The Waldenses (1)

Lisa and James laughed. Oh, those two silly lambs! They had to feed them with a bottle because they could not drink from their mother. But they squirmed, and then the milk ran over their noses instead of into their mouths, and they started to sneeze!

“Hello! Those are two very nice little lambs!” a friendly voice greeted them.

The two children looked up in surprise. They had been so busy that they had not noticed the two visitors coming up the walk to their farm. Oh! They could see right away that the men were peddlers! They had those big bags on their backs.

“Are your parents home?” them asked.

Lisa pointed to the house, mom is inside.”

They nodded and walked to the farmhouse. Lisa and James followed with the lambs. They quickly put the animals in the barn and then followed their visitors. It was not very often that people came to their farm. That was always nice, especially when the peddlers came. They always had such nice things to sell!

“I hope that here are people who will like the milk of the Word,” one of the peddlers said to his friend.

James frowned. Milk of the Word? What kind of milk was that? He knew about cow’s milk and goat’s milk, but—

He could not think about it any longer. Lisa ran to the door and called, “Mom! Mom! We have visitors!”

Soon the door opened.

“Good morning, Madam,” the men said, and very politely they took their caps off.

Mother looked. Two peddlers. These peddlers visited the lonely farms in southern France to sell their products. Often they looked like vagabonds, and she did not like them to come into the house. These two men looked different, though; she saw that immediately. They looked poor, but they were very neatly dressed. “Let me see what you have,” she said, a little bit puzzled.

The two men showed her the contents of their backpacks. Again she was surprised. They had quality goods in their bags, not like the other peddlers. Most peddlers did all they could to sell all kinds of rubbish. These men were so different. And they asked so politely if she needed anything.

Lisa and James stood a little distance from their mother. They gazed with big eyes, full of amazement. Such nice shawls in all those beautiful colors! And those feather pens! They wished they could have one of those!

Their mother bought a few little things. Then one of the peddlers said, “Madam, I have something else with me, something which is more valuable than all the other things.”

Mother looked at him. She was surprised. She did not see anything special. “What else do you have?”

The peddler opened a secret drawer at the bottom of his backpack and took out some little booklets.

“What are those? What must I do with those?” Mother asked wonderingly.

“These are little portions from the Word of God. They are written by hand and neatly copied. Shall I read a few lines? Listen! ‘For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’”

Mother listened attentively. She had never heard these words. Were they from the Lord Jesus Himself?

The peddlers nodded. Yes. They knew that the people did not hear these things in the church. Too bad. It was so sad that they also did not hear in the church that they had to forsake sin, that they had to repent, that they needed the only Savior who came upon this earth to save sinners.

Lisa and James listened, too. That was hard to understand. These two men, however, looked so serious and spoke so kindly that they had to listen.

Finally the two peddlers left. They put some of the little booklets on the table. “Please, madam, read them with your husband and your children. There is no other way. Something has to happen in our life. We need a new heart. May the Lord bless His Word.”

Lisa and James walked to the road with them.

James still had a question on his mind. “What kind of milk do you have?”

The men looked surprised.

“You talked about the milk of the Word.”

“Ah! Now we know what you mean. You heard us talking? Well, your little lambs need milk to grow, don’t they? If you don’t give it to them, they will die. The milk of the Word is the Word of God. It is in those little books. When we read those words and they are blessed, then we also grow, but we grow inside. If we never hear those words, then we will die also, our soul will die, forever.”

James frowned. That was hard to understand. But he could not ask more. The men had to leave.

James ran immediately to the fields where he knew his father was working. He had something to tell him!

It was evening. All the chores were finished, and the whole family sat around the table. Mother had lit a little lamp and put some more oil in it. “Now we can read better,” she said.

Father read a part of one of those booklets. Mother had told him everything, and she longed to hear more of those solemn words. Lisa and James were allowed to listen, too. It was nice to hear father’s deep voice reading those beautiful words, but they were hard to understand, James thought.

“I cannot understand it,” Mother sighed. “If this is the Word of God, why don’t we hear it in church? If it is true that we need the Lord Jesus in our hearts, why don’t the priests tell us that?”

She didn’t get an answer. Father did not know either.

“Where do you think those men are from?” Mother asked again.

“I have heard about them,” Father answered. “They call them the Waldenses, after Peter Waldo. He was a rich man in the city of Lyon; he liked to feast and to drink, but something happened to him, and he changed completely, they said. He sold most of his goods, for he was very rich. He did not want to be rich anymore, so he gave much of his money away to the poor, and he started to preach in the way that those two men did here this afternoon. He said that it was not good that the people couldn’t read the Word of God in their own language, so he asked some men to translate some portions. These little booklets are a few of those translations.

“After he had preached for a while, more people wanted to read those booklets, and then they also started to preach in the same way as Peter Waldo did. That’s why they call them by the name of Waldenses. They go everywhere to tell the people about the Word of God. They are very cheerful and friendly people. I heard about them at the market when I was in the village, but I never saw them. Now, finally, they have come also to our place. Well—”

He stopped and was deep in thought.

“Well, let us read a little piece every night and then decide whether what they say is true.”

He looked at the children. “Lisa! James!” He looked surprised. “Are you still listening? It’s your bedtime!”

Then he laughed. “It is good for you to listen. You also have to know what is going on. But now, good night!’

Deze tekst is geautomatiseerd gemaakt en kan nog fouten bevatten. Digibron werkt voortdurend aan correctie. Klik voor het origineel door naar de pdf. Voor opmerkingen, vragen, informatie: contact.

Op Digibron -en alle daarin opgenomen content- is het databankrecht van toepassing. Gebruiksvoorwaarden. Data protection law applies to Digibron and the content of this database. Terms of use.

Printen