Ann Judson: Oh, Death...

There are a few things that my curiosity will never be satisfied with, and one is learning about women of the faith. The wives of the reformers, the women who risked it all to take their faith to the world through missions, those who serve the church faithfully in their hometown, the women who quietly walked a steady faith that might not have inspired thousands but worked wonders in her family's life, those both past and present.  In the future I hope to highlight some things on my blog that I've come to learn from these inspiring women of the faith.

First lets take a quick look at Ann (known as Nancy) Judson, first wife of Adoniram Judson. She was the first American woman missionary to go overseas. She sailed with her husband for Calcutta, India in 1812.

This quote, taken from "To the Golden Shore" is a response to the death of her son and offers a fierce theology on death.

"Oh death, thou destroyer of domestic felicity, could not this wide world afford victims sufficient to satisfy thy cravings, without entering the family of a silitary few, whose comfort and happiness depeneded much on the society of of each other? But thou hast come, clothed in thy usual garb, thou wast sent by a kind Father, to release his child from toil and pain. Be still, and know that God has done it." -Ann Judson, page 159

 She basically starts out by saying, Oh, death! Destroyer of happiness. Why us! Out of all the people in the world! And she ends with the hard to say words "Be still, and know that God has done it."   Everytime I read this I cry, because I just hope that I would be able to speak these words with the same meaning.

Be still and know that God has done it, and He is a kind father.
Mmmmmmmm.