fawn

The Water

It was one of the hottest days of the dry season. We had not seen rainin 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 were 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.

This is not one of those crazy chain letters...if you don't forward it
to anyone, nothing bad will happen to you. If you choose to forward it, you
won't receive any riches in the mail. 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 Unknown

Thanks to David for the lake applet