What didn't make sense to me was the saying, There but for the Grace of God go I. I couldn't understand a God that would grant me Grace, but simply deny it to another. That didn't sound like the God I had come to know. So I took another look at that phrase. Backwards Henry grew out of that process. I wrote it as a children's picture book, but I think it might be for adults just as much. 😀 Enjoy!
Backwards Henry
By
Lynda Allen
From
the world’s point of view Henry often gets things backwards. He is left handed, which doesn’t seem
backwards to him. He sometimes puts his
coat on backwards. He likes to walk
backwards. He tried to ride his bike
backwards once – only once. He even
sometimes spells things bakcwadrs.
So
it was no surprise when one day he was downtown with his father and heard
something backwards.
It
was take your son or daughter to work day and Henry was overjoyed to be going
in to work with his Dad. He had put on
his best pants (frontwards) and a tie and had ridden the train with his
Dad.
Now
they were walking down the sidewalk surrounded by giant buildings. He felt very small.
Then
he saw someone who he knew felt even smaller than he did. There was a man sitting on the sidewalk in
dirty, tattered, old clothes. He had a
little box lid in front of him with a sign written by hand. Henry couldn’t read but he had heard about
people who didn’t have homes and lived on the streets in the city and he
thought this might be one of those people.
The
man sat near a corner at a stoplight so people were passing him on two
sides. Henry looked around and saw that
not many of the people noticed the man.
Henry looked at him though, while he waited for the light to
change.
The
man looked up and Henry thought he saw a light in his eyes. The stoplight changed and Henry’s Dad tried
to walk but Henry was still staring at the man.
His Dad looked down to see what Henry was doing and followed his eyes to
the man. Henry’s Dad was a compassionate
man, and he looked from Henry to the man and back to his son again. He reached in his pocket and took out a
dollar bill and gave it to Henry. Henry
looked up at his Dad with wide eyes then took the dollar bill and timidly
reached out toward the box top to put it in.
Henry didn’t get that backwards; he placed the bill gently in the box
and smiled at the man. The man smiled
back and Henry again saw the flicker of light in his eyes. He turned and took his father’s hand
again. As they began to walk his father
said in a quiet voice, “There but for the Grace of God go I.” Henry watched the man over his shoulder for
as long as he could.
Henry
had such an exciting time at his Dad’s office making copies (a little
backwards!) and answering the phone (upside down) and typing on the computer
(some deleting), that by the end of the day he had almost forgotten all about
the man on the corner.
But
as they started their trip down the street to the subway station and neared the
corner he remembered and began peering around other people on the sidewalk to
see if he was still there. Sure enough
when they got to the corner and were waiting for the light, he could see the
man was still there across the street.
Except now Henry could see that the man was leaning over against the
building fast asleep.
The
light changed and the crowd walked across the street and as Henry passed the
man he looked at him and said in his small voice and in his backward way,
“There but for I go the Grace of God.”
Several
people on the sidewalk heard Henry’s words and stopped in their tracks,
including his father. Squatting down
next to his son he asked, “What did you say?”
Having a feeling he had gotten it wrong again Henry repeated, “There but
for I go the Grace of God.” He looked up
eagerly at his Dad, “Did I get it wrong Daddy?”
A
small group was listening now. One woman, who had stopped, looked from Henry to
the man asleep on the sidewalk then back to Henry. She smiled brightly at Henry and said, “I
think you got it just exactly right young man.”
She took out her wallet and placed a five dollar bill in the box in
front of the man. Several other people
in the crowd did the same.
Henry
looked surprised and smiled at each of them as they looked back at him. He turned to his father who was still
squatting beside him and saw tears in his eyes.
Suddenly his Dad pulled Henry into his arms and held him tightly.
Henry
wasn’t really sure what he had done or what had happened but he knew that it
was important and that he would always remember that moment and that man.
As
they walked away Henry thought about the light he had seen in that man’s eyes
and wondered about how surprised he would be when he woke up to see all that
money in his box. Henry made a wish
right then that it would make the man smile.
Then
Henry turned around and walked backwards all the way to the train station and
his Dad let him.
Copyright 2010 Lynda Allen
