"Let the youth make the Word of God the food of mind and soul. . . . Thus through faith they will come to know God by an experimental knowledge. They have proved for themselves the reality of His Word, the truth of His promises. They have tasted, and they know that the Lord is good. . . . It is our privilege to reach higher and still higher for clearer revealings of the character of God. . . . In His light shall we see light, until mind and heart and soul are transformed into the image of His holiness." 25
Grace sat down next to George, “where’s
Billy,” she inquired.? The evenings were pleasantly warm,
although unseasonably cooler then normal, thanks to the effects
of the hurricane. The trees still showed the effects of the drought
and might not recover their normal foliage until the spring rains.
No traditional fall colors, Grace lamented to herself, no beautiful
coat of many colors upon the few remaining trees in the yard.
The lawn was beginning to show green spots here and there, but
the late summer flowers would not make their appearance this year,
either. Grace sighed over the continuing evidences of the ravages
of nature.
“He’s playing preacher,”
George answered sarcastically.
“Don’t be cynical, darling,”
she chided as she cuddled a stuffed Lady Bug in her lap, stroking
its gray fur and playing with its pink hair ribbon. “He’s
changed since you came home. I thank God every day for your deliverance.
I don’t know how I could have lived if you and Billy had
died.”
George shrugged and took another sip of
beer.
“What happened out there,” Grace
inquired? You never told me very much about your experience. What
happened to make Billy so different? He’s not the same boy,
he’s...,” she paused in search of just the right word,
“he’s matured since he left home. He’s no longer
my sweet little innocent boy. He’s still sweet and innocent,”
she hastened to assure her husband, “but, its as if he matured
three or four years and is now a well balanced eight year boy.”
George didn’t answer at first, sucking
on a toothpick meditatively. He could see Billy standing with
one of his friends, speaking animatedly, waving his arms expressively,
his face lighted up with some deep felt excitement. Gone were
those silly gestures and frenzied movements, gone were those childish
mannerisms. George had to admit that Billy had matured. No longer
did he pester his father with silly prattle. His conversation
had taken on a mature tone.
“Dearest,” Grace interrupted,
“tell me what happened out there in the woods?”
George sighed and looked away from his son
and his friend who seemed intent upon what Billy was saying.
“Honey,” he paused for words,
his jaw visibly shaking, “I was scared.”
Grace sat silently waiting for her husband
to respond, hoping he would share a little of himself and his
thoughts with her. So close with his emotions, she thought.
George shifted in his chair, as if struggling
with a great weight of perplexity. “Dearest,” he tentatively
began. “ I have never been so terrified in all my life. I
thought I was going to die and it scared me. Not just the thought
of physical death but the realization that I wasn’t ready
to meet God, to meet my maker.”
He paused, and Grace had the good since
not to interrupt. She sensed that George was on the verge of something
wonderful and she didn’t want to hinder it.
“I knew I was going to die, but I wasn’t
so much concerned for myself as for Billy. I love that boy. I
never thought I would admit it, but I love that silly, foolish,
immature, pestering, talkative boy so much that I would have died
to save him. All the way to Grandma Baxter’s place, he pestered
me to death. Several times I lost my temper and cursed at him.
I was so ashamed of myself when I saw the hurt expression on his
face. I hurt him and I couldn’t help it. I realized then,
as I have never realized before, that I am not the father he deserves.”
Grace saw tears in George’s eyes and
they touched her heart, but she wisely remained silent.
“When the fire spring on us from the
other side of the mountain, I was so scared that I couldn’t
move, hen I heard Billy scream in fright. It was as if someone
grabbed me from behind and shook me awake. I think I was so terrified
that I would have died on the spot if God hadn’t shaken me.
I know it was him. Honey, I actually felt a hand on my back, shaking
me, then Billy screamed again.”
Grace sat motionless, thrilled with the
revelations of her taciturn husband, yet terrified at the thought
of how close they came to dying.
“As we lay at the bottom of that ravine,
with the fire storm raging over our heads, I cried, honey, I cried
like a baby, cried out of fright but more then fright, I cried
because I knew, for the first time in my life, that I was a sinner
and wasn’t ready to die.”
George paused, removing the toothpick from
his mouth while Grace reached over to take his hand, which he
did not refuse. “Praise the Lord, I prayed for you and Billy
almost every moment of that first night and every waking moment
thereafter until Hans and Henry came back with you and Billy.
I was so scared for you, dearest, so terrified that you would
enter eternity unprepared. I prayed with tears that the Lord would
spare your life, would give you another opportunity to know Him.”
George looked at his wife, saw her tears,
her loving face and caring eyes, almost for the first time in
his life. His heart was deeply stirred by the emotion of the moment.
He never really understood the depth of her love for him, her
concern for his eternal welfare, her joy at being his wife. His
heart, so long a stranger to love, began to open, allowing the
rays of Christ’s love and sunshine to enter its darkened
chambers.
Husband and wife shared a quiet moment of
love and understanding together. Holding hands, they sat alone,
savoring the moment, deeply in love, fully conscious of how near
they came to loosing each other.
George spoke first, “Honey,” he
said, with an obvious effort, “I love you.”
Grace glowed with an inner happiness she
had never before experienced. He had spoken of love before, but
this was the first time he actually meant it from the heart. She
could see love in his eyes, love for her, not just sexual interest,
there was none of that now, this was something deeper and truly
beautiful.
She pulled his hand closer, bent over and
kissed it. He did not pull away, as was his usual response when
her love threatened his cold heart. “I missed you, dear,”
he said, this time with less effort. “I knew you were praying
for me, and somehow that comforted me.”
“God is so wonderful,” she quietly
responded, almost reverently, not wanting to break the spell of
love that was blooming between them. “God heard my prayers.
He brought you and Billy back to me, but He gave me more then
I asked, He gave me a loving, kind husband.”
George smiled. “I’ve not been
the husband you deserve, dearest, forgive me!”
Grace was thrilled to her very being. “Of
course you are forgiven, I love you,” she whispered.
The two lovers sat in silence, while the
birds sang a lovely chorus of praise to their Creator for His
wondrous miracle of love.
* * *
“They were as tall as our house and
they shined like flaming trees, but they weren’t on fire,
cause they walked with us and kept us safe.”
“Wow” Gustov commented with rapt
attention. “What happened next?”
“Well, after we got out of the ditch,
we walked all day ‘till we came to an old barn, filled with
hay.”
“How come it didn’t burn down
like everything else?”
“God knew we needed a place to sleep,
Daddy was so tired, the moment we crawled into the hay, he fell
asleep and started snoring.”
“Was that when God talked to you?”
“Gustov,” Billy said with excitement
in his voice, “God talked to me, just like He talked to little
Samuel in the Bible.”
“Wow,” replied Gustov, open mouthed
in astonishment. “I thought those were only stories. I didn’t
think God would actually speak to people, I mean to boys like
me and you. I thought you had to be good before he would talk
to you, and,” he said with a mischievous smile on his face,
“you ain't good.”
“God talks to everyone,” Billy
replied confidently, “especially boys who ain't good, like
me and you.”
“You mean he’ll talk to me, too,
just like he talked to you.”
“Ya,” Billy replied.
Gustov’s eyes shone with excitement.
“Don’t you have to be in church to talk to God, to kneel
down, and fold your hands, and close your eyes, and all that stuff.”
“No,” Billy laughed good naturedly.
“You can talk to him anytime and any place, even while riding
your bicycle, or climbing a tree, or chasing the cat.”
“Wow,” Gustov exclaimed again
as if he had just discovered a fossil in one of the rocks in his
collection. “But what do you say to Him?”
“Anything you wanna say, He’s
not like your dad or mine, He’s a good listener, won’t
tell you to stop pestering Him or anything, just listens to everything
we talk about, without scolding, or stuff.”
“Can I talk to God, now?”
Ya,” Billy affirmed, “He likes
it when boys and girls talk to Him.”
Gustov still couldn’t believe this
revelation. “You mean the God who created the stars, and
sky, and girls, will listen to me?”
“Anytime you want to talk to Him, He’ll
listen,” Billy replied confidently. “I talk to Him all
the time.”
“Even when your taking a bath?”
“Yep.”
“Can I talk to Him right now?”
“Lets both talk to Him.” So they
did. Billy and Gustov talked to God and God listened without chiding
them, and then He talked to Gustov.
Gustov’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“I heard Him, Billy. God talked to me.”
“What did He say.”
“He said, ‘I love you and He said
something else, too.’”
“What else did He say,” Billy
asked with excitement in his voice, for his friend was learning
something special about God and that made him excited.
“He said, I shouldn’t be afraid
of the dark. He said He would walk with me, and even stay in my
room at night after mom turned off the lights.” Gustov really
was afraid of the dark, despite the night light his Mom left turned
on in the room.
Now it was Billy’s turn to say, “wow.”
“Wanna come to Sunday school with me,”
Billy asked? “We do lots of fun things and learn about God’s
Son, His name is Jesus?”
“If mother will let me. That sounds
like fun. Will you go with me?” Gustov was also afraid of
going places alone.
“Sure thing,” Billy replied, delighted
with his first convert
The two boys laughed together, not in silly
joking, but in tones of joy.
* * *
Creeper watched Amelia and Eva from a block
away and sighed in discouragement. Tucking his black Bible in
his black suit pocket, he turned from the park, where he had been
preaching and walked toward his apartment.
“Hay Creeps,” how’s business?
“Hi Blinker,” Creeper said, extending
his hand in greeting to the beggar.
The blind man folded up his stool, emptied
his tin cup into a money bag which he tucked in his trouser pocket,
removed his dark tinted glasses and inserted them into an inner
pocket before replying. “Business is slow today.” Glancing
at the gray leaden sky, Blinker continued. “Folks aren’t
as generous on cloudy days as they are on sunny ones. You headed
home?”
Wiping his “blind” look from his
face, vacant eyes, non-directional stair, rigid, upright stance,
Blinker smiled cordially to the street preacher. Ordinary in every
respect, he was tall, with broad shoulders, well tanned complexion
from his out door job, long, well formed hands and short black
hair. He looked and spoke, when not working, like a successful
business executive.
“Ya,” the street preacher said.
“Mind if I walk with you,” Blinker
asked, hitching up his pants.
Creeper nodded.
“You seem down today. Something bothering
you?”
“I’m just getting old and tired,”
the preacher responded disconsolately.
Blinker eyed him carefully. “You ain’t
a very good liar. Preaching getting to ya?”
Creeper sighed. “I don’t know,”
he said, evasively.
Blinker looked away, then returned his gaze
to his friend. “Crowds ain’t as large as last summer,
are they.”
Creeper shrugged.
“I’ve noticed a drop in business
lately, too. People seem more tight with their money.”
Creeper lifted his head from a contemplation
of his shoes. “I haven’t had a conversion in three weeks.
Blinker,” he paused for a long moment, “I’m getting
tired of people jeering and laughing at me.”
“Think Christ got tired?”
“It was different with him.”
“How so,” Blinker inquired?
“He was God.”
“Don’t you think God gets tired
of all this here sin stuff.”
Creeper shrugged his shoulders. “I’m
thinking of giving up this preacher business and doing something
else.”
“What you thinking of doing,”
his friend asked?
Creeper shrugged again.
“Wanna sell drugs?”
“NO!” Creeper responded emphatically.
“How about pimping. Stanley makes a
good living that way.”
Creeper shook his head. “That’s
sin.”
They arrived at Blinker’s apartment.
“Let me fix you something to eat. If your as lonely as I,
you can stand some company.”
Blinker acquiesced and followed his friend
up the stairs to his fourth floor apartment.
While Blinker found several cans of beans
and franks to warm on the hot plate, Creeper sat on the davenport,
his head hanging as low as his shoe laces.
“Care for some grille magazines,”
Blinker offered.
Creeper shook his head.
“Your dread, man, if you don’t
want to see any nudes.”
“Blinker,” Creeper said with some
ire in his voice, “you know that’s sin. If you want
that stuff, that’s fine, but don’t push it on me.”
“Don’t you ever have any fun?”
Blinker looked up at Creeper who was offering
him a bowl of beans and franks.
“I used to have fun.”
Blinker carelessly tossed a leg over the
arm of a chair as he shoveled beans into his mouth.
“What did ya do for fun. Lay women!”
Creeper grunted. “Sure, I was the best
lay in Louisiana. Laid them twice a day and three times on Sunday.”
Blinker laughed. “Well,” he asked,
“what do you consider fun.”
Creeper set his untouched bowl on a dirty
end table and leaned back on the davenport in deep thought. “I
used to like preaching. That was my kind of fun. I loved talking
to people on the streets about God. Used to be good at it. Meeting
people and talking to them about salvation, studying the Bible
with them. That was my kind of fun and it wasn’t sinful.”
Blinker grimaced but didn’t take offense.
“Each to his own,” he said. “Me, I like a good
woman. You can do things with them, ya know what I mean, if you
find the right one, that is.”
Creeper looked at his friend and opened
his mouth to speak but Blinker cut him off.
“Ya, ya, its sin, but I like it.”
Creeper gazed at Blinker for a long moment,
then lowered his head again in dejection.
“What’s the matter with you,”
Blinker inquired with exasperation?
“I sinned,” Creeper responded
simply.
Blinker stared at him, “what did you
do?”
Creeper looked embarrassed.
“Come on, my friend. I’m not going
to laugh at you or call you a sinner.”
Creeper shifted uneasily then glanced at
Blinker with a sheepish expression on his face.
“I saw Eva last night.”
“That’s nice,” Blinker said,
slow to catch his meaning.
“You don’t understand. I saw Eva.”
“Socially or professionally.”
“Professionally.”
Blinker nodded his head. “She ain’t
too bad. Her legs aren’t good looking, but she’ll do
anything you want.”
Creeper grimaced. “I was so depressed
and lonely, people been laughing at me all day long. They threw
stones at me and stuff.”
“So you fell into temptation. Who hasn’t?”
“But I’m a preacher. I’m
supposed to resist temptation.”
“So you lost it. Is that any big thing.”
Creeper sighed. “Ya, its a big thing.”
“So what did you and she do, just lay
together?”
“Blinker, I’m ashamed of myself.
I was so angry at them disrespectful people in the park today
that I took it out on Eva.”
“And,” Blinker coaxed, curious
about his friend’s fall into temptation and sin.
Creeper blushed.
Must be pretty good, Blinker thought, seeing
the preacher’s discomfort.
“Did you go through Stanley?”
“Na, I just showed up at the door.”
“I bet she was startled,” Blinker
ventured.
“Ya,” Creeper said.
This was like pulling teeth from a stone,
Blinker thought.
“So, what happened.”
“She thought I had come to preach to
her. Right angry, until I produced $40 bucks. She brightened right
up and opened the door wide for me to come in.”
“Come on, Creeper,” Blinker said
in exasperation. “I don’t have all night.”
“She noticed I was angry, offered to
let me whip her.”
“Did you do it?”
“Tied her up first, of course. Then
I let her hath it. You know what they say about betting the you
know what out of a person.”
Blinker remained silent for a long moment.
“When I was finished, I untied her
and apologized. She just shrugged. Said something about it being
her job.”
“So, now your embarrassed, filled with
shame, depressed cause you got angry, and feel like a failure.
Did you lay her?”
Creeper looked acutely embarrassed. “Would
you believe it, I forgot.”
Blinker chuckled. “With you, I’d
believe it. How long has it been since you’ve had a woman?”
“Too long.”
“Why don’t you get married. Its
not a sin to get married.”
“I never thought of that. Sometimes,
I’ve wanted a woman so bad, I could hardly keep it in my
pants.”
“My friend, find a good woman, marry
her, and get back to what you enjoy going, preaching.” Pausing
in consideration, he offered, “how about Blanch, the fat
lady who wears that silly red bandanna, seems like she’s
your type.”
Creeper brightened for a moment, then his
face took on a sad, depressed look. “I disgraced myself before
God,” he said.
“You don’t think God will forgive
you?”
Creeper looked stunned. “I never thought
to ask Him.”
“Don’t you have to apologize or
something like that?”
“Its called confession.”
“So, did you confess your sin?”
Creeper looked sheepish.
“So, confess your sin, find a good
woman to marry and lay her every night, if that’s what you
want, then get back to preaching. Your good at it.”
“But I never converted you.”
Blinker laughed. “How do you know?”
“Your still begging. That’s a
lie...”
“And that’s a sin,” Blinker
finished the sentence.
“Take your own advice,” Creeper
said. “I need an assistant. Come and help me.”
Blinker gazed at him for a long moment.
“And give up my begging?”
“Certainly. Preaching and helping others
is honest work.”
Blinker laughed again. “I don’t
know preacher. I like what I’m doing, but I’ll think
it over.”
