A LONG WAY FROM ORDINARY by Niki Vella Power
There was stomping and banging coming from the room upstairs.
“Uh-oh,” said Uncle Ben to his 10 year old nephew, Michael, “It sounds like cyclone Lilly has struck again.”
Michael and Lilly were twins…. You may have heard about them. They go to school, just like ordinary 10 year olds, and they catch a bus, just like ordinary 10 year olds, and sometimes they, but mostly Lilly, throw major temper tantrums, like some ordinary 10 year olds.
It is never a very good idea to throw a tantrum because someone always ends up in trouble and sometimes things get broken! Lilly knew this, but for some reason every now and then she just couldn’t seem to help herself and Michael and Uncle Ben would stay out of her way until she calmed down a little.
It was times like these that Uncle Ben called her “Cyclone Lilly”. She caused a lot of mess, just like a real cyclone, and everyone was just a little scared of her.
“What has upset her this time?” Uncle Ben asked Michael.
“I think it has something to do with the new girl at school,” said Michael, “She is a fostered girl and she gets in trouble all the time and for some reason it is making Lilly angry, but I don’t know why.”
The fostered girl’s name was Sarah and she didn’t live with her Mum or Dad, and instead she stayed with other people. She had lived for a long time with a lady by the name of Debbie who had other children, but when Debbie got sick she wasn’t able to look after Sarah anymore and so Sarah then went to live with a lovely couple, the Smiths…. But then when Mrs. Smith had her baby, she decided she couldn’t look after Sarah anymore and so Sarah was then sent to live with the Johnsons, Amy and John, who sent her to the same school as the twins. And that was all that Michael had been able to find out about Sarah.
Things became quiet again upstairs. It seemed that Cyclone Lilly had run out of wind, and after stomping and throwing and punching pillows she was just too worn out to do anything. She was lying on her messed up bed among all the clothes she’d thrown around.
Usually at this stage Lilly would start to clean up the mess she’d made, but this time she was too upset. When Uncle Ben knocked on her door he found her sobbing into her pillow.
“Lilly, I’ve got some hot chocolate for you if you feel like it?” He said, and then when she didn’t respond, he figured she needed some more time alone and so he left her and went downstairs.
Truly, there is something magical about a warm and sweet drink when you are not feeling very happy. By the time that Lilly came down for her hot chocolate it needed to be warmed up, but that was easy enough to do….. a whole lot easier than trying to find out what was making Lilly so sad.
Michael did his usual joke telling to try and lighten the atmosphere, but Uncle Ben knew that something had very seriously upset Lilly and the only way to deal with big hurts is to share them with someone older and wiser….. Uncle Ben was both older and wiser.
“So, Lilly, what has been happening at school?” asked Uncle Ben.
Lilly shrugged her shoulders and continued to sip sadly on her hot chocolate.
“Michael tells me that there is a new girl at school.” Said Uncle Ben, and he could tell by the look on Lilly’s face that this was something to do with the problem. “Is she a nice girl, Lilly? Do you get on okay with her?”
Lilly finally replied, “She’s okay, but the other kids at school are mean to her.”
“Oh?” that surprised Uncle Ben because Michael hadn’t said anything about the kids being mean at school. “Is that true, Michael?” Uncle Ben asked, so that he could confirm the matter.
“Yeah, I guess so,” said Michael, “they tell her that if they were her Mum, they’d leave her with someone else too.”
Lilly’s eyes were filled with tears again and she added, “And they say ‘your mum doesn’t want you’, and things like that.”
“Oh”, said Uncle Ben, suddenly realizing a whole lot more about why Lilly was sad.
You see, Lilly and Michael were living with their Uncle Ben while their parents were away on a secret mission. So, the new girl, Sarah, and Lilly and Michael had something in common, they were all living with someone other than their parents. Every child misses their parents when they are away from them for any length of time, and sometimes they might worry whether or not their parents really do love them. Uncle Ben figured that this was why Lilly was upset. She missed her parents and because the kids at school were saying mean things about poor Sarah’s parents, Lilly was feeling insecure and rather unsure about whether her parents really loved her.
“Lilly and Michael…..”, announced Uncle Ben, “we are going on a trip in the time machine.” He said it like it was a definite command. No questions, ifs or buts.
Uncle Ben had invented the time machine and given it to Lilly for her birthday. It was a very simple and safe version so that nothing could go wrong. You could go back in time to see events that had already happened, but you couldn’t interfere with anything, just simply watch it happen.
Lilly didn’t feel like taking a trip in the time machine as she was just feeling too sad and cranky, but Michael ran up to Lilly’s room and brought the machine down to the kitchen. Uncle Ben set the dial and they all held on to the machine and each other.
Everything went all swirly and made them feel just a bit dizzy, but when the spinning stopped they found themselves at a place called Shiloh where there was a priest called Eli sitting on a chair near the church. He was looking inside at a lady.
Lilly and Michael and Uncle Ben went in very quietly so they could hear what the lady was saying and as they got closer they realized that she was crying.
She cried out to God, “Lord, you rule over all. Please see how I’m suffering! Show concern for me! Don’t forget about me! Please give me a son! If you do, I’ll give him back to you. Then he will serve you all the days of his life.”
She kept praying that kind of thing over and over and crying. Then the Priest came in and said to her, “How long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine.”
The Lady replied to him, “That’s not true, sir, I’m a woman who is deeply troubled. I haven’t been drinking wine or beer. I was telling the Lord all of my troubles. Don’t think of me as an evil woman. I’ve been praying here because I’m very sad. My pain is so great.”
Then Eli answered, “Go in peace. May God give you what you have asked him for.”
Then the lady left and so did Michael, Lilly and Uncle Ben.
As they all sat down outside on the grass Lilly asked, “Who was that lady, Uncle Ben?”
“Her name is Hannah,” he replied, “and there is more to her story that we need to look at, but we need to go just a little forward in time to do so”.
Uncle Ben took a packet of chewing gum out of his pocket. “Here, you’d better have one of these because all this time travel might make you feel a bit dizzy. This is a special type of chewing gum I’ve invented to prevent the spinning from making you feel sick.”
They each took a piece of chewing gum and Uncle Ben turned the dial on the time machine once again. They all held on as things started to spin again and chewed on their gum. Just as the swirling cleared Lilly let out a big burp. Michael laughed and as he did a huge burp slipped out of his mouth, which brought on more laughter and then the loudest burp of all came from Uncle Ben.
“Ha, ha, ha, Yep”, laughed Uncle Ben, “the chewing gum works well, but the side effect is a big burp.”
They calmed down and looked around them. They were in the same place as they were before, but some of the trees were a little bigger and outside the church was a boy, about 12 years old, dressed exactly the same as the priest.
“Hey look,” exclaimed Lilly pointing, “there is Hannah!”
Sure enough, there was Hannah and she was walking toward the priest Eli, while the boy raced over and hugged her. Eli met them at the entrance of the church and they saw her give the priest a robe, indicating that it was for the boy.
“What is she doing, Uncle Ben?” asked Michael.
“The boy’s name is Samuel, and he is Hannah’s son,” said Uncle Ben. Just listen to their conversation and see if you can work it out what is happening.”
Hannah’s husband then joined them and the priest put his hand on the husband’s head as if he was praying. Michael and Lilly leaned forward so that they could hear clearly.
Eli closed his eyes and said, “May the Lord give you and your wife, Hannah, children that can take the place of the boy she prayed for and gave to God.”
After this Hannah hugged the boy, Samuel, and then Hannah and her husband set off down the road.
Lilly could see that the boy wanted to cry, but he didn’t. Eli handed the robe to Samuel and Samuel took it into the house that was next to the church.
The children looked at Uncle Ben with wide eyes. Michael asked, “Does Samuel live with Eli, Uncle Ben? Why didn’t they take him home with them?”
Uncle Ben explained, “Samuel sees his mother just once every year and she brings him a new robe, just like the priest’s. Do you remember Hannah’s prayer?”
“Yes,” said Michael, “she prayed for a son.”
“And…” prompted Uncle Ben, “What else did she say in that prayer?”
Lilly answered him very quietly, “She said that if God gave her a son, that she would give the son to God.”
“That’s right,” said Uncle Ben, “and that the son would serve God for all of his life”.
“But, Uncle Ben…..” said Lilly, “Samuel is only a boy, and he obviously misses his mum. I could see that he looked so sad when she left. It’s not fair and it is just too hard.”
At that moment the automatic home function of the time machine started and the swirling this time took them by surprise. They chewed hard on the gum and within a few seconds they found themselves back in their own kitchen. They burped again, but they were feeling too sad to laugh this time.
Uncle Ben flicked the switch on the jug to make another hot chocolate for all of them.
“Michael and Lilly,” he said as they all sat down with their drinks, “you have to understand some things about the story of Samuel. He was no ordinary man. He lived in a time when there were many evil things happening and no one was listening to God, but not long after that event that we saw, God woke Samuel up in the middle of the night and spoke with him. It freaked Samuel out for a little while and he thought that it was Eli calling out to him, because hardly anyone ever heard God speak to them like that. When Samuel grew up he led people in the right way and it was him who anointed the kings of Israel. None of it would have been possible if his mother didn’t keep her promise to give him to God.”
“But he was sad and only a boy a long way from his mother and father…” said Lilly “didn’t she love him and want him with her?”
“Of course she did,” explained Uncle Ben, “but she trusted God and kept her promise. It was hard for her and hard for Samuel, but sometimes it seems that those who have hard things happen to them are those who grow to be the absolutely most extraordinary people, with the most extraordinary lives.”
He added, “Lilly and Michael, your Mum and Dad Love you so much. Don’t ever doubt that. They know that they have a job to do and they know that it is better for you to be here with me. The Bible tells us that all things work for good for those who love God, so we know that even when things are hard, and even down right horrible, in the end, if we stay true to God, those same things can be something that makes us extraordinary people. And do you know why?”
The twins looked at him and both of them with their heads cocked to one side and a frown on their forehead replied, “Why?”
Uncle Ben answered, “Because the God who created the universe loves you more than you can possibly imagine…. Even more than how much you love your mum and dad… and when you are a child of God you are a long, long, way from being just an ordinary kid.”
Finally Lilly smiled. Ah, what a lovely sight. A big grin with twinkling eyes and Uncle Ben knew beyond any shadow of doubt that she was one very special kid…. Even if she did throw temper tantrums!
