September 1, 2020 – a warm late summer morning in Lofton County, VA, so, eight-year-old Gracie Trent knew there was something wrong when she saw her seven-year-old friend next door, Amanda Ludlow, come out onto her porch in her Sunday best and start shivering.
Gracie immediately came running with a big hug, and Amanda responded to that hug warmly.
“What's wrong, Mandie?”
“Well, I know that Papa and Grandma are coming home today … but I'm scared … my parents said so much stuff they weren't able to do, and then they died, so they are never coming … so I'm scared.”
Col. H.F. and Mrs. Maggie Lee, guardians of Amanda and her siblings until the minute the Ludlow grandparents crossed the threshold of their door (and would still actually stay an extra transition day), came instantly, but stopped short because Gracie was given grace for the situation.
“Look, this is why God had you move next door to us because you need brown friends who pay attention in Sunday School and also know gospel music, because in situations like this you can't worry about people. You gotta trust God and praise Him in advance!”
“There is a gospel song by that name,” Col. Lee said softly to his wife, "but I think we are about to hear something that requires different music!"
“See, Mandie, it's like this – I was doing my usual quality eavesdropping on my grandparents' Bible Study online –.”
Mrs. Lee was defeated and had to go to the back of the house to laugh, and would not get to come out for a little while, for her husband had heard in Gracie's voice the cadence of that of her ancestor Mahogany Mae Jubilee, and went and got his guitar …
“And see, Rev. Stone was explaining about how Christmas is like maybe to four thousand to eight thousand years of people waiting, because God told Adam and Eve when they messed up that Jesus was coming but nobody even knew His name, and then …
“Hold up,” Mr. Thomas Stepforth said as he and his wife Velma came out on the Trent porch. “Col. Lee is not over there like Rosetta Tharpe's white stepson tuning up on his guitar under Gracie!”
“Preach, Evangelist Trent! Preach!” Mrs. Stepforth said.
“Don't encourage that – what are y'all doing!” 21-year-old Melvin Trent said. “Y'all are going to go home in another week, and that girl already can barely be contained and is going to come back over here talking about 'Touch not mine anointed and do my prophet no harm!'”
“Yeah, I'm going to need to definitely pop some extra popcorn,” days-from-18-year-old Vanna Trent said.
Brothers 16-year-old Thomas Stepforth III and nine-year-old Vertran Stepforth were the (little) media men of the family.
“You think we should get this footage of Gracie acknowledging her calling to ministry?” Vertran said.
“Well, really, we're just behind,” Tom said. “Gracie's been ministering, but I think we better just let her be eight because we get to go home and Melvin has to live with the Gracie Trent Experience.”
“Right,” Vertran said.
“But see, what it is, is, there's really no big singing in Genesis because sin hit like a bomb –.”
Col. Lee hit a chord.
“And see, the bomb had all these little baby bombs in it like the Flood –.”
Another chord!
“The Tower of Babel –.”
And another chord!
“And then they messed up and only Lot and his daughter made it out of Sodom and Gomorrah!”
Col. Lee imitated one of those Black church organ runs on his guitar so well that his poor wife fell out on the bed again …
“But when you get to Exodus, and God's people get saved from slavery, they start singing – Jesus isn't on the scene yet, but those who know, know – if God would do that, He could take care of the rest – so, then Moses writes Psalm 90 and then David and a bunch of other people do another like 149 to get caught up – Jesus ain't on the scene yet, but they already know that because God is doing all this stuff to take care of them, they can go on and praise Him in advance – because if He takes care of one thing, He's going to take care of everything!”
“See, I need to get that silver coin from 1850 I was just telling you about and put that in the offering plate, right now!” Mr. Stepforth said. “The child is actually repeating Rev. Stone's lesson from memory, adjusting for her being eight – we're going to need to build a church for her in a minute!”
“And see, flesh and blood didn't give her the power to do that, because look at all those Ludlow kids just listening now and glowing,” Mrs. Stepforth said. “They wouldn't understand it from Rev. Stone, but they understand it from the Holy Spirit working through Gracie!”
“See, that's why we only do quality eavesdropping,” eleven-year-old Velma Trent said as she came out in her Sunday best.
“Be ye always ready, and stuff like that,” nine-year-old Milton Trent said. “You gotta eavesdrop and stay ready so you never have to get ready!”
That took Vanna out, popcorn plans and all! Meanwhile, Melvin just picked up his cell phone and went into his studio...
“Hello, Holiday Inn? Do you have your Christmas rates out yet for a long stay? Yes, I know it is September 1, but this is an emergency … I mean, you're called Holiday Inn for a reason, right?”
“So then,” Gracie said on the Trent porch, “they had 150 Psalms to praise him in advance, but they still had like a thousand years to go, and those sin bombs just kept going off – folks messed up on the north side of Israel, and God had the Assyrians serve them an eviction notice and kick 'em out – folks messed up on the south side of Judah, and God had the Babylonians serve an eviction notice and kick 'em out – then the Persians let them come home but the rent was high, and the Greeks came and fried some ham up on the altar and you know you're not supposed to do that in church!”
That took out Mrs. Stepforth, and Col. Lee going to a higher key didn't help her get herself together either!
“But the people that knew kept knowing, and they kept praising God in advance over that last four hundred years – and then finally, boom! Immanuel – God with us – Jesus came!”
Col. Lee raised that key again and was just working that guitar … in his mind, he could remember his great-uncle, Henry Davis Lee, who would sometimes back up Mahogany Mae Jubilee if she had to break down the Scripture to the people.
“But, see, we already knew was going to happen because God said He was going to send His Son all the way back in Genesis – so, everybody just needed to go on and praise Him in advance because He was going to do what He said He was going to do!”
By this time, Capt. R.E. and Thalia Ludlow long since already pulled up, and were standing in amazement.
“I mean, she has all the details in order,” Mrs. Ludlow said.
“That is pretty close to one of the best Christmas sermons of that style I have ever heard,” Capt. Ludlow murmured, “and although she never could have met Mahogany Mae Jubilee-of-the-mountain, I knew the great Jubilee evangelist because she was close friends with my grandmother, Hilda Lee-of-the-Mountain. Gracie is dead on for Mahogany Mae like Edwina is dead on for Hilda!”
“So, see, because God did what He said He would do and sent Jesus, if He takes care of one thing, He'll take care of everything. God knew we needed Jesus to grow up, die on the cross for our sins, be buried, and rise again the third day so we can believe in Him to be saved, and so that happened! Jesus knows we need to know He loves us so He said He would send the Holy Spirit – so that happened! Jesus knows that you need your grandparents to come home on time today, so you can praise Him in advance because that's going to happen because that's God! That's what God always does! He takes care of all our needs – and if He does one thing, He's gonna do everything!”
Col. Lee was wailing on that guitar by then.
“Shoot – I needed that sermon!” he said later.
“I needed that!” Amanda said as she burst into tears and hugged Gracie. “Thank you – I get it now!”
All of the Ludlow grandchildren came and hugged Gracie, and then had a pair of longer arms go around them all.
“Amen,” boomed that unmistakable basso profundo voice, and all the Ludlow grandchildren and Gracie looked up to see Capt. and Mrs. Ludlow, on their porch, smiling through their tears, home again.
“See, I told y'all!” Gracie said in that moment in which her friends were in disbelief from joy. “That's what God does – that's the story of Christmas, and the story of everything!”
Then there was a general shout – and then Col. Lee had to put down his guitar and come rescue Gracie and his big Ludlow cousins from being instantly suffocated by the overjoyed strength and weight of all seven Ludlow grandchildren all surging toward and grabbing and falling with their grandparents at once.
“But it's totally OK,” Gracie explained as the colonel cleansed and put an adhesive bandage on the little cut she got, “because you know, when it is Christmas in September and the meaning of it and the Spirit hits, sometimes stuff happens!”
“Ain't it the truth,” Col. Lee said.
“I've never heard anyone play a guitar like an organ before,” she said, “but, thanks – that real was good. You must have learned a lot from my Jubilee-of-the-mountain folks!”
“My great-aunt and your great-grandmother, Mahogany Mae Lee, were good friends like you and Edwina are good friends,” the colonel said with a smile. “I grew up with them, so, I picked up a lot.”
“You kinda gotta pick up a lot if you love people like Edwina and Amanda,” Gracie said. “They went through a lot, so, they need a lot but, like their baby brother Robert would put it, we got this because Immanuel!”
“So we can just go on and praise Him in advance,” Col. Lee said.
“Yep,” Gracie said. “That's it.”
Gracie gives a new meaning to "out of the mouth of a baby"
All I have to say is to quote Capt Ludlow, AMEN.
You have outdone yourself with this one, I was lost in your words as if Gracie was preaching to me, beautifully done. And to top it off THE'RE HOME. I was so full of excitement as if I was one of the little Ludlows.
!LOL
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"Out of the mouths of babes hast thou ordained strength" -- that was what was on my mind, along with "And a little child shall lead them." I also know my readership ... lots of grandparents ... and Grandma was my favorite person, so I know some of how the little Ludlows feel and also Col. Lee (although I also have great parents, and REALLY, what I have done for the little Ludlows is fill their Lee cousins into that generational spot). But the main thing is, sometimes we gotta come back to the point. Since God kept His promise about His Son, the Lord Jesus, we can trust Him as Savior and Keeper on everything, from here to eternity. Sometimes we do get scared like Amanda, because people often let us down -- but God, though He takes His perfect time, never fails in a promise, ever.
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