osteoarthritis of the back and neck and underwent treatment for pneumonia two weeks ago.The osteoarthritis that afflicted Ruth resulted from a serious fall from a tree in 1974 while rigging a slide for grandchildren. [This struck me as SO SWEET. ]The osteoarthris she developed was extremely painful. Her last years were spent curled up in a ball of pain. Billy took care of her...and with his Parkinson's Disease and all...they just strike me as the sweet, old, devoted, loving couple. ] "It became clear this week her death was close, when Billy Graham said his wife was "close to going home to Heaven."

"Her parents exercised a profound effect upon the development of her character and laid the foundations for who she was," said the couple's youngest daughter, also named Ruth.   "What she witnessed in her family home, she practiced for herself — dependence on God in every circumstance, love for his word, concern for others above self, and an indomitable spirit displayed with a smile."

Billy Graham courted her and managed to coax her away from the foreign missions calling and into marriage after both graduated in 1943. In 1945, after a brief stint pastoring a suburban Chicago congregation, he became a roving speaker for the fledgling Youth for Christ organization. From that point onward she had to endure her husband's frequent absences, remarking, "I'd rather have a little of Bill than a lot of any other man."  [aw...another sweet quote.]

The young couple, needing protection from gawkers, moved into Little Piney Cove, a comfortably rustic mountainside home she designed using logs from abandoned cabins. It became Billy's retreat between evangelistic forays

Crime novelist Patricia Cornwell began her writing career with a Ruth Graham biography that depicted many deeds of personal charity. Cornwell said as a youth in Montreat she thought Ruth Graham "was the loveliest, kindest person ever born. I still do."

Then, at the end of her life, Ruth was buried in a simple birch plywood coffin, meticulously crafted by a prisoner,  who was serving a life sentence for 2nd degree murder. He had found God in prison. The cost of the coffin was $215.  The prison has a Bible college and chapel near death row. Many of its 5,108 prisoners are Christian.

In life and in death, she was a godly woman who lived sacrificially, joyfully, frugally, servant-fully. She loved God, her husband, her children and grandchildren, and believed in the gospel of Christ and spreading it . I look forward to meeting Mrs. Graham in heaven, and thanking her for her example.