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I have three stories today. The first one is about Billy, and about the far-reaching power of love. The second might also be about Billy, but really it is about all of us. The third one is for those who feed on the Word and especially those who hunger for it. Happy Aloha Friday, Beloved.
BILLY
Remember to hug your loved ones daily.
It starts in the heart:
Sally jumped up as soon as she saw the surgeon come out of the operating room. She said: “How is my little boy? Is he going to be all right? When can I see him?
The surgeon said, “I’m sorry. We did all we could, but Billy didn’t make it.
“Sally said, “Why do little children get cancer? Doesn’t God care anymore? Where were you, God, when my son needed you?
The surgeon asked, “Would you like some time alone with your son? One of the nurses will be out in a few minutes, before he’s transported to the university.
Sally asked the nurse to stay with her while she said goodbye to her son. She ran her fingers lovingly through his thick red curly hair.
“Would you like a lock of his hair?” the nurse asked. Sally nodded yes.
The nurse cut a lock of the boy’s hair, put it in a plastic bag, and handed it to Sally.
The mother said, “It was Jimmy’s idea to donate his body to the University for Study. He said it might help somebody else.” I said no at first, but Jimmy said, “Mom, I won’t be using it after I die. Maybe it will help some other little boy spend one more day with his Mom.”
She went on, “My Jimmy had a heart of gold. Always thinking of someone else. Always wanting to help others if he could.” Sally walked out of Children’s mercy Hospital for the last time, after spending most of the last six months there. She put the bag with Jimmy’s belongings on the seat beside her in the car. The drive home was difficult.
It was even harder to enter the empty house. She carried Jimmy’s belongings, and the plastic bag with the lock of his hair to her son’s room. She started placing the model cars and other personal things, back in his room exactly where he had always kept them. She lay down across his bed and, hugging his pillow, cried herself to sleep.
It was around midnight when Sally awoke.
Lying beside her on the bed was a folded letter. The letter said:
Dear Mom, I know you’re going to miss me; but don’t think that I will ever forget you, or stop loving you, just ’cause I’m not around to say I LOVE YOU.
I will always love you, Mom, even more with each day. Someday we will see each other again. Until then, if you want to adopt a little boy so you won’t be so lonely, that’s okay with me. He can have my room, and old stuff to play with. But, if you decide to get a girl instead, she probably wouldn’t like the same things us boys do. You’ll have to buy her dolls and stuff girls like, y’know.
“Don’t be sad thinking about me. This really is a neat place. Grandma and Grandpa met me as soon as I got here and showed me around some, but it will take a long time to see everything. The angels are so cool. I love to watch them fly. And, you know what? Jesus doesn’t look like any of his pictures. Yet, when I saw Him, I knew it was Him. Jesus himself took me to see GOD”! And guess what, Mom? I got to sit on God’s knee and talk to Him, like I was somebody important.
That’s when I told Him that I wanted to write you a letter, to tell you goodbye and everything. But I already knew that wasn’t allowed.
“Well, y’know what Mom? God handed me some paper and His own personal pen to write you this letter. I think Gabriel is the name of the angel who is going to drop this letter off to you. God said for me to give you the answer to one of the questions you asked Him–‘Where was He when I needed Him?’ God said He was in the same place with me, as when His son Jesus was on the cross. He was right there, as He always is with all His children. “Oh, by the way, Mom, no one else can see what I’ve written. Only you. “To everyone else this is just a blank piece of paper. Isn’t that cool? I have to give God His pen back now. He needs it to write some more names in the Book of Life.
Tonight I get to sit at the table with Jesus for supper. I’m sure the food will be great. Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. I don’t hurt anymore. The cancer is all gone. I’m glad because I couldn’t stand that pain anymore … and God couldn’t stand to see me hurt so much, either. That’s when He sent The Angel of Mercy to come get me.
The Angel said I was Special Delivery How about that? Signed with Love from: God, Jesus & Me,
Billy.
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His First Seven Years
All he left was sorrow.
He could not face the new music
and was already tired of the
same old song and dance.
The way he smiled and nodded —
even then I thought,
“He must feel so sad!”
But, oh my God, how he could laugh!
About anything, and still
never be irreverent.
Small things held special fascinations
lost to others, but
treasured, even cherished,
for an instant,
an instant that preserved all things.
The way he smiled and nodded —
even then, I thought,
“He must feel so glad!”
But good Lord he could cry!
For hunger, or pain,
or in chorus with his brothers;
never the initiator, nor the lager,
but always lending his voice for free.
And someone was always there
who’d know exactly
the meaning of every
smile, every
nod, every
tearless sob.
All he left was sorrow
planted deep in our hearts.
But when its season comes
it will blossom, nod, and smile.
He would have been
eight years old, tomorrow.
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Why go to Church?
If you’re spiritually alive, you’re going to love this! If you’re spiritually dead, you won’t want to read it. If you’re spiritually curious, there is still hope!
A Church-goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. “I’ve gone for 30 years now,” he wrote, “and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can’t remember a single one of them. So, I think I’m wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all.”
This started a real controversy in the “Letters to the Editor” column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher:
“I’ve been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this… They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!” When you are DOWN to nothing… God is UP to something! Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible, and receives the impossible!
Thank God for our physical AND our spiritual nourishment!
When Satan is knocking at your door, simply say,
“Jesus, could you get that for me?”
In Christian Love
chick
“Work for justice with joyous compassion, dispense mercy with generous kindness, live righteously, and walk humbly before God and man.”
Jaspard to Fortitude Foundling in The Adventures of Fortitude Foundling
The best way to get through life is to live every single moment of it, because each of them is brand new.
