Sarah Winchester’s husband had acquired a fortune by manufacturing and selling rifles. After he died of influenza in 1918, she moved to San Jose, California.

Becuase of her grief and long-time interest in spiritism, Sarah sought out a medium to contact her dead husband. The medium told her, “As long as you keep building your home, you will never face death.”

Sarah believed the spiritist, so she bought an unfinished 17-room mansion and started to expand it. The project continued until she died at the age of 85. It cost 5 million dollars at a time when workmen earned 50 cents a day. The mansion had 150 rooms, 13 bathrooms, 2,000 doors, 47 fireplaces, and 10,000 windows. And Mrs. Winchester left enough materials so that they could have continued building for another 80 years.

Today that house stands as an oddity tourist attraction, with stairways leading to no place and doors that open into a literal brick wall. It is a silent witness to the dread of death that holds millions of people in bondage (Hebrews 2:15).

You don’t have to be afraid of dying. If Christ has paid for your sins, only blessings lay ahead. That’s life because of the Resurrection. Do you know someone who is paranoid about dying?

Tags: build, death, fear, spiritism, Winchester