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 lying 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 hands.

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 became 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.