A Cherokee Woman's Prophecy

My Great Grandmother was a Cherokee Indian. Her name was Almeda Gabbard. I never met her but my father told me many stories about her life. She was very devoted to God. She prayed on a hillside between two large pine trees everyday.

When my father was 12 years old, she asked him to mark the spot where she prayed. Dad told her that he would find a special stone for her. He walked up a creek bed and looked for hours but couldn't find a stone that he was satisfied with.

Suddenly a storm came up and dad went running up the creek bed in a cold hard rain. He remembered that his grandmother told him, "When life is a storm, Jesus will shelter you." He found a small cave and climbed in it to get out of the storm. There in the cave, he found the perfect stone. It was oval and very smooth.

When the storm let up, dad climbed up the hillside to a railroad track. He found a rail spike on the ground, sat and carved a cross on the rock. It took him quite a while. He showed the stone to his grandmother and with a tear in her eye, she told him that it was perfect.

Dad laid the stone between her deep knee prints on the hill.

My great grandmother, not long before she died, told my father about the future.

She told him that he would be a soldier in a great war. (He was in WW II in Patton's 3rd. Army)

She told him that his first born son would be in wars... very strange wars. (My oldest brother...dad's firstborn son was in Vietnam and Desert Storm)

She prayed for five generations of children and grandchildren. She didn't pray for the sixth generation because they would all be here with Jesus and have peace. My grandchildren are the fifth generation.

She adored my father and told him that his life would be hard but many people would love him. My dad never met a stranger. His life was hard but he would be the first to tell you that it was worth it. He loved life and loved people.

Every time he told me stories of my Great Grandmother, a tear was sure to fall from his eyes. To this day, my family walks in the blessings of her prayers. A woman of amazing faith.

A Cherokee woman...I wish I could have met her. Sometimes when I see a Turtle Dove fly from a pine tree....I feel her smile.