Water Shortage

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 seven 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 
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 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 that actions of one little boy saved another.

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.

author is unknown to me