A family scattered to the winds by career pursuits will now be reunited because of the witness of Ruthie and those who walked with her in love on her cancer journey. She would have loved that.

“Illness often forces us to assume a spiritual struggle that involves our whole being and destiny,” writes the contemporary theologian Jean-Claude Larchet. If not for cancer, my sister would have continued unnoticed as a simple small-town schoolteacher who loved her family and God and going to the creek on the weekends. Cancer, though, thrust her into a titanic struggle, one that illuminated the veiled profundity of her ordinary life and the spiritual grandeur of her little way.

When Ruthie died, she donated her eyes to medicine, so a blind stranger could see. In death she also gave to everyone who knew her and who may yet know her story, a way of seeing that cannot fail to heal and to renew those open to grace. We still don’t know what God’s going to do here, but we do know this: Even from the grave, Ruthie Leming brings life to those able to receive it.

This week that I’ve been on the road promoting Little Way, and meeting people all over the country, has taught me how deeply so many of us are hurting, feeling lost, trying to make sense of the brokenness in our lives. Ruthie is speaking to us. She’s speaking to me, still, and helping me see how to be a better man. I told a friend in Asheville, “Since I’ve been out talking to people about the book, I’m starting to see things in Ruthie’s story that I hadn’t seen before — and I wrote the thing!” He smiled and said, “This surprises you?”

Yes. I am surprised by joy.

Hey north Texas, come hear me talk about Ruthie tonight at the Barnes & Noble by North Park mall in Dallas. 7pm.

Am I coming to your city this week? Yes, if you live in Fairhope, Alabama (suburban Mobile), New Orleans, or Baton Rouge. Details at RodDreher.net.