Sadie, a Light Shining in the Darkness

Have you ever felt like you have been sucked into a vortex of despair?

Sadie DeYoung's seventh child was still a baby when her husband abandoned her. In a small mill town in Massachusetts where there are no secrets, everyone knew that Sadie's husband had left her for her oldest daughter's friend. As if this were not enough to strip her soul bare with humiliation, her husband showed his contempt for Sadie by trying to run her over with his car.

Even though Sadie had always been a woman of faith, her circumstances hurled her headlong into a state of hopeless desolation. She felt abandoned and alone, and for a season she lost her grip on life, on God, and on reality. In the 1940's there were no mental hospitals. Sadie was sent to an insane asylum. However, although Sadie had lost her grip on God, He never lost His grip on her.

When Sadie was released from the asylum, the circumstances she faced were daunting. In her absence her family had been evicted from her home and her children were scattered. There was no part of Sadie's life where she had not been humbled. But the God that Sadie believed in is a God who gives grace to the humble.

As Sadie's sanity returned, so did her faith. Her faith was simple but strong. When Sadie read, "The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and delivers them from all their trouble," Sadie cried out. Her life gave evidence to the truth that "The Lord is near to the brokenhearted; He saves those crushed in spirit" (Psalm 34:18). The evidence was so strong that all seven of her children chose her faith as their own. Each one of them saw the glory of God as He shown brightly in the broken vessel of their mother.

For the rest of her life a shadow would sometimes come across her soul and she would whisper, "Why?" But her question wasn't, "Why did this happen to me?" Her question was, "Why didn't I trust Christ more?" It was in those times that her son, who had become a preacher, would wrap his comforting arms around her and remind her that, though she had stumbled, she had never been hurled headlong because God had held her hand.

Her son learned an important truth from his mother. Sadie's life showed her children the truth that, though the stars are always shining, their light can be seen best in the night.