Anna Mary Robertson Moses is a name I haven’t thought of in years! Maybe you’ve never heard of her by this full name. Today is a National Day Calendar celebration of her, marking her birthday. She is better known as Grandma Moses.
Born in 1860, she started a career that made her famous when she was 78 years old. Prior to this, she has worked like most women of that era. She started working at the age of 12, caring for the children and homes of the wealthy.
While working on the same farm, she met Thomas Salmon Moses and was married to him at the age of 27. Together, they had 10 children, five of which survived. To supplement the income, Anna made potato chips and churned butter.
Her foray into the arts started at an early age. As a child, she used lemon and grape juice to add color to her drawings. She also made prints with chalk and wax crayons. Her embroidery work, though, made her famous throughout the region. Using yarn, she would create pictures for friends and family. This occupied her time until she was in her 70s.
As arthritis began making embroidery work too painful, her sister suggested that she go back to painting. So, at the age of 78, she began painting. Her artwork was so realistic and nostalgic that the paintings soon began selling for $8,000-$10,000. For nearly three decades, Grandma Moses continued to paint, give interviews, write an autobiography, attend her art shows, and receive two honorary doctorates. From the age of 78 until her death at 101, she produced over 1,500 canvases of artwork, most of which depicted rural scenes and landscapes of her childhood and the New England area.
“In her 1961 obituary, The New York Times said: “The simple realism, nostalgic atmosphere and luminous color with which Grandma Moses portrayed simple farm life and rural countryside won her a wide following. She was able to capture the excitement of winter’s first snow, Thanksgiving preparations and the new, young green of oncoming
spring … In person, Grandma Moses charmed wherever she went. A tiny, lively woman with mischievous gray eyes and a quick wit, she could be sharp-tongued with a sycophant and stern with an errant grandchild.”1
It would have been interesting to have met Grandma Moses. If someone would have asked her why she would have started a new career at such an advanced age, I think she would have said, “Age is just a number.” That seems to be true even with several Bible characters.
Genesis 7:1, 6 “And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation… (6) And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.”
Genesis 17:15-17 “And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. (16) And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her. (17) Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?”
Exodus 7:6-7 “And Moses and Aaron did as the LORD commanded them, so did they. (7) And Moses was fourscore years old (80), and Aaron fourscore and three years old (83), when they spake unto Pharaoh.”
Luke 2:36-37 “And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity; (37) And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.”
Many more Bible characters missed the retirement party or the message that said retire as soon as you can so that you can do what you want. Age is just a number, and it is not the same as health. Young people can have health issues just like the aged. And there are some aged individuals who have strength, health, and vitality. And, like Anna the prophetess, you can pray and fast at any age!
Don’t let a number keep you from serving the Lord. Put the words of Zechariah’s prayer into practice. “The oath which he sware to our father Abraham, (74) That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, (75) In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.” (Luke 1:73-75)
1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandma_Moses
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