A folder for my writing August 2017 & July 2016 |
893 Words I was tagged by Cadie Laine - twinkle lights of Greyjoy and I am tagging Sally of Martell ---------------------------- The six-year-old child trudged near Thomas. He was still soaking from the walk through the water. “My mom,” he pleaded. “Thomas please, can you find my mom?” Thomas took the child’s hand and said, “Let me ask God again; maybe, we’ll get an answer this time.” “God, please, answer us! What can I do to find this child’s mother?” Still, silence from God! Thomas looked around not knowing what to do and how to go ahead with his rescuing. They were now facing a useless future and despairing with the One who would do nothing and not even answer them. It was as if they were trying to walk through the dark midnight of their lives with the wounds of what befell them. An old man bent in two, leaning on his cane raised his other fist toward Heaven. “I have a bone to pick with you, God! Why did you put us in such a dire situation, in this storm of unheard proportions where we as busy mottled shadows weep over what we lost, what we’ll never find.” “Don’t say that to God,” Thomas whispered. “It is a sin to do that!” “Look at me!” the old man said. “I am old and feeble, and I lived my life well, but all my offspring are gone. Don’t I have a right to complain to Him about the storms he sends us?” “Stop telling God how terrible or big our storm is,” Thomas said. “Instead, tell him how much bigger than any storm or disaster He is .” It was only then that God answered. “Thomas, my son! Now you’ve said the right words. I was testing you by not answering you. You took the high road and still defended me against that old man’s rebellious accusations. Tell that old man, his accusations are baseless. I do not send disasters over my people, the very people I have created to do good in the world. It is their mismanagement of the earth, the wars they create, the fights they pick that bring the disaster over all of you. Tell that old man to look back in his life. He says he led a good life. Ask him what he considers a good life?” Thomas looked at the old man whose fist was still in the air. “What do you mean when you said you lived your life well?” “I had a business. Then I had five children. So I made my business bigger, better. I started other businesses. I was doing very well; I was living very well, and so was my family. Look what he did to me. He took it all from me.” “Thomas,” God said, “Ask him if he ever said thank you to me or helped other people who were indigent or if he did anything good for someone else.” And Thomas did as he was told. The old man shrugged. “Taking care of others is His business, not mine. I did my business well, didn’t I?” “Sssh!” said the six-year-old boy to the old man. “That is not nice. I remember my dad worked for you but you paid him very little.” “And the little children will lead the way,” said God to Thomas. “Don’t leave the boy’s hand. You and your followers walk away from the river, now. Do you see that huge mountain out yonder? Go all the way there. There hidden with the bushes is the mouth of a cave. Go inside the cave and walk, Call my name if you come across trouble. At the end of the walk, you’ll see that the mountain opens to another side.” “And then? Shall I see my mother, then?” asked the child. Thomas was surprised that the kid could hear God, because no one else except Thomas had heard Him before. “Yes, my children, now both of you can hear me. You’ll both find your families unharmed at the other side of the mountain, but only after you survive the walk through the cave, but don’t worry because you will. At the end of every darkness, you’ll always see my light. Just keep the faith!” So Thomas told the people to follow him and the little boy. He told them that they had to cross through from inside the mountain. The old man said, “Poppycock! You’re pulling us after you toward worst disaster.” Then he turned to the people. “Those who do not want to follow this crazy Thomas and this precocious kid stay here with me and we’ll build a new town right here by the river, without having to go through that difficult trek.” But most of the people decided to go with Thomas and the little boy. Only a handful stayed with the old man. After Thomas, the six-year-old boy, and the people with them had walked several miles, they heard a distant thunder. When they looked back, they saw that over the place by the river that they had just left hung a huge gray storm cloud, and soon the earth trembled and the river waters boiled, rushing to the shore at exactly where the old man and the people were standing. “Don’t look back! Keep walking! We can’t save them anymore,” said Thomas. |