Cornelis Monsma.

  Isabelle Murray Art

...I'm an artist and I am good!!" (five year old granddaughter!)

What is happening?

Worlds major rivers are drying up. (BBC News)

Isaiah 19 vs 5 - 10

The water will be low in the Nile, and the river will gradually dry up. The channels of the river will stink as they slowly go dry. Reeds and rushes will wither, and all the crops planted along the banks of the Nile will dry up and be blown away.
Everyone who earns a living by fishing in the Nile will groan and cry; their hooks and their nets will be useless. Those who make linen cloth will be in despair; weavers and skilled workers will be broken and depressed.

Revelation 16 vs 12

And the sixth angel poured out his bowl onto the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up so that the way of the kings from the rising of the sun might be prepared.

I'd like to take you back fifty-five years, to my small country village.
The village consisted mainly out of a main street where you could find two schools, Christian and state school, two churches, Reformed and a slightly different Reformed Church, and the grocery store.

It is this one woman grocery store where the story starts.
Dawn the store lady was already running the shop for years. As a widow she tried to make a living for herself and her only teenage young son.
By the nature of her business Dawn knew practically every household in the village including the financial situation of each of them, measured by how regular they were able to pay their weekly grocery bills.
Her shop was the natural gathering place of many villagers including myself at a very young age.

This is the environment where I enter this true story as a ten year old in 1955. The old copper bell mounted on the door usually rang out loud as the door opened. I always liked that glorious moment of entry with the loud bell-noise because it was ME who made it ring. On the other hand at the same time it was kind of embarrassing as all the people present in the store looked at that very moment at you when entering.

The store was one of the old type with a large oak counter and behind the counter many shelves, stacked with all types of groceries. On top of the counter, apart from the scales and the mechanical cash register, were usually big glass-storage bottles stacked on top of each other at a certain angle, kept together by a steel frame and containing all types of candies.
During the usual long wait, I used to look at the different types of candy on display imagining what they would taste like. I did not know because our family was not in a position to buy them.

Then it was my turn. I handed Dawn my shopping list and waited patiently till she had gathered all we needed. She put it neatly in the big brightly colored cotton shopping bag and then leaned over the counter eyeballing me in a friendly but authoritarian way:
"Did mum give you money, my boy" she asked.
I shook my head because my mum never gave me money and she should know that by now.

Still looking me in the eyes she said:" Go and tell your mum that I will write it down in the book. However next time she will have to pay".
I always felt the awkwardness of the situation and I rushed out of the store causing the doorbell to ring even louder. As young as I was I kind of sensed a lingering hopelessness during these encounters and was glad to be on my way home with my unpaid groceries.

That as far the real life time story goes.

Now the fictional part:
Allow me to restart the story at the moment where.....

.....Dawn put the groceries neatly in the big brightly colored cotton shopping bag and then leaned over the counter eyeballing me in a friendly but authoritarian way.
"Did mum give you money, my boy" she asked.
I shook my head because my mum never gave me money and she should know that by now.
By that time the doorbell had rang out quietly and a neatly dressed young man had entered the store and looked at the waiting people.
He was not a villager and the group of waiting clients was buzzing while eying up the handsome visitor.
He just caught the words Dawn was whispering to me and came forward putting His hand on my head.

Looking at Dawn He asked: "How much does he owe you?"
Dawn, struggling with the awkward question looked at the other clients present in the store, who were all holding their breath.
"No need to tell me" He said hastily, seeing her embarrassment. "I will pay for this family now and for all their future spending in your store. From now on, you can send me all the outstanding bills and I will pay them in full.
This offer is not only valid for the family of this boy, but for all the families who shop at your store".
The people in the store were stunned and gasped for breath.

I rushed home and told the whole story to my astonished mum.
"Do you mean to say that we will never have debt ever again?" she asked.
As she dried her tears she smiled and said," I will even be more conscious in spending the money now, I might be able to help others less fortunate then ourselves.
I knew that was my mum, directing her thankfulness somehow along the same lines as the stranger did.

I have always wondered whether that response had been the main purpose of the generosity of the neatly dressed young man, who never showed Himself again but paid Dawn all the bills promptly up to this day.

Unobstructed Christianity