Lisa Barry: Have you ever met someone who had the unique ability to be insightful and funny at the same time? Such people always catch us off guard, because as soon as we think they will do and say one thing, they go and do the opposite. Addison Leitch, Elisabeth Elliot?s second husband, was one of those people. He was the kind of man who didn?t draw much attention to himself. And as we?ll hear from today?s conversation between Elisabeth and her daughter Valerie, he took whatever situation he was given and lived it out with grace and dignity. Let?s take 15 minutes to find out more about the man Addison Leitch next on Gateway to Joy.

Elisabeth Elliot: "You are loved with an everlasting love." That?s what the Bible says. "And underneath are the everlasting arms." This is your friend Elisabeth Elliot, happy to talk today with my daughter Valerie about her stepfather, Addison H. Leitch, who was my second husband.

Before I let Val tell you some of the things that are on her heart, I just thought that since she mentioned yesterday that Ad Leitch had a terrific sense of humor, maybe you?d like to have some samples.

There was one occasion when he was called late on a Saturday night and asked if he would take the place of a very famous preacher, who was supposed to have preached the following morning and had just called in to say that he was sick and would be unable to come. And so my husband accepted the invitation. He had to fly to Pittsburgh.

Just as he was being introduced, I guess it was?yes, the man who was going to introduce him said, "We?re sorry to tell the audience that Dr. So and so was unable to come because he is ill," and here this was a very large church. There were several thousand people and it was packed to the doors with people very eager to hear this great preacher. And the man went on with his introduction to say, "When we discovered that so and so could not come, then we called Dr. So and so. He was unable to come. Then we called Dr. So and so and he was unable to come. And in our desperation, we have turned to Dr. Leitch."

Well, Dr. Leitch was a man who was never at a loss for words, in my memory. So when he stood up to the pulpit, he said, "I just hope you folks realize what a tremendous favor I?m doing you." Because he said, "Can you imagine who the third guy would have been like if I had said no?"

Then there was another occasion when he was asked to speak on a Sunday evening service. Just before?oh, I think he had preached also in the morning service of that church and he was also to preach in the evening. So just before he went out onto the platform, the young man that was in charge of that meeting whispered to him and said, "Dr. Leitch, I really need to tell you that there aren?t going to be nearly as many people here this evening as there were this morning. But I don?t want you to feel bad, because even when we?ve had good preachers they didn?t turn up for them, either."

Well, Val, maybe you have something more serious to tell us about Ad Leitch.

Valerie Shepard: Well, I do remember that?going along with that sense of humor, but also with his great wisdom. There was one morning I came to breakfast and I had heard the word "predestination" bandied about. I think it was probably in a Bible study that I was in. I knew that he was a Presbyterian and that he believed in predestination. So I said very casually and lightheartedly to him, "Daddy, what does predestination mean?" He looked at me with a long pause before he said anything. He said, "How much time do you have?" knowing that I probably didn?t want to spend a whole lot of time. He knew that I didn?t want to spend a whole lot of time listening to a long theological explanation. But I remember that he said that he believed 100% in the sovereignty of God and 100% in the free will of man.

I remember, though I hadn?t thought of half of what that meant, I remember thinking, "Okay. This is a paradox and this is something that I will have to think about sooner or later." But I accepted his explanation of it and appreciated his very simple and clear way of explaining something.

Elisabeth Elliot: Yes. He used to say to his students who would ask this question, "How do you reconcile the sovereignty of God with man?s freedom to choose, especially man?s freedom to choose to disobey God?" His answer was very simple. You drive in a stake over here on the sovereignty of God. You drive in another stake over here on the freedom of man to choose. You will not be enabled to harmonize those two stakes here in this world. You have to leave the mystery with Christ.

Valerie Shepard: The Bible teaches us that the secret things belong to God. We, as His children, can leave that in His hands and we can be trusting, because we know that we are foolish children and couldn?t handle all of the whole truth or everything about Him.

Elisabeth Elliot: I love the hymn that has a stanza that says, "There?s a wideness in God?s mercy that is wider than the sea. There is a kindness in His justice, which is more than liberty. If our love were but more simple, we would take Him at His Word and our lives would be all sunshine in the sweetness of the Lord. For the love of God is broader than the measure of man?s mind." We need to remember that "the love of God is broader than the measure of man?s mind, and the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully kind."

Valerie Shepard: I have been reading some of the letters of Samuel Rutherford, who was a Presbyterian minister in the 1600?s in Scotland. I have really loved them. There are a few old English and old Scottish words that every once in a while there?s a footnote to explain what they are. But I would love to read a letter that he wrote as a pastor to a woman whose husband had died. The comfort that he gives in the letter is so wonderful. So let me read that.

It?s to Lady Kenmure on the death of Lord Kenmure. "The designs of and duties of affliction," he writes. "My very noble and worthy lady, soft as I call to mind the comforts that I myself, a poor friendless stranger, received from your ladyship here in a strange part of the country, when my Lord took from me the delight of mine eyes." His wife had died only a few years after they had been married.

"As the Word speaketh"?he gives Ezekiel 24:16, when Ezekiel?s wife died as a reference there. Then he says, "Which wound is not yet fully healed and cured"?that of his wife dying.

"I trust your Lord shall remember that and give you comfort now at such a time as this, wherein your dearest Lord hath made you a widow; that ye may be a free woman for Christ, who is now suiting for marriage love of you. And seeing among all crosses spoken of in our Lord?s Word, this giveth you a particular right to make God your husband, which was not so yours while your husband was alive. Read God?s mercy out of this visitation, albeit I must out of some experience say that the mourning for the husband of your youth be by God?s own mouth the heaviest worldly sorrow.

And though this be the weightiest burden that ever lay upon your back, yet ye know when the fields are emptied and your husband now asleep in the Lord, if ye shall wait upon Him who hideth His face for a while, that it lieth upon God?s honor and truth to fill the field and to be a husband to the widow. See and consider then what ye have lost and how little it is.

Therefore, Madam, let me entreat you in the bowels of Christ Jesus and by the comforts of His Spirit and your appearance before Him?let God and men and angels now see what is in you. The Lord hath pierced the vessel. It will be known whether there be in it wine or water. Let your faith and patience be seen, that it may be known your only beloved, first and last, hath been Christ.

And therefore, now expend your whole love upon Him. He alone is a suitable object for your love and all the affections of your soul. God hath dried up one channel of your love by the removal of your husband. Let now that flood run upon Christ. Your Lord and Lover hath graciously taken out your husband?s name and your name out of the summonses that are raised at the instance of the sin-revenging judge of the world against the house of the Kenmures." That?s their name.

"I daresay that God?s hammering of you from your youth is only to make you a fair carved stone in the high upper temple of the New Jerusalem. Your Lord never thought this world?s vain painted glory a gift worthy of you, and therefore would not bestow it on you because He is to hold out a gift or a present with even a better portion for you."

It?s comforting, and yet it?s almost hard, as we would say in this day and age, and as the disciples said to Jesus, "That?s a hard saying." He is saying to her, "Forget about the little love that you had with your husband. Now the love that Christ has for you should be your main focus and concern. Don?t think about what you?ve lost and think of Christ filling up that place."

Elisabeth Elliot: I?ve certainly found that the grace of God is sufficient. We have to constantly turn our eyes on Jesus, rather than on the circumstances, rather than on the things that we?ve lost. Think of all that we?re about to gain. Think of what God has in store for us as we trust Him. And that metaphor of the hammer blows that he uses there?there isn?t any other way to shape us into the image of Christ. It takes hammer blows. It takes the chippings of the chisel and it takes the raspings of the file. Certainly the loss of a husband is a hammer blow for most of us. But it?s all part of being shaped into the image of Christ.

Valerie Shepard: I love the symbolism. Of course, in the Old Testament it was the real happening, but it was a shadow of what was to come?when they had to take the stones out of the quarry to build the temple. There were not any hammer blows when the stone was actually put into place, but it had all been done in the quarry.

I heard a man from Romania talk about the suffering of the Christians and how we, in any suffering, are now in a quarry. God is chiseling away and hammering away to make us into the spiritual stones that will build up the temple. It will be for the temple of God. I remember hearing that and thinking, "That is the way we should look at suffering." God is chiseling away all that?s wrong and sinful and worldly from us, so that we can be made perfect for His kingdom.

Elisabeth Elliot: And out of all the dust and the hammer blows and the ringing of the anvils and all of that, comes the perfect peace when that stone is placed in the temple. Thanks, Val, for being with me again today.

Lisa Barry: Maybe you?ve just had a big chunk of your life chiseled out recently. Don?t you wish you could get a glimpse of what that finished product might be? Well, you can. Look at Jesus?because through Him you?ll see the goal. And if you?d enjoy having this reminder in your own home whenever you need it, then by all means, purchase a copy of this two-week series. Valerie will be Elisabeth?s guest for the rest of this week and next, so you won?t want to miss any of what is yet to come. The title to ask for is A VISIT WITH VALERIE.

The cost is $11.50 and you can send that, along with your request, to Gateway to Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, Nebraska, 68501. Or call toll-free: 1-800-759-4JOY. And if you?re on the Internet, then you have a third choice for ordering. And that?s not all you?ll find when you type in gatewaytojoy.org. You?ll find listening guides, upcoming program topics, even transcripts of programs. That address once more is gatewaytojoy.org. Gateway to Joy is a listener- supported production of Back to the Bible.

Tomorrow Elisabeth and Valerie talk about surviving the loss of a loved one. That?s next time on Gateway to Joy.