IF ONLY YOU KNEW (To a Wasp)

 

                                                 IF ONLY YOU KNEW

                                                       (To a Wasp)

            O Wasp on my kitchen window, you struggle to get out.  You see the sky, the clouds piled high like fluffy meringue, and press hard against the window, thinking your own wasp-logic best.  I stand nearby, trying to guide you into a jar of flowers so that I may free you.

            Our thoughts are not on the same plane.  If you do not regard me as an enemy, you certainly are not aware that all I want to do is to help you.  Nor do you like the idea of entering a suffocating jar.  If only you knew that after only a few seconds on that jar you would be released out the front door into the fresh air and sunshine again.  But you have no idea that I am thinking about you.  On you struggle, all alone, futilely, thinking your own way best.  I so want to help you.  If only you knew.

            O Reader, you struggle on, trapped in some area of life.  I, the Lord, stand nearby, oh so near, longing to help you take the shortest and best route to freedom.  I know what that is, since I made you.  How I wish you would trust Me, instead of your own futile ways.  I love you, and am constantly thinking about you.  If only you knew.

“ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” (Jer. 29:11, NIV)

 

 

 

               

                        DISCOUNTED BY MAN, A TOOL IN GOD’S HAND

            It was not your usual audience.  To my right, an elderly man sat crumpled in a wheelchair, his eyes closed and his head drooped over one shoulder.  Towards the front, a lady sat wringing her hands, and softly moaning, “Where am I?  Please help me.”  Others sat smiling vacantly, lost in their own thoughts.

            A group of us were visiting a chronic care residence.  I was leading the sing-song.  We had already done “Daisy, Daisy”, “Frere Jacques” and several others.

            A group member whispered to me,” See that lady over there?  Her name is Violet*(not her real name).  She‘s been the soloist in the town choir for years.  You should ask her to do a number.”

            I considered.  It seemed to me that Violet was in the chronic care residence for a reason.  Most people there had severe mental and/or physical disabilities, and quite often Alzheimer’s disease.

            Against my better judgment, I asked her if she would like to sing.

            “I don’t have my teeth!” she stated with a scowl, and slumped back into her chair.

            Well, that was certainly that!

            Thrum-mm!  I strummed the beginning chord of the old song “I Believe”.

I remembered this song from my childhood, and thought it would be familiar to the residents.  I had practised it over and over in my chosen key. 

            Why, then, was I getting stuck on the line, “Ev’ry time I hear a new-born baby cry, or touch a leaf, or see the sky”?  I could not seem to find the ending to the song.  I was trapped, like the man who had to keep riding the subway around and around forever.

            Right then, a clear, if quavery, soprano voice floated through the air:

“Ev’ry time I hear a new-born baby cry

                 Or touch a leaf, or see the sky –

 

Then I know why I believe”.

Oh, yes, now I remember! The tune goes up there, and leads into the ending.

The singer was Violet.  She slumped back into her chair with the familiar scowl. 

She never sang again. 

But oh, what a moment of glory!

 

DISCOUNTED BY MAN, A TOOL IN GOD'S HAND