A Suppressed Hope

As Vice President, George Bush represented the United States at the funeral of former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. Bush was deeply moved by a silent protest carried out by Brezhnev’s widow.

She stood motionless by her husband’s coffin until seconds before it was closed. Then, just as the soldiers touched the lid, she performed an act of great courage and hope, a gesture that must surely rank as one of the most profound acts of civil disobedience ever committed.

She reached down and made the sign of the cross on her husband’s chest.

There in the citadel of secular, atheistic power, the wife of the man who had run it all, hoped that her husband was wrong. She hoped that there was another life, and that other life was best represented by Jesus who died on the cross, and that the same Jesus might yet have mercy on her husband. —Christianity Today

Beloved, the above story testifies to the influence of Christianity throughout our world (1 Thessalonians 1). Let us keep the light of God’s word shining brightly in our lives, influencing others, glorifying our heavenly Father (Psalm 119:105; Matthew 5:14-16; cf. Isaiah 43:7).

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets