How many times have I zipped this child’s gig bag, helping him nestle his guitar inside? How many times have I listened to him turn his guitar into a “harp” by rubbing his pick over the ends of the strings? Today I’m not counting. Today the God who lives inside this child came to visit me. Today His name was “Cooper.”

No one knew how much I needed his song today.
No one knew how much I needed his silliness.

Cooper has finished his lesson and the strains of his song, “What A Mighty God we Serve” still dance in the air.

Now it is night.
Moonlight drenches the treetops by the back fence.

When I was a child I used to think that moonlight was the light that shone all around God’s Throne and that it was there for a sign to let us know that God was watching over us all through the night.

Tonight I heard the Blind Boys from Alabama sing “Sometimes I feel like a Motherless Child.”. Somewhere between “What a Mighty God we Serve” and “Sometimes I feel like a Motherless Child” I am standing. Part of my country is missing, blown away by wind and water.

Hopes, dreams, plans, families have been shredded like thin paper and scattered in the wind.

Moonlight fills the back yard and peeks through my living room drapes
Competing for attention with television images of water and fire.

Suddenly I am jolted by a flashback from earlier in the day.
“Miss Sondra, how fast do you think I am playing my guitar now?
“ Small but intense eyes glance up at me.
“Do you think about 90 mi. an hour?”
“Yes,” I reply, “probably about 90 mi. an hour.”
”Miss Sondra do you think I should play my guitar for 20 people or maybe 20 million?”
I laugh, “For you, Cooper, 20 million.”

Now I am staring hard into the moonlight.

I see the stage once again, the one with the very steep steps.
A little girl walks up to the steps just as Cooper begins his descent from center stage. She is six. Her blond curls bounce up and down as she walks. Flashing her enormous smile she takes Cooper’s tiny guitar in her hands and they begin walking together to their seats positioned between the Kindergarten and First Grade classes. Children come together and gather around Cooper.

“Sing us about when she wore the yellow ribbon!” they chime.
“Sing us about Old Joe Clark and the chicken pie”

First and Second Grade children form a semi circle around Cooper and I lose sight of him.

Moonlight dances on the back yard fence.

“Miss Sondra, what’s a “writch’?
“What does it mean : “Amazing Grace that saved a “writch” like me?”

Like candy bars, God comes in all sizes and shapes.
Sometimes He walks around in a 6 year old body.
Sometimes He floats down in the Moonlight.
Sometimes He does both.

© Article copyrighted by Sondra Stallman
May not be used without written permission from the author.