A BABY CHANGES EVERYTHING
A BABY CHANGES EVERYTHING
Have you ever read Bret Harte’s short story The Luck of Roaring Camp? Roaring Camp was the meanest, toughest mining town in the entire West. More murders, more thefts—it was a terrible place inhabited entirely by men and one woman who tried to serve them all. Her name was Cherokee Sal. She died while giving birth.
The men took the baby and put her in a box with some old rags under her. When they looked at her, they decided it didn’t look right. So they sent one of the men 80 miles to buy a rosewood cradle. He brought it back, and they put the rags and the baby in the rosewood cradle. The rags didn’t look right there. So they sent another of their number to Sacramento, and he came back with some beautiful silk and lace blankets. They put the baby, wrapped with those blankets, in the rosewood cradle.
It looked fine until someone happened to notice the floor was filthy. So these hardened, tough men got down on their hands and knees, and with their hardened hands, they scrubbed the floor until it was spotless. Of course, what that did was make the walls, ceiling, and curtainless windows look absolutely terrible. So they washed the walls and ceiling, and they put curtains on the windows. Things were beginning to look almost as they should, but of course, they had to give up a lot of their fighting because the baby slept a lot, and babies can’t sleep during a brawl. So the whole temperature of Roaring Camp seemed to go down.
They used to take her out and set her by the mine’s entrance in her rosewood cradle so they could see her when they came up. Then somebody noticed a dirty place, so they planted flowers and made a very nice garden there. It looked quite beautiful. They would bring her shiny little stones and things they would find in the mine, but their hands looked so dirty when they put their hands down next to hers. Pretty soon, the general store was all sold out of soap, shaving gear, cologne, and those kinds of things. Before long, the men were a totally different bunch of guys—the baby changed everything.
Micah 7:7
As for me, I look to the Lord for help. I wait confidently for God to save me, and my God will certainly hear me.
Emmanuel, God with us.
AChuck
