Margaret, who lived in England, lost her father when she was just two years old. Her brother died in battle. Her mother passed away when she was thirty. And she eventually developed her own health concerns. She also wasn’t married, causing her to feel like an orphan of sorts. Not knowing what else to do, she became a household servant.
After converting to Christ late(r) in life, she got married at the age of thirty-one and had three children. After the birth of her third child, her health began to decline. She was diagnosed with tuberculosis and given no hope from her physician. That caused her to pen the following words in the last entry of her diary.
“I bless my God, I can now say, Thy will be done! I can give up my dear husband and children, with every earthly connection, into his hands. He will take care of them. My husband’s trial is great. I feel more for him than for myself. But Heaven will make amends for all! Oh, how I pant and thirst for the happy hour, when my Father will send his Angels to convey my spirit to rest!”
Margaret died at the age of thirty-seven. But she died well, knowing that death no longer had any sting. It no longer had any victory, as 1 Corinthians 15:54-55 says. She breathed her last breath knowing that her death would be swallowed up in the victory of Christ who conquered the grave so that she might live in paradise for all eternity. And she felt the truth of this on such a deep level that she panted and thirsted for such a happy hour.
More than 200 years later, her story is still being talked about—both in her published diary and more recently, on the John Piper website in an article titled Dying Well: One Woman’s Extraordinary Story. She left behind a legacy of hope, relinquishing every earthly treasure with the knowledge that heaven offered her so much more.
When your time comes, will you be as willing to release the things of earth to the Savior, fully confident in his sustaining hand? Will you pant and thirst for the happy hour when the Father will send his angels to convey your spirit to rest? If you’re still holding on to earthly things a little too tightly, spend some time in prayer, offering them up to God, one by one. And as the old hymn says, the things of this world will grow strangely dim.
