Billy's Legacy
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 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 the
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.
