During the Revolutionary War, the fight between Patriots and Loyalists raged near the South Carolina home of eighteen-year-old Emily Geiger. Both Emily and her father ardently supported the Patriot cause. One day, Emily overheard her disabled father lamenting that General Nathanael Greene desperately needed a courier to reach General Thomas Sumter for reinforcements. Her father longed to volunteer, but his failing health made the perilous ride impossible.
Without waiting for permission, Emily rode straight to General Greene’s camp. She knew the backroads and river crossings, and she offered to carry the dispatch.
Two days into her journey, British scouts captured Emily and brought her to Lord Rawdon’s encampment. Suspicious of the young girl by herself, Rawdon locked her in a room while he sent for a local woman to conduct a thorough search. Emily knew that if the letter were discovered, she would be hanged as a spy. Acting quickly while left alone, she memorized Greene’s dispatch, tore the paper into small pieces, and swallowed them.
When the search yielded no evidence, Lord Rawdon released her. Emily pressed on and delivered the verbal message to General Sumter.
Like Emily Geiger, we face choices every day. Our daily decisions may not involve dodging enemy patrols, but our obedience still carries lasting weight. Eternity itself can be shaped by how you choose to serve today.
“…Present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness…” -Romans 6:13 (NASB)
