Clinging to Christ

I'm continuing to make my way through a book by Stephen J. Nichols, 5 Minutes in Church History. The lastest chapter was on "Mrs. Luther," Martin Luther's wife. Katie. Her life is inspiring. Here is a brief account of how she had to lean on Christ after her husband died in 1546.

Katie was an early riser; Luther called her the "morning star of Wittenberg." She would be up at 4 a.m., and she had plenty of things to keep her busy. She ran the family farm. At one point, she ran a brewery. Martin and Katie had six children, one of whom died in infancy. And there were a few more orphaned relatives whom the Luthers took in and raised. The house was always full of students and travelers.

When Martin died in 1546, Katie's life was difficult. War and the plague had racked Wittenberg. This affected their lands and their home. At one point, Katie had to flee the city, and she came back only to find that their farm was in utter ruin. Without her husband's income as a professor or pastor, she was in dire financial stress. She once wrote to a friend, "I find myself clinging to Christ like a burr to a dress."

Perhaps there we learn a singular insight from the life and legacy of Luther. We see in Katie this emphasis on Christ, this clinging to Christ when all else is lost. We see there the essence of Luther's theology and the essence of the Reformation.

If we all really understood how much we need Christ, we would cling to him like Katie did..."like a burr to a dress."