Uncle Fritz and the Ten Dollar Gold Piece (3)

Chapter 2 — continued

Even though Mother Maude did not know that at this moment prayer was made for her, still she soon enjoyed the fruit of that prayer. Everyone knows how pleasant it is when on a dreary, rainy day the sun unexpectedly begins to shine through the clouds. So it was in Mrs. Elooiman’s heart at this time. At times it could, although against her will, look very dismal, especially when her eyes were more centered upon the manifold needs which the winter brought than upon the faithfulness of her God, who was able to provide for all her wants.

Because she had not felt well the past few weeks, she had earned very little by sewing, and she had been altogether unable to go out working. While the earnings had diminished, the needs had not. The coal for her stove was nearly gone; the baker had to be paid for the bread delivered during the week; her Walter needed a piece of new material badly; and she would gladly have given the old man, who had been feeling so weak lately, a piece of meat with his potatoes. All these things oppressed her, though she hid her feelings as much as possible.

But while she was busy putting away her sewing and tidying the rest of the room, this verse suddenly came to her mind:

Lay upon God’s altar
Good and loving deeds,
And in all things trust
Him To supply your needs.
Anxious and despairing,
Many walk in night;
But to those that fear Him
God will send His light.

(Psalter 7:2)

With these words a loving ray of hope shone through the discouragement.

“Alas,” she thought to herself, “I again had such mean thoughts of my faithful, heavenly Father. In times past He has never put me to shame. Neither will He do so now. He has given us His beloved Son, and would He not give us, with Him, all things needed?” With these thoughts she felt herself in such a cheerful frame of mind that she sang aloud of God’s goodness.

She thought to herself, “A person is a strange creature — one moment he is different from another.” And when Father Hooiman heard her singing, he thought, “Always cheerful. Yes, they who have Jacob’s God as their shield and portion may be cheerful. He who gives us the better portion will not withhold that which is less.” And with pleasure he thought about the approaching Christmas and the blessing which the coming of God’s Son had merited for lost sinners.

In the meantime Walter was outside, industriously shoveling snow. He had made a good path from the door to the road, first with the shovel and then with the broom. Next he removed the snow from beneath the windows, and while he was doing this, the ball of wool about which we have been telling appeared.

Oh, if he had known the value of the article he had found! But he did not. When he had brushed the snow from it and saw what it was, he thought to himself, “How did that get here? It must be Mother’s. For the time being I will put it in my pocket.” This he did, and then he diligently continued with his work.

When he was finished, he put the shovel and broom in the barn, left his shoes at the door, and, with a pair of red cheeks and an empty stomach, went inside.

“That is finished, Mother,” he said, “and I also found something which belongs to you.”

“To me?” asked Mrs. Hooiman. “Yes, look,” said Walter, taking the ball of wool from his pocket. “I found it outside, under the window.”

“Why, no, my boy, that doesn’t belong to me,” said Mother as she looked at it. “Probably it belongs to the neighbor lady. The children were playing here yesterday. Give it to me. I will ask her when I see her.”

But it did not belong to this neighbor, and Mrs. Hooiman had no other neighbors. It was impossible for her to guess to whom it belonged, so she decided to finish knitting Grandfather’s stocking with it because it was almost the same color. It came in handy because her wool was gone and she had no money to buy new yarn.

That same night, after Grandfather, who didn’t believe in keeping late hours, had retired, she fulfilled her intentions. Really, she had no time to knit, but she wanted to have this pair of stockings finished so she could surprise the old man with them for Christmas. Her husband had always seen to it that each would receive a little present on this occasion. Alas, it was the first Christmas which he would not celebrate with them, and she was anxious to do it in his place, not so much because of the value of the gift as for the evidence of sincere affection. Even though she was not his own child, the old man must see that she also loved him, and he must feel that he was not a burden to her.

As it happens more often while knitting, the ball of wool rolled from Mother’s lap and fell under the table, where it remained. The ball became smaller and smaller until finally it was gone; this the knitter did not realize until the end of the yarn was in her hand.

“Well, that is too bad!” she said. “I am still a little short, about two rounds.”

“Can’t you give them like that?” asked Walter, who still sat at the table. Now that Father was no more, the boy felt as if he had to be Mother’s protector, and he faithfully kept her company at night.

“Give them like that? No, that wouldn’t do, because Grandfather wouldn’t be able to use them that way. I will pull some out and make the foot a few stitches shorter; he can easily use this stocking without them.”

“Am I going to get something from you, Mother?” asked Walter with a mischievous face.

“Alas, child, that is something you must not expect,” said Mother with a sigh. “How I wish I did have a present for you, but really I can’t think of doing it. You know, at best we scarcely have food.”

“Well, Mother, that is nothing; I only happened to say it. I will get something from the Sunday School because I wasn’t absent once, and I always knew my lesson.”

“You are my boy,” his mother said while she looked tenderly at the lad. After a short silence she continued with these words, “I would like to hear from you soon that you have received the very best gift, my loving Walt. Oh, that would make your mother so happy! You understand what I mean, don’t you?”

“I think so, Mother.”

“I mean the gift which the shepherds received when the angel came to tell them, ‘Unto you is born this day a Savior.’ When these poor shepherds heard that the long promised Savior had come, they felt themselves to be exceedingly rich because they knew they would find in Him all that could make them happy in this life and the life to come.”

“Oh, how I long to have been one of those shepherds,” said Walter. “Surely they had a good Christmas.”

“At one time I also wished for the same thing, Walt. But if we by grace have a true desire for the Lord Jesus, then the same glad message which the angels had for the shepherds is a message for us, and like them, we, too, can celebrate Christmas with a blessing. Surely you believe that, don’t you?”

“Indeed, Mother, but I am such a strange boy. I would like to love the Lord and be the same as you and Grandfather, and still at the same time I think so little of Him. What is the reason for that, Mother?”

“Yes, my dear boy, what shall I say? Before we will seek the Lord in earnest, we must know that we need Him; you can understand that, can’t you? That is so in daily life, too. We do not give much thought to those things which we do not need, but we will ask for those things which we positively know that we must have. Let us take an example. When a person cries for help, who will cry the loudest?”

“I think they who are in the greatest danger, Mother.”

“Exactly, those who feel they are in great danger will cry the loudest. Every person has need of help and deliverance, because everyone is a sinner, but every person does not realize the danger into which sin has brought all of us, and for that reason every person does not ask for deliverance. And those who do not seek for deliverance will never find it. Therefore it is so necessary, my boy, that first we pray to the Lord to cause us to see how sinful our heart is and how sin brings our soul into danger of eternal damnation. Those who rightly see this great danger will desire nothing better than to be delivered from it, and hence their desire goes out for the Savior. We know that the only Deliverer and Savior is the Lord Jesus, and the more desire we have for Him, so much greater the joy will be when we hear the message at Christmas that He has come, not only for others, but also for us. And when we learn to know Him as our Savior, who left His glory and came upon the earth to deliver us from our sins and to make us eternally blessed, then it cannot be otherwise but that we will thank Him for that great love and return our love to Him, and show this in our life by devoting it to His service. Have you understood me, Walt?”

“Indeed, I have, Mother.”

“You must pray the Lord often for His Holy Spirit, for only He can work the true need for the Savior in our hearts. Will you do so, my boy?”

Walter promised, and when a half hour later Mother had finished the stocking and both of them had retired, he did it, too, not only because he had promised to do so, but because he really desired to be a child of God, like his mother and grandfather.

— to be continued —

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