No Rain {Insp}

"No Rain"

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, 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 G~d, 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 my beautiful Billy, who has grown up and gone, in
my opinion, much too soon...But not before showing me the
true face of G~d, in a little sunburned body.
Received on Mon Jul 23 09:45:47 2007