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 seven 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
whatevertask 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.