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 sight. 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
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 that 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
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