February 7  Meet Ellen White

Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth. Eccl. 12:1.

While I was praying at the family altar, the Holy Ghost fell upon me, and I seemed to be rising higher and higher, far above the dark world. I turned to look for the Advent people in the world, but could not find them, when a voice said to me, 'Look again, and look a little higher.' At this I raised my eyes, and saw a straight and narrow path, cast up high above the world. On this path the Advent people were traveling to the city, which was at the farther end of the path"(EW 14). Those words record part of 17-year-old Ellen G. Harmon's first heavenly vision in December 1844.

Ellen and her twin sister were born the youngest of a family of eight children in Gorham, Maine, on November 26, 1827. Her father, a maker and seller of hats, eventurally moved the family to Portland, Maine.

It was in Portland that 9-year-old Ellen expereinced an accident that deeply affected her. Hit in the face by a rock thrown by a classmate, she hovered near death for several weeks. Eventually she recovered, but the experience left her in such poor health that she was unable to continue her formal schooling, even though she tried with all her heart. Poor health would continue to plague her for much of her life.

Her inability to attend school, however, did not stop her informal education. Her autobiographical sketches reflect a young woman with both a probing mind and a sensitive nature. And the size of her personal library at the time of her death indicates that she was well-read in a variety of subjects.

Her sensitvely appears not only in her relationship to other people, but also toward God. In fact, even a casual reading of her autobiography leads to the conclusion that she was desperately in earnest about religion from her earliest recollections.

The though that Jesus might return in a matter of years especailly traumatized young Ellen. She first came across that teaching at age 8 when on the way to school she picked up a scrap of paper in dicating that Jesus could arrive in a few years. "I was seized with terror," she wrote. "Such a deep impression was made upon my mind. . .that I could scarcely sleep for several nights, and prayed continually to be ready when Jesus came"(LS, 20, 21).

Her early expereince helps us to see the truth that some things that we fear can eventually become the hope of our lives, especially as we come to understand God's character better.