This is the story of a woman named Mary Kush. When the Great Depression hit the United States, her husband was barely making ends meet.
Even then, she often couldn’t receive that income because of constant illnesses, big and small. Her rent was three months behind, and Mary made a living by sewing for other people’s houses and working as a housekeeper. With five children, she was always stressed and worried about money.
One day, her landlord came to pick up her son and scolded him for stealing something. The boy just cried in humiliation. He was the most honest child of all. At that moment, Mary couldn’t bear it any longer. All the stress that had built up exploded in an instant. She didn’t see any hope for the future. It felt like blood was rushing out of her head.
She took her five-year-old daughter into her room and tightly sealed every crack in the room with paper and cloth. Her daughter asked, “Mom, what are you doing?”
“Yeah, the cold wind is coming in here...” Then she turned on the gas stove. She took the child and laid down on the bed. When the child asked, “I just woke up and now I’m sleeping again,” she said, “It’s okay! Let’s take a nap.”
There was a gas leak. As she slowly fell into a deep sleep while smelling the gas, she suddenly heard music. When she listened closely, she realized that she hadn’t turned off the radio in the kitchen.
“Our Savior, who takes our burden of sins, how good a friend he is. Let’s cast our worries and concerns on our Lord.”
As she listened to the hymn, tears flowed uncontrollably.
She thought, ‘I’m doing such a stupid thing. I’m doing such a terrible thing to my child.’ ‘I tried to fight this whole fight by myself. I didn’t think about leaving it to the Lord and praying.’ She jumped up, turned off the gas, opened the door, and rolled up the window.
And she cried and prayed all afternoon that day. After crying and praying for a long time, I was filled with gratitude that I have a kind husband and five healthy, good children.
There were many difficult times after that, but I remembered that time when I turned on the gas and got up and walked again every day.
After that, Mary raised all five children well. Now, in her old age, she has thirteen grandchildren, and her family has become people who serve the Lord with great joy.
It’s not just Mary.
The wilderness is what we must go through as we live our lives. “Wilderness life” means being in a lonely and harsh environment with no one to rely on and no one to help us.
Strangely enough, during this wilderness life, people around us often act like wild animals. In short, people close to us are like animals, unable to eat and desperate, and unable to catch and eat, they go crazy.
