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 to which we had shut off the water. 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.
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
Music "All Things Bright And Beautiful"
for entertainment purposes only
