Sharing the Savior’s Story

Braving a Show of Belief

Years ago, when Vice President George Bush represented the U.S. at the funeral of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, the senior Bush was deeply moved by a silent protest he observed. Brezhnev's widow stood motionless by the coffin of her husband, the former communist dictator. Then, just as the soldiers touched the lid, just before they closed the casket, she performed an act of Christian courage and hope—she reached down and made the sign of the cross over her husband’s chest. There, in the stronghold of secular skepticism, at the heart of heaven-denying humanism, the wife of the man who had run the machinery of a godless government, showed everyone her heartfelt hope that her husband had been wrong. She showed all there to see, that she, for one, believed in a living Lord.

Excerpt from The Lutheran Hour broadcast of: April 20, 2003