Sammy

Padre Bob

For Sammy Latty on the Day of her baptism, June 15, 2003

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 1 Corinthians 5:17 (KJV)

~Padre

Sammy Finds a Place in God’s Kingdom

Bob Blackman

High in the mountains of northern California, flows a body of water that is as pure as the essence of God. It’s called by the name of Trinity River and it’s said that its source is a fountain from heaven. On the northern extreme there’s a passage no more than one hundred feet wide where the color of the water is green. It’s as green as oriental jade and as clear as a polished emerald. The banks on the west and the shore on the east of this part of the river are as different as different can be.

On the bank to the west nothing survives except brambles and thorns and a few alder trees. The colors of the West Bank are the grays and the browns of despair. All the trees and the bushes on the West Bank are infested with termites, beetles, gnats and flies. There are no flowers and no birds. There aren’t even any frogs. It’s a place without beauty and without hope.

The shore on the east is carpeted with clover and above the clover there rises the majesty of a single stately Western Yellow pine tree. Just beyond the clover with its clusters of purple and white grow the bright orange crowns of the golden California Poppy. There’s a mystical beauty in the movement of the foliage swaying silently in the quiet breeze, but the peak of its splendor is the collection of gaily colored butterflies floating from flower to flower whispering happily, “God made you, God loves you, God cares about you.”

The bright sun beamed its radiance of warmth into the clearness of Trinity River. The river was the home of Sammy, a dreamy eyed tadpole. Sammy spent her days swimming back and forth across the narrow expanse that separates the beautiful Eastern Shore from the desolate West Bank. She had heard the pains and despair that seemed to emit from the bramble bushes that lined the Western Bank, and the hopelessness that poured from the rotting alders infested by those cancerous termites. The sight of the West Bank filled Sammy with a sense of depression that was more than she thought she could bear. She longed to be a part of the joy that filled the skies above the Eastern Shore. There was always a song in the air of the Eastern Shore.

It was a quiet afternoon and as Sammy considered the vast differences between these two worlds, she drifted closer arid closer to the Eastern Shore. In the stillness of her thoughts Sammy heard a voice speaking to her from just above the shore.

“Hello Sammy, I have a wonderful message for you, from God.”

Sammy looked up and saw the most beautiful butterfly that ever existed, hovering above the shore. “You have a message for me? A message from God?”

“Yes Sammy, God has sent me to invite you to come and live among us on this beautiful shore.”

“But how can that be? Everything on the Eastern Shore is bright and beautiful but I am gray and plain, even ugly, I must admit. I am not worthy to live on this beautiful shore. I’ve dreamed of that such a thing for many days now, but I’ve always known it could never be.”

“Let me tell you”, whispered the butterfly, “a truth that I’ve learned about God. Long ago, I used to live on the West Bank of this body of water. Like you, I too was ugly. My color was dirty and brown, for I crawled in the dirt like a worm.

“It was a blustery afternoon and I crawled high on the branch of an alder that hung far out over the water. I was searching for a corner where I might find protection from the wind. As the wind billowed through the alder, the branch I was clinging to snapped off and plummeted into the river. I grasped that branch as though my very life depended upon it, and it did, for I knew that if I fell into the water I would surely drown.”

“That’s terrible!” gasped Sammy. “But you obviously didn’t drown.”

“No, I didn’t drown. The fierce wind blew the broken branch across the river and up onto the Eastern Shore, not far from where we are right now.”

“You must have been very grateful to have escaped that horrible Western Bank and to have landed on this Eastern Shore. I’m sure it was very frightening, but you must have been grateful when you saw how beautiful this shore is.”

“I’m sorry to say that at the time, I did not appreciate the great thing that God had allowed to happen to me. Rather than thanking God for the beauty that surrounded me, I began to devour His beautiful creation. I crawled towards the nearest golden poppy and stripped every leaf from its stem. Then I went on to another one and then to another after that. I had no concern for God’s creation, if I’d been allowed to continue, I’d have destroyed every flower in the field. I’d have left the Eastern Shore every bit as dismal and bleak as the Western Bank.”

“So what happened?” quizzed Sammy. “What made you stop?”

“It was God! He reached down and surrounded me with a soft cocoon. At first I thought I was being put in a prison. I was sure that God was punishing me because I had destroyed a part of His creation. I know now that it was only God’s love that enveloped me. As I rested alone in that cocoon I began to understand more and more about the love of God and the beauty He created. While I lay in the confines of that cocoon, I prayed and asked God to forgive me for carelessly destroying His flowers. I promised that if ever I was free, I’d spend the rest of my life telling those flowers how greatly God loved them. Well, God heard my prayer and one warm sunny morning my prison was opened and I was given the chance to be free.

“After such a long confinement I had almost forgotten how it felt to move about, but as I arched my back and stretched, I felt a freedom I’d never imagined possible. Then I looked at my body. Something had happened. I’d changed, my dirty brown color was now rich and bold, and splashed here and there with great pools of bright color. Then I realized for the first time that God had given me wings. I was changed! I was a new creature. My old ugly body was gone, everything about me was new and beautiful. So you see, I was much more unworthy than you, but God changed me and made me a part of His wonderful kingdom.”

“Can God do that for me too?” asked Sammy excitedly. “Can He change me, like He changed you?”

“He can if you want Him to. He will if you ask Him.”

“Oh, I do, and I will!” exclaimed Sammy. Then she bowed her head and she prayed. “Dear great God, I do want to live in your kingdom on the Eastern Shore and I do want You to change me, like You changed the butterfly. Change me, and I’ll serve You for the rest of my life. Amen.”

She opened her eyes. The butterfly was gone and Sammy was still a tadpole, but she felt like something very strange and very wonderful was happening to her body. Over the next few days, those strange and wonderful changes began to be more and more visible. Sammy was growing legs, her tail was shrinking, and her drab gray color was turning a rich green. After about a week, Sammy the tadpole, had completely changed. She knew she was ready to leave the water behind and enter into God’s kingdom on the Eastern Shore.

She swam right up next to the shore. She stretched out her legs and planted them firmly on the sand beneath the water. She stretched out her neck and holding her head high above the water, she took a deep breath. Then she leaped straight out of the water and onto the sweet smelling clover that covered the Eastern Shore. She turned and looked at her reflection in the clear water. As she stared into the water, Sammy’s glee turned rapidly to dismay. She

wasn’t a butterfly at all! Sammy the tadpole had become Sammy the tree frog.

Sammy was grateful that now she could live in the kingdom of the Eastern Shore. She was sure that her life as a tree frog would be a hundred times better than her life as a tadpole had been, but still, it wasn’t what she had expected. She had wanted to hover over the golden poppies and tell them of the greatness of God’s love. She wanted to fly, but all she could do was hop. She wanted to be a butterfly! How could God have turned him into a tree frog? Sammy contemplated her fate for a long time. Suddenly, she turned around and found herself being greeted by the four fattest tree frogs anyone could possibly imagine.

“Hello, Sammy. My name is Matthew, and these are my friends; Mark, Luke and John. We’ve come to show you to your new home and help you get started with your job.”

“My job?” replied Sammy. “What job?”

“Why, everyone in God’s kingdom has a job,” said Matthew.

“Ours is eating bugs.” croaked Mark.

“It’s great work,” said John. “You’ll love it!”

“It’s hardly work.” Luke added. “It’s more like fun!”

Sammy hardly knew what to say. She’d eaten a few small bugs when she was a tadpole and they were indeed tasty, but she ‘d never thought of eating bugs as a job. It didn’t seem like a very worthy purpose in life. Still, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John seemed happy enough and it was obvious from their size that they were good at what they did. Thus the five tree frogs hopped over to the great Western Yellow pine tree, where they would live together in the kingdom of God.

All day long Sammy and the other four tree frogs hopped through the kingdom of God along the Eastern Shore, searching for bugs and gobbling them down with great pleasure. Sometimes though, Sammy found herself sitting alone in the great pine tree watching the butterflies drift from poppy to poppy, whispering to each one about the love of God. The job of the butterflies seemed so noble and important. She too wanted to tell about God’s love, but all she knew how to do was to catch and eat bugs.

The poppies were so elegant with their golden orange crowns. They were surely the greatest work that God had created. Sammy longed to have a part in what God was doing with them. She felt so useless just catching and eating bugs. Each day Sammy stayed longer and longer in the branches of the pine tree, staring out over the poppies. Her desire to be a part of what God was doing with the poppies became greater each day. She had such a desire to be like the butterflies that she could not eat. How could she enjoy eating bugs when God was doing something great and she wasn’t a part of it?

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John tried to reason with her but she wouldn’t listen to thern. They were content just to eat bugs, but she wanted to be involved in what God was doing. She wanted to minister to the poppies. Every day she became skinnier and skinnier because she refused to eat bugs. She had vowed she would never eat again until she became a part of God’s ministry to the poppies.

It was a warm summer day about two weeks after she had made her awesome vow not to enjoy the pleasure of eating bugs until God gave her a place of ministry to the poppies. Sammy sat alone at the base of the pine tree. She was too weak to climb up into the branches. All she could do was sit and cry out to God. As she prayed that day, the magnificent butterfly that first invited her to live on the Eastern Shore of God’s kingdom, floated over and sat quietly beside her.

“Sammy,” whispered the butterfly, “You have made yourself so miserable.”

“I can’t help it.” whimpered Sammy. “Why won’t God allow me a place of ministry to the poppies?”

“He has, dear Sammy, He has given you a ministry that’s every bit as important as the ministry of the butterflies. Do you remember when you were still a tadpole and you swam across the river and saw the West Bank? Do you remember how drab and depressing it was? There was not a poppy or any other flower anywhere to be seen. Do you know why there are no flowers on the West Bank, Sammy?”

“I guess it is because God doesn’t care about the West Bank. His kingdom is the Eastern Shore and that’s where all His flowers grow.”

“Oh no, Sammy, God cares just as much about the kingdom on the West Bank as His kingdom on the Eastern Shore. The reason there are no flowers on the West Bank is that every time one of God’s flowers starts to grow, hundreds of bugs strip it of its leaves and stem. God’s flowers are devoured before they ever get a chance to bloom. There are no flowers on the West Bank because there is no one to eat the bugs before they can destroy God’s plants. There are no flowers on the West Bank because there are no frogs on the West Bank.”

“Do you mean that if it weren’t for us tree frogs eating the bugs, the Eastern Shore would be just like the West Bank?”

“That’s exactly the way it is, Sammy,” said the butterfly. “If it weren’t for you frogs, the flowers would never live long enough to hear the message of God’s love proclaimed by us butterflies. Every one of God’s creatures has an equally important, but different ministry in His kingdom. Mine is to tell about God’s love. Yours is to eat bugs.”

“Oh, thank you butterfly. Thank you for teaching me this great truth. Thank you for showing me that I do have an important place in God’s ministry to the poppies. I will start eating bugs again! I’ll start right away, and I shall eat and eat until I am the fattest frog on the Eastern Shore!”

And that’s exactly what Sammy did.

The end.