“I am so grateful to the Lord that He gave me Ruth, and especially for these last few years we’ve had in the mountains together,” Billy Graham said in a statement released at her death. “We’ve rekindled the romance of our youth, and my love for her continued to grow deeper every day. I will miss her terribly, and look forward even more to the day I can join her in Heaven.”

As a continuing testament to their love, Ruth is never far from Billy’s mind.

An e-mail interview asked what life is like without Ruth, and Billy Graham responded: “Not a day, or even an hour, goes by that I don’t think about her and miss her. I rejoice that all the suffering she endured those last years is over, and that she’s safely in Heaven now with the Lord she loved and served almost her whole life. But I miss her very much, and I look forward to the time when we will be reunited.”

At Graham’s 90th birthday party his oldest daughter, Gigi Graham, commented: “Even today, he had her picture right in front of him and said, ‘So often, I think she’s going to walk out of that picture. I miss her so much,.’ I said, ‘I know, Daddy.’”

Even Atlanta pastor Jeff Henderson noted Graham’s longing for his wife when he blogged about his recent visit to the evangelist: “At one point, Dr. Graham pointed to a picture of his late wife, Ruth, and said, ‘I miss her greatly.’”

Even separated by death, Billy and Ruth Graham continue to model a deep love and a lasting marriage. Less than a year before Ruth’s death, Billy commented on their still-growing love:

“At night we have time together; we pray together and read the Bible together every night. It’s a wonderful period of life for both of us. We’ve never had a love like we have now—we feel each other’s hearts.” (Newsweek, Aug. 14, 2006)

Billy Graham weighed in with the booklet The Bible and Dr. Kinsey, opening with this quick and clear condemnation:

Nearly every magazine and newspaper has carried a review of Dr. Alfred Kinsey’s newest book. He has used over eight hundred pages to give the most intimate details of the private lives of 5,940 women. No details are spared. It is impossible to estimate the damage this book will do to the already deteriorating morals of America.

The moral laws governing marraige have been scorned and immorality advocated. Young people are encouraged to have pre-marital experiences.

Happily married husbands and wives are going to start suspecting each other when they read that one out of every four wives is unfaithful to her husband. Doctor Kinsey’s report shows itself to be completely lopsided and unscientific when it says that seven out of ten women who had pre-marital affairs had no regrets. He certainly could not have interviewed any of the millions of born-again Christian women in this country who put the highest price on virtue, decency and modesty.

(Booklet courtesy of Knightopia)

But instead of rounding the bases, Graham made like Joseph and ran away.

“It never really seemed right to me to have sex with anybody but the woman I would marry,” he explained, though he also admitted, “My hormones were as active as any other healthy young male’s, and I had fantasized often enough about such a moment.”