Great Grandpa York

Caswell and Margaret York, parents of Henry Clay York

​Meditation
Romans 12:12--Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; be persistent in prayer.

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Five feet and four inches tall, Clyde, a quiet man, recognized that God’s hand was on his life early after surviving a severe bout of pneumonia at the age of five. At a time when there were no antibiotics available, his family doctor cut a hole in his side between his ribs and inserted a rubber tube to drain his lungs of fluid. As a young man, in 1925, he worked as a tail sawyer at the Export Lumber Company in Harrison, Idaho. His job was to catch boards as they were cut from logs and keep them straight on the rollers. One day, a large piece of iron was in a log and broke the bandsaw, which caused the saw’s coil to wrap around Clyde’s body. Miraculously, the only damage he suffered was a nick on his chin.  
            
Eleven years later, Clyde worked as a lead burner at a zinc plant in Kellogg, then known as the Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mining Company. One day, the company’s electrical foreman started a motor to test it without checking whether the area was clear. (That unsafe action cost him his job). Clyde and another worker were swept off their feet by wraps of the extension light cord and squeezed against the heating coils in the circuits around a lead-lined tank. The sawhorse, ladder, toolbox, and tools were broken and thrown about, threatening to pierce their bodies. Again, miraculously, Clyde suffered only a sprained ankle, while his coworker was badly enough injured to miss two weeks of work.
            
Clyde’s parents were God-fearing. Henry Clay York (1863-1950) led his family in worship and prayer every night at 9 p.m.  He prayed that God would take care of his children and keep them from the evil and temptations of the world. Yet, despite Clyde’s upbringing and the fact that God spared him from death or serious harm on multiple occasions, he chose to live as he pleased. For years, he brewed his own beer illegally until he became an alcoholic. There is a Russian proverb that says, “More people are drowned in a glass than in the ocean.” Regrettably, Clyde’s drinking was drowning his judgment.  
            
Over fourteen years later, divorced and in bondage to bad habits, Clyde suffered a severe car crash on Pine Creek just outside of Smelterville. He was thrown out of the car into the mud, and his vehicle rolled over and slowly began crushing him. Some men happened to see what had happened and came down the embankment, carefully rolling the car off of him. Clyde had a broken back and neck but miraculously was not paralyzed. After months in the hospital, alcohol-free and able to reflect on his life, Clyde met Faye, who loved God and fell in love with him. As a result of Henry and Faye’s prayers and patience, he met a pastor who helped him repent, give his life to Jesus, and follow Him as Lord. 
            
Clyde wrote letters to his son, Ron, who was a Marine in combat in the Korean War, about his changed life. He prayed, and my dad gave his heart to Jesus. Henry’s prayers have blessed five generations, and that’s something to think about . . . in reveration.
 
Inspiration
“Life-changing prayer is not a recitation of words (James 5:16), it’s a massive exercise in insistent faith.”—James Rutz in Mega Shift  

©2025 Daniel York  ARR.  Reveration is the weekly devotional ministry of First Cause.  To receive these devotionals, go to www.firstcause.org and click the “Click here to receive weekly devotionals” box.  Unlimited permission to copy this devotional without altering text or profiteering is allowed, subject to the inclusion of this copyright notice.      
 
Ecclesiastes 12:10-The Teacher sought to find delightful sayings and to accurately write words of truth.  (Holman CSB)