The Water
It was one of the hottest days of the dry season. We had not seen rain
in almost a month. The crops were dying. Cows had stopped giving milk.
The creeks and streams were long gone back into the earth. It was a dry
season that would bankrupt several farmers before it was through. Every
day, my husband and his brothers would go about the arduous process of
trying to get water to the fields. Lately this process had involved
taking a truck to the local water rendering plant and filling it up with water. But severe rationing had cut everyone off. If we didn't see some rain soon...we would lose everything. It was on this day that I learned the true lesson of sharing and witnessed the only miracle I have seen with my own eyes.
I was in the kitchen making lunch for my husband and his brothers when I saw my six-year old son, Billy, walking toward the woods. He wasn't
walking with the usual carefree abandon of a youth but with a serious
purpose. I could only see his back. He was obviously walking with a
great effort...trying to be as still as possible. Minutes after he
disappeared into the woods, he came running out again, toward the house.
I went back to making sandwiches; thinking that whatever task he had
been doing was completed. Moments later, however, he was once again
walking in that slow purposeful stride toward the woods. This activity
went on for an hour: walk carefully to the woods, run back to the house.
Finally I couldn't take it any longer and I crept out of the house and
followed him on his journey (being very careful not to be seen...as he
was obviously doing important work and didn't need his Mommy checking up
on him). He was cupping both hands in front of him as he walked; being
very careful not to spill the water he held in them...maybe two or three
tablespoons were held in his tiny hands. I sneaked close as he went into
the woods. Branches and thorns slapped his little face but he did not
try to avoid them. He had a much higher purpose. As I leaned in to spy
on him, I saw the most amazing site. Several large deer loomed in front
of him. Billy walked right up to them. I almost screamed for him to get
away. A huge buck with elaborate antlers was dangerously close. But the
buck did not threaten him...he didn't even move as Billy knelt down. And
I saw a tiny fawn laying on the ground, obviously suffering from
dehydration and heat exhaustion, lift its head with great effort to lap
up the water cupped in my beautiful boy's hand. When the water was gone,
Billy jumped up to run back to the house and I hid behind a tree. I
followed him back to the house; to a spigot that we had shut off the
water to. Billy opened it all the way up and a small trickle began to
creep out. He knelt there, letting the drip drip slowly fill up his
makeshift "cup", as the sun beat down on his little back. And it came
clear to me. The trouble he had gotten into for playing with the hose
the week before. The lecture he had received about the importance of not
wasting water. The reason he didn't ask me to help him. It took almost
twenty minutes for the drops to fill his hands. When he stood up and
began the trek back, I was there in front of him. His little eyes just
filled with tears. "I'm not wasting", was all he said. As he began his
walk, I joined him...with a small pot of water from the kitchen. I let
him tend to the fawn. I stayed away. It was his job. I stood on the edge
of the woods watching the most beautiful heart I have ever known working
so hard to save another life. As the tears that rolled down my face
began to hit the ground, they were suddenly joined by other drops...and
more drops...and more. I looked up at the sky. It was as if God,
himself, was weeping with pride.
Some will probably say that this was all just a huge coincidence. That
miracles don't really exist. That it was bound to rain sometime. And I
can't argue with that...I'm not going to try. All I can say is that the
rain that came that day saved our farm...just like the actions of one
little boy saved another.
This is not one of those crazy chain letters...if you don't forward it
to anyone, nothing bad will happen to you. If you choose to forward it,
you won't receive any riches in the mail.
I don't know if anyone will read this...but I had to send it out. To
honor the memory of my beautiful Billy, who was taken from me much too
soon.... But not before showing me the true face of God, in a little
sunburned body.
Author Unknown
Received the above in email on 6/19/2000; could not resist making a page for it in Inspiration.
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