Life With Wings, Ruth's 2010

A few copies of Life With Wings, publised in 2010 is available for purchase!

"Life with Wings includes some of Ruth's best poems and homilies, along with recipes collected by Ruth during 35 years as a pastor's wife in the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church."

The book is available at Barnes and Noble, on Amazon and from Lulu Marketplace for $10.95 per copy.

A limited number of books are also available for $10.00, postage free special from Ruth Baird Shaw at her home address in Rome, Georgia.

Click the photo above to link directly to the Life With Wings page on Lulu.com.
Paperback, 134 pages
Price: $10.95
Ships in 3–5 business days
FREE Shipping on orders over $19.95 on Lulu.com (some restrictions apply)

The Widow's Might

Reading Miriam Neff’s article, “The Widow’s Might” (Christianity Today, January 2008) brought tears to my eyes. Neff’s husband, whom she married while still a teen, died after 41 years. You can read more about Miriam Neff at her website, Widow Connection.

Miriam Neff tells us that widows are of the fastest growing demographic in the United States. “We are targeted by new home builders and surveyed by designers. We are a lucrative niche for health and beauty products, and financial planners invite us to dinners. It is no wonder the marketers are after us: 800,000 join our ranks every day.”

“Loneliness and solitude are not descriptive enough of the space that becomes the cocoon of the widow.”

Many of us identify with Neff. Recently, when a retired minister died, the email I received gave the address of the daughter and the granddaughter so that condolences could be written but apparently did not even think to give the address of his elderly wife. The wife, now a widow is the one left alone. The rest of the family, of course are grieving. But the widow’s is grieving while also seeing her life changed dramatically.

Studies show that widows lose 75 percent of their friendship network when they lose a spouse.

But, as Miriam Neff points out, we are not invisible to God. There are 103 Scripture passages referencing widows. Widows are close to the heart of God and in James 1:27, we read that God judges others by the way they treat widows.

Mary and Martha

In 1979, Charles and I visited the Holy Land. On Sunday morning we drove out to the Eastern slope of the Mount of Olives for a worship service.

We had a breathtaking view of Jerusalem across the Kidron Valley.

Alvis Waite from the South Georgia Conference United Methodist Church read the scripture and Charles preached.

Afterward we made a pilgrimage to see Lazarus’s tomb and the site of the home of Martha, Mary and Lazarus.

Who could visit Bethany and not write something about Mary and Martha?

Mary and Martha.

When I was a child
I loved the story best
Of Mary and Martha.
When Jesus was their guest
Martha prepared
The bread and the meat,
While Mary kept sitting
At Jesus feet.

Somehow in the reading,
The thought was inferred
That women, like children
Should be seen and not heard!

And I thought like a Martha,
Stayed in my place,
Tended my household,
Took care of my face.

One day reading further
With a strangely warm heart,
I heard Jesus say
Mary has chosen that good part.

How I long to be Mary
Disciple devout,
While I’m more often Martha
Cumbered about.

Much hurry and serving
I stay on the . . . run,
For a Martha’s work
Is never all done.

One day reading closer
In lovely retreat,
I learned even Martha
Can sit at His feet!

~1979