“Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless. If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry. My anger will be aroused, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives will become widows and your children fatherless.
- Exodus 22:22-24
When you have finished setting aside a tenth of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, you shall give it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied. Then say to the Lord your God: “I have removed from my house the sacred portion and have given it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, according to all you commanded. I have not turned aside from your commands nor have I forgotten any of them.
- Deuteronomy 26:12-13
‘Leave your fatherless children; I will keep them alive. Your widows too can depend on me.’”
- Jeremiah 49:11
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
- James 1:27
Boilerplate
I’m Harold Dykstra. I’m retired, but I go to food bank distributions all over Tracy and talk to people that need someone who will listen to their story. My time is well spent. A police lieutenant suggested that I write down the conversations that I had with an angel. I did not know she was an angel at the time. The angel, for a little over a year, indwelled a life-sized posable action figure my children bought me, so that I would not be perceived as travelling alone. And in a way, she was training me for what I do while talking to the needy. She probed my heart to find out what I believed and how I express love for others. She changed my life. Since she was a doll that had come to life, we came up with the term ‘other living.’ She was not a human, an animal, or even a plant, but she was definitely living, and very vibrant. Oh, excuse me, angels have no gender, but the angel indwelled a doll named Bountiful Babs. After seeing the angel in that form for over a year, I cannot see her in my mind in any other form.
This Week’s Question
In the last episode, Babs saw the Grand Canyon and pictured how the flood had fashioned the rock formations.
Now we had made a few sales calls in Colorado, and I had to make a decision.
“Babs, as a full-fledged travel buddy, we are heading east tomorrow. I do not have a scheduled sales call for over a week and the next one is just north of Tracy. You opted about three months ago to skip going to Tracy. It is my home, but it took you a while to get used to it even being a nice place to visit.” We looked at each other as we were packing our luggage. “Babs, let’s sit down. We can leave in an hour or two. I want to go back to Tracy and check up on the kids.”
Babs frowned, “Is Willie ill?”
I smiled, “No, Willie is fine, but every time I go home, I check on her. In some respects, it is quite hard being a pastor’s wife. But I received an e-mail from Morrie. He said that he got my e-mail and did as I had suggested. But I never sent him an e-mail. Did you pretend to be me? Did you send it?”
Babs shrugged, “No and yes. I did not sign the e-mail, but I sent the e-mail from your account. He might have assumed that you sent it, but you always say ‘Love, Dad’ at the bottom of the message. So, I did not add that, and he should have asked if it had come from you.”
I shrugged in return, “No, maybe it was best that way. He said that he came to the house, and he cleaned out his room. Some of the stuff was Willie’s and he brought that stuff to her house. With all the junk gone, they both went back to the house and cleaned up the upstairs. They think that once I retire, I will need someone to stay at the house, a roommate. Maybe, since they met you six months ago, they think you might stay. But I remember your agitation about staying in one place. You have this sixth sense that you are only here as a travel buddy. Frankly, I do not intend to retire. That keeps you employed as a travel buddy, and I do not need to ever go home and interview people to become my upstairs roommate. If I had sent the e-mail, Morrie would have never cleaned the house. Maybe down deep inside, he thought it was you all along.”
Babs said, “Or maybe he is starting to turn around. Maybe he is seeing that his rebellion is not against you, but against God. Maybe he is coming to his senses and coming home. You always think the worst of him, and you filter it through evil schemes instead of good plans. Give him a chance.”
I nodded, “I have. This is the first thing that he has done that seems to be honorable, at least the first in a long time. I have a hard time trying to find anything bad in it. But somehow, this has Babs written all over it.”
Babs giggled and scrunched her nose. “I just said that his room was a mess and that it would be sweet of him if he cleaned it out, making the upstairs look nice. I said nothing about a roommate, but maybe he read some of the Scriptures that I forwarded to him.”
My heart skipped a beat. “He hates it when I suggest that he reads the Bible. What verses?”
Babs said, “I sent Exodus 22:22-24. It talks about how if someone mistreats the widow or fatherless, God will get angry. Then, I sent Deuteronomy 26:12-13. That talks about the tithe being a tenth in the tithe year and it should be given to a Levite, a foreigner, the fatherless or a widow.”
I nodded, “Those are good verses, but I am a widower. I have a job. If I cannot do this work anymore, I will probably have plenty of Social Security coming in to live comfortably. The widow that God is referring to is one that has nothing.”
Babs nodded, “Yes, I think that is the intent of those verses, but you are a widower, and you have no one. It is not exactly nothing, but there is a large piece missing.”
I reached out and took her hand. “As long as I am traveling, I have you.”
Babs looked out the window. She avoided my gaze. “Harold, I do not know about our arrangement, but I do not think me being your travel buddy is forever. But I don’t know. God knows, but I do not.”
I asked, “Did you send any other verses?”
She turned back to face me. She was, as she says, broken because her eyes were leaking. “I gave him an out. I sent him Jeremiah 49:11, where it says that God looks out for the widows and fatherless. But then, I sent James 1:27 where it says true religion is taking care of widows and orphans and not being polluted by this world. This world is fallen, Harold. You have showed me so many wonderful places, and I have met such wonderful people, but there are other places that are not very nice and there are some really bad people. I will always have your best interests at heart, Harold, but you will need someone else to be that roommate.”
I smiled, “Babs, let’s enjoy the time that we have. Let’s let that sad day happen when it happens, and let us laugh until then. And sending those last two verses to Morrie maybe have been taken as reverse logic. I once told him that if he cleaned his room, his mother and I would be so shocked, we would die from the experience. So, I told him that he should not clean his room. My heart would not be able to take it.”
Babs straightened up and looked concerned, “What happened?”
I shrugged, “That was the last time he ever cleaned his room, until this e-mail, that is if he is telling the truth. In a way, he was saying that he did not mind the work, but I should do as I threatened and die. So, saying that God would take care of me, and true religion would possibly take care of me, if I survived, it would mean there is a God and religion has a purpose on this earth. So, he had to clean his room.”
Babs giggled again, “Or, he is turning around, and he is not as rebellious as he used to be.”
I smiled, “That would be one of my longest running prayers being answered if you are right.”
Babs smiled, “And you never asked the question. I want to go to the big city of Tracy, just to see how the upstairs looks. Did he really do it?!”
Credits
All these conversations remind me of my conversations with my wife. We would talk about anything and everything. And most of the time, it sounded like a discussion in a Sunday school class.
Sadly, my wife did not want to talk about our personal “end times” and she avoided that type of conversation.
But, for these stories, this is the first hint that Babs knows that she will not be around forever, at least in the form of Babs.
Soli Deo Gloria. Only to God be the Glory.
Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley 
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