Heroines of Faith - Part 5

DAILY BYTE

This week we have looked at the lives of different women who each in their own way have been heroines of faith. One of the things that St. Therese, Dorothy Day, Penny Lernoux and Anne Frank had in common was their writing. Indeed, it was through their writings that we have been drawn into their world of faith. As we bring this week’s devotions to a close, we do so with the story of a woman who was unable to read or write. Yet in spite of her illiteracy, her life story was written with great courage and faithfulness.

HARRIET TUBMAN (c.1820 – 1913)

Harriet Tubman was an African-American woman born into slavery on a plantation in Maryland around 1820. Growing up she experienced the typical cruelties and indignities of slavery, but a fervent faith in God convinced her of her worth and of God’s intention that she should be free.

Robert Ellsberg writes, “It is one of the miracles of Christian history that African slaves, having received a false gospel from their “Christian” slavemasters, nevertheless heard in the biblical story a message of life and liberation. The slavemasters’ teaching stressed the virtue of obedience and counseled slaves to be content with their lot. But the slaves heard a different message. The God of the Bible was the God who led Moses and the Hebrew slaves out of bondage in Egypt, who inspired the prophets, and who was incarnate in Jesus Christ. This was not the god of the slavemasters, but the God of the oppressed.”

Harriet Tubman enjoyed a special relationship with God. In 1849 she had a vision that she interpreted as a signal from God for her to begin her escape. Although small in stature, she was a remarkably strong and resourceful woman. Using all her skills she made a daring escape into the free state of Pennsylvania. But at once she was seized by a sense of wider mission. She said, “I had crossed the line. I was FREE; but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land; and my home, after all, was in Maryland…. But I was free and THEY should be free. I would make a home in the North and bring them there, God helping me.”

And so, having made her perilous way to freedom, Harriet Tubman chose to return to the South to assist in the escape of others living in slavery. Over the next twelve years she returned a total of 19 times to “Pharaoh’s Land”, in the process rescuing at least 300 slaves and earning the nickname “Moses”.

Among slave owners she became one of the most hated figures in the South. A fantastic price was put on her head and wanted posters of her were widely circulated. More than once her cunning and her unassuming appearance saved her from being caught. The “Moses” of the wanted posters was imagined to be a person of impressive features and stature – probably even a man – and certainly not a scrawny, gap-toothed woman.

After the Civil War and the emancipation of all slaves, she continued to provide shelter and care to poor blacks, well into her old age. She lived into her nineties and died peacefully on 10 March 1913.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Thank you Lord for the stories of others that can inspire us to live more selfless and faithful lives. And thank you that you are a God who chooses to use ordinary people like us, in the messy circumstances of our everyday lives, to fulfil your loving purposes for all the world. Amen.

FOCUS READING

2 Corinthians 3:3 (The Message)

Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. Christ himself wrote it—not with ink, but with God's living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives—and we publish it.

Two quotes from Mother Theresa:
“I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world.”

“In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.”


This week’s devotions were written by Rev Roger Scholtz of the Manning Road Methodist Church in Durban. Comments and feedback can be e-mailed to bdc@mrmc.co.za