Joy kept pulling away from me while I tried to keep her from
running under the moving house. I could hear our new born sister, Wendy,
screaming at the top of her lungs but it didn’t seem to fluster Mama. She just
laughed, as always, and enjoyed the ride in our moving house. Daddy was somewhere ahead making sure we didn’t
side swipe a tree or tear down someone’s fence or mail box. The moving house had just a few
more miles before settling on our 25 acre farm. I couldn’t wait! Sometime in
the next mile or two the four of us girls found ourselves in the back of a
truck. I guess someone figured we would eventually get crushed by the huge
tires on the trailer that transported our small, wooden home. I was glad somebody was
watching after us. To be honest, I don’t know how we came through that journey
alive!
Daddy had dreams of living on a farm, raising a few cows but most especially of planting cabbage and several pecan trees. Mama had other plans and none of them included the farm, Daddy or us children. I remember feeling sad lots of times for Mama and Daddy, but being a child on a farm invites adventure and offers an escape for the trapped soul. I danced and flew through the tall grass of the farm land. My feet hardly touched the ground and there were times I imagined my little six year old body being lifted into the sky moving closer to a God I knew was somewhere beyond all the screaming, drunkenness, and abuse below.
The fields were my stage and I was the actress in full glory.
I was anybody and everybody. I was free! Buttercup, our milk cow and my kittens
were my best friends and all I really needed for the moment, until I would hear
that yell from the house, “Sharon, get in here and help me cook supper,” or “Sharon,
go bathe your sisters” or “Sharon, set the box up and iron the clothes for
tomorrow.”
Children need responsibility but children need guidance, love and a strong
spiritual parent to help them make right choices that will affect the rest of
their lives. So much depends upon the training of that small child. Did God see me? Yes! Does God see you? Of
course! Did God care? Oh yes He cared and still cares! Does God care about you?
Yes, dear friend, God cares about you more than you care about yourself!
Mt 18:10-14 Take heed
that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in
heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.
For the Son of man is come to save that which was
lost. How think ye? if a man have an hundred
sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine,
and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he
rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not
astray. Even so it is not the will of your
Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.
Before I understood the Gospel, God was working and so does
He in the lives of other children. They don’t know what is right, spiritually,
but may understand right from wrong in some things. It all depends on those
adults training them. Be careful to understand the little ones and know that
not everyone has the proper training and sometimes, the past will factor into
the decision making processes of their everyday lives.
To sit in the dirt did not bother me and even today the smell of dirt calls me home. Dropping food in our
cafeteria and picking it up quickly, brushing it off and popping it in my mouth
before thinking twice, is a given! I received a good education AFTER I was
taken from Mama, but there are certain words and phrases that will never leave
my mind. To make fun of my southern accent is ok, but remember, some people may
not be as fortunate as you are. Their color, their smell or accent may be an
irritant to you. Be careful and don’t offend. Some things are embedded in the mind and only
because of God’s grace are you and I not worse than the worst! I see them
walking down our halls. I know them without knowing them. When one of the little ones tries to go
astray, I want to be there and pull them back in the fold. How are you doing?
You see, God knows us better than we know ourselves, doesn’t
He? He knows what we need in order to do what HE NEEDS! Make any sense at all? What is your calling?
Do you complain about the ministry He has given to you? What do you hear? Is
that still small voice speaking, yelling to you to get in there and cook
someone a meal, or spend time with a wayward Christian or maybe just to wash
someone’s old dirty clothes and get them ready to do whatever?
This scripture of Matthew 18:10 is such a warning to us all
to be careful of our treatment to young Christians whether they may be a child
or someone older but young in Christ. They just don’t know everything yet,
folks, maybe like you do and God tells us in this scripture there are guardian
angels assigned to them, reporting directly back to God! Oh me…..I don’t want a
bad account do you? Let’s not offend them.
Until next time, Lord willing.
Sharon
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