Once in a great while we are given the privilege of meeting an old soul with great wisdom and faith, one from whom we can gain much learning. If we meet one of these humble souls we will never get them to admit they have anything to teach us, but if we are lucky they will tell us their stories. The circumstances of meeting these souls can be truly amazing.
Some months ago I was summoned to the seventh floor of the hospital where I had a truly sobering experience. An earlier phone call from an acquaintance, Ron, revealed him to be in the hospital fighting a dangerous kidney infection. For most of us this would not be a major issue but for Ron, who has been a quadriplegic for thirty-one years, it's more than a big deal, it can be life-threatening. He'd been living on the edge of survival for decades with his eighty-five year old mother, who has been caring for him in a once-grand Victorian house.
While visiting Ron, I casually asked about his mother, one Elva Mize Rice. Ron told me that his mother had fallen and broken her hip two weeks earlier and was now confined to a nursing home following corrective surgery.
Ron related to me the facts of a horrific scenario. About 8:30 PM one February evening, Ron's mother went out to the porch to lock the screen door and on her way back into the house stumbled. She heard her own hip shatter on the way down. She ended up lying on the floor until the middle of the next day writhing in intense pain, wondering if she would freeze to death in the middle of a long winter night. She was never able to reach a phone. Ron lay helpless on his bed just inside the door that same long night, quite unable to call for help, also wondering if anyone would find them. For them it proved to be the best night of their lives.
During the next many months I visited that nursing home nearly every day. There I had the privilege to sit in the presence of one who has lived eight-five years and hear her stories, get sage advice, and learn that what at face value might be seen as grim circumstances are, in fact, gateways to journeys of faith.
On my many visits I learned that Elva Rice had over the years written a number of poems that provided evidence of a whit-hot Christian faith that has seen her through the grimmest of experiences. Most of us can only guess at the nature of the turbulent waters Ms. Rice has passed through.
At age thirty one, her dear daughter, Mary, was struck dead in her bed by a congenital cardiac anomaly. At age twenty one her only son, Ron, was struck in the back of the head in a auto accident and rendered a complete quadriplegic, unable to even wipe away his own tears. For eight years, Ms. Rice provided tender care to her beloved husband who succumbed several years ago. Her one other remaining daughter, Ann, struggles with a variety of medical challenges of her own.
She knows about loss and tragedy first hand, yet she will with total sincerity repeat over and over how good her Lord has been to her. During my visits with her I was entranced by a faith that could transform massive calamity into true victory. Her son was only supposed to live five to seven years after his accident. It is a testament to her loving care and strong faith that he has now lived more than thirty-one years in her care.
I was astounded to find that while in the nursing home Ms. Rice became a beacon of hope for many patients and staff who often live their lives in shadows of vast despair and difficulty.
In my visits I learned that the poems Ms. Rice had written over some fifty years were to be found on brittle disintegrating note pads. She expressed fear that these poems would be forever lost. These poems express a faith in her Lord that she wants all to know in a personal way.
It has always been my belief that every person, every life, is a treasure chest of experience, memories, stories, and in some rare special cases, extraordinary faith. I knew that I had been called to preserve these poems and many stories that had never been written down. Over a three month period I carried a lap top computer to her bedside and transcribed her stories and poems. Her poems and stories proved to be balm to the soul for many and were quickly copied and passed among patients and staff at the nursing home.
The following pages represent a meager portion of her poems and stories. With the exception of the story "#409" and a very modest amount of editing, all of the words are hers. "#409" is included as it gives my own perceptions of those first early weeks of learning in Room 409. These pages are meant to be a gift to her and her family for sharing her great faith with me.
She wanted you to have them also
Saturday, February 9, 2008
A Reflection on Moral Choice
Unborn Baby
I’m just an unknown baby,
I’m headed for your land,
I’m coming to America,
my life is in your hands.
Look in your heart of hearts,
as yet you cannot see,
My little stubby hands and toes,
nor hear my faint heart beat.
You cannot see my blood course through,
my vessels weak and small.
Our God who makes and fashions us.
He died to save us all.
America, you dare not stand idly by,
and let them take my life,
while I am helpless to respond,
or heed your faintest call.
What you do to me you must do fast,
for I am on my way.
God's life clock has been wound and set,
don't hinder me please, I pray.
Elva Mize Rice
Spring, 1991
I’m just an unknown baby,
I’m headed for your land,
I’m coming to America,
my life is in your hands.
Look in your heart of hearts,
as yet you cannot see,
My little stubby hands and toes,
nor hear my faint heart beat.
You cannot see my blood course through,
my vessels weak and small.
Our God who makes and fashions us.
He died to save us all.
America, you dare not stand idly by,
and let them take my life,
while I am helpless to respond,
or heed your faintest call.
What you do to me you must do fast,
for I am on my way.
God's life clock has been wound and set,
don't hinder me please, I pray.
Elva Mize Rice
Spring, 1991
Some Reflections on Faith
In the Night
My quadriplegic son, Ron (Buddy), and I live alone, and have for some years now since my husband was called home to be with the Lord. There are different brothers from Bethany Chapel in Anderson South Carolina who have been of great help to us over the years. Each one of them has selected a night of the week and they come down and help me get him in bed. Ron's usually in bed but they help me get him dressed for bed and then have prayer and Bible reading and tell us good night and leave us until the next morning. We look forward to that every night. It's a great boon to have one of the brothers come in and read a chapter and spend some time with us; prepare us for the night and leave.
We had the latch on the back screen door fixed so it was very hard to unfasten, almost impossible, from the outside. One night, about 8:30 PM, we were getting ready for bed. The brother went home, which was Kent McGahey that night. After he had gone, I went to fasten the door, that back door. After I had locked the door, while I was out there, I turned to come back in. I don't know what happened, but I fell backwards to the floor. I could hear my leg bone snap inside. I more heard it than felt it.
I'm almost eight-five. The Lord's been wonderfully good to me, wonderfully good to me. He's always taken care of me and I expect Him to from now on. I expect to see Him in Glory. In fact, I know I'm going to because His Word has told me I will. That's what we got to call on; His promises; His words, His Holy Spirit, His guidance, His wonderfulness. He's just been so good to me. I don't know how to explain it.
When I fell, I heard my right hip shatter inside the bone. I heard it just crush. I knew that I'd broken my hip. It really hadn't started hurting me just yet. It hadn't been long enough yet to send a message to my brain that I was injured. I knew I had been injured but it didn't send the message right then, it didn't yet pain me.
I said 'Lord, I broke my hip, I know I did. Because I heard it when I fell, and I felt it. Lord, You know how it is here tonight. Now there's nobody here but my quadriplegic son and he's inside in his bed. I've got him prepared for the night and there's no one out here but You and I. What's done here tonight You're going to have to do. And I know You will because You've always been so faithful. And You've promised. I'll follow Your promises.
If I ask anything in Your name, doubting nothing, then I'll receive it. I'm going to ask a lot of things in Your name tonight, Lord. You said that up until now, in your writings, that we've not asked You for anything. I'm asking You, Lord for things tonight. I'm going to bring things before You that I've never asked You for before, because I never needed them, but I'm going to ask for them and I'm going to receive them because You said You would do it and I know You will. And I'm thanking You before I even ask for these requests. And I'm thanking you for Your marvelous love and grace to do that.'
So I started then. I had no way of getting in. I was lying on a plank floor and I had no way of getting across that porch into the kitchen. The door was left open. If I had closed it I don't know what might have happened. But the Lord knows all things. He knew what was going to happen. He had me leave the door open. We had been having some real cold winter nights. Just the night before it had been twenty two degrees. That would have been kind of chilly, lying overnight on that floor. The Lord saw to it that it had warmed up some this night. It wasn't as cold but it was still plenty chilly.
I worked part way through into the kitchen, still on my back. One leg, the one that was broken was opposite the way I wanted to go. I couldn't move the leg. By then it had started swelling. Pain had started in on it. I got closer. I said 'Lord I can't go much further the way this is hurting, the pain and all. In the meantime, my son heard me fall and he said "Mother, did you fall?'. I said, I'm OK , I'll be inside in a minute.' I couldn't afford to let him become excited and worried when he couldn't do a thing in the world for me. But I could pray. I scooted in there on the floor. I looked around and there was nothing I could put my foot against, that is, the one foot I could use. I did have my shoes on. I didn't have anything I could reach, no bedposts, nothing I could pull on to give me any leverage, nothing to let me scoot closer to where I wanted to go.
I stopped and told my son 'I have broken my hip and I'm lying here on the floor.' Naturally, he was excited and scared because he knew that we were alone. There would be nobody until the next morning. I told him 'you know we're going to be here all night, there's no one else coming.' He said 'Is there any way of letting anyone know?' I said 'no, there's no one. There's two telephones but they're both out of reach. I'm here on the floor and you are there, a quad, and unable to reach them.'
I said 'Lord, you know the position we're in, the condition we're in. You know that You're all we've both got. We both love You, and You love us. You died on Calvary for us. And we're coming to You with a need now that only You can supply. We're depending on You to supply it. Lord, we're asking You a lot of things and laying a lot of things down before You tonight and wanting you to do for us.' I said 'I believe I am going to get every one of them, because you promised me. You said, 'I'll never leave you or forsake you'.' 'Now, Lord, I'm lying here on the floor, with not a thing in the world I can do for myself. But I thank You I can look up, because I know You're up there and right around close to me, because I feel Your presence now. Lord, I know that You have to be here, because I know I couldn't otherwise have this sensation of pleasure of knowing the closeness, nearness and warmth of Your love such as I've got right now.'
While I was talking to the Lord I had a sensation of not lying on the floor. It didn't give that sensation. It had been hurting very painfully, lying on that cold floor. At once, I just had a sensation of comforting warmth and I had a sensation of being suspended gently, very gently. I was just on the floor, but there was no pressure, just as if I was suspended. Why, I don't know. But the Lord knows. He was there. He did it.
I said 'Lord, you know the position we're in. And You know what you've done for us. And what You're going to do for us. We're asking You now to help us get through the night until someone comes in the morning to help us to get up. I know it's going to be a long night but I know what happened when one of Your people had his boat stuck in the sand at night. Part of it broke off and he was being washed around and He said he wished for the day. I have a feeling we are going to wish for the day, the morning, before it gets here. You let this man see the day and he floated out on his boat and You saved him. You're going to let us see the day and You're going to let us come out of this. I know You are because Your promises are not broken. There are some things I need and You know it."
I turned to Ron and said, 'Buddy, can you see the clock?' He said 'Yes, ma'am' and he told me the time. I moved my head back and I could see the same clock on the wall that he could but we couldn't see each other. We had no way of getting any water or anything to eat the whole night or whatever period of time we had to stay there. Ron asked again 'Mother, do you think some body will come tonight?' I said 'I don't know if they will or not, but I know the Lord is going to be here. He's here right now. I know He's going to be here all night. Who else do we need?' Ron said 'I guess you're right.'
Naturally, I know Ron had a feeling for my lying there on the floor and not being able to get covered up against the cold. but the Lord knew about all of that. 'Lord, it's going to be all night before anyone's here without You sending somebody. Ron asked again 'Do you think He will send anybody?' I said 'Yes, honey, somebody will come. The Lord won't just let us lie here, with nobody coming. It may be in the morning but He's going to comfort, sustain, and keep us in the hollow of His hand until in the morning. In the morning when it's time for anyone to come, we'll be right here. Don't worry. The Lord's here and He's going to be all night.'
We laid there all night. It was getting on towards morning. I said 'Buddy, I'll tell you what we will do to pass the time. We're not going to lie here all night and worry. We're going to lie here and pray. Something tells me this is going to be one of the greatest nights in our lives. We will spend it with the Lord. And He's going to spend it with us. It's going to be us and the Lord. There's not very many people who have the opportunity to spend the night with the Lord. And there won't be anyone breaking in on our meditation and our discussions. I think this night is going to be ours and the Lord's. Ron, you pray. You can see the clock . You pray five minutes and close. Then I will pray for five minutes and close. Right on through the night. If we do that then we will have several hours of good time to pray. That's what we're gonna do. Quote scripture to the Lord because it's His Word.'
I said 'Lord, recall it to our minds, so we can talk to each other with it (scripture). We prayed back and forth for two or three hours. After a long while, Ron asked again 'When do you think anybody will be here?' I said 'I don't know but the Lord knows and as long as we are in His care, what are we worrying about? We know He's going to take care of us. I'm not worried.
Ron said 'Are you not uncomfortable?' 'Sure, I'm uncomfortable, but I'm not worrying about it cause it's in the Lord's hands. There's not a thing I can do. I've already done what I can do. There's nothing I can do but trust Him, and I'm trusting Him. That's for you to do also. So we did that for two or three hours.
I reminded the Lord of His promises and how He had taken care of His own in the lion's den and others when put into the fiery furnace. I knew He was a far greater God than to leave us like we were, because we belong to Him too. We were owned by faith in His Word, because He said 'I will in no ways cast you out.' I prayed 'We come in full faith and honor of Your Word, in full expectations, Lord. We're begging for deliverance, because we know you're gonna do it. In Your own name and in Your own time, for Your own purpose, our Father.'
We prayed a while longer, then I began to get a little bit sleepy but I wasn't comfortable at all. I knew Ron was a bit sleepy, and he wasn't comfortable either. We told different stories in the scriptures, different things the Lord had done, how he turned water to wine, different things he had done. We know He is able to do far greater things than we can ask or think.
I said to Ron, 'You know it took the Lord six days to make this whole earth. He made it in six days and rested on the seventh. We're told in the scriptures that He took His fingers and heaped up the hills and the mountains, took time to make them beautiful. When He went ahead to leave us He said 'I go to prepare a place for you and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there may you be also'. I know he did that. If He promised that, what can we expect after almost two thousand years? He's been working on Heaven for us. He's getting it ready for our homecoming and He's getting ready to welcome us home. What can we expect when this whole earth was made in six days?
I prayed most of the time with my eyes closed because I can talk better to the Lord with my eyes closed. There's nothing to hinder my line of thought and I like to think as clearly as my eight-five year old mind will let me think when I'm praying to the Lord. I looked over and saw that it was about eight to ten feet distance to anything that I might reach. 'Lord, you see how far I am from that bar in the kitchen. If I get anything for Ron myself or you get anything for him, you are going to have to get me over there because I have no way of getting there and You have. You're going get me over there. Lord, I'm gettin' cold. I can't wrap my self, it's chilly and after midnight. I'm puttin' my faith in You to wrap me up. Lord, I'm just asking You to cover me up and make me warm. I know you can do it. I know You will do it. And I am thanking You for having already done it, because You said You would answer my prayers. You said 'the reason you have not is because you ask not.' I'm asking You now to wrap me up.'
I closed my eyes and prayed maybe five or ten minutes or longer. I opened my eyes and stretched my arms as far as I could and it was 6-8 feet to where I could touch anything. 'Lord, You see how far it is from where I can reach anything, to the corner of that bar where I can grab hold of it and drag myself. I know You can make up the difference and make my arm reach there. I can't do it but You can. I have full confidence and faith that you're going to, that you're going to reach there and cover me up and make me warm and comfortable here tonight because You are able, Father. You said you would answer my prayer and I am asking you, believing I'm going receive it.'
I lay there a few minutes and opened my eyes and stretched my arm as far as I could. I was so far from it. 'Lord, You know the distance between here and there and who's go to reach it. You've got to. I can't. But You can easily do it and I believe in my heart you're going to do it, because of the promises You made to those who ask You in faith, doubting nothing and I'm not doubting a thing, Lord. I know You can do it.
I talked with Him just like I would talk with anyone. I could feel His presence. I was talking with Him and I said 'Well, I'm going to close my eyes and then I'm going to reach as far as I can and You will help me get over there to where I can pull myself. I stretched my arm as far as I could and I drew it back when I saw the long distance. After I prayed again, I opened my eyes and stretched again. I was at least a foot closer to that bar than when I closed my eyes the last time. I hadn't felt a single move. I hadn't felt a thing in the world. But the Lord had definitely moved me. I said' thank you, Lord, you've moved me at least a foot and I praise Your name for it. Now I am going to ask You to move me some more because I can't reach it from here but you can because you are all powerful. Everything is in Your hands.'
So, I lay there. After I prayed I stretched my arm as far as I could, I was yet three or four inches closer. I prayed 'Thank you Lord. You moved me three or four inches this time. Thank you and I praise your name. Now, I need to go a little further. You're going to have to help me a little more than this and I trusting you're going to do it for me. I know it in my heart You're going to do it because You promised it. You've never broken a promise and You never will.'
I prayed and reached again. Buddy had been praying five minutes and me five minutes. I reached again and I was a little bit closer. I prayed again and after a good while said 'Lord I don't know how far I'm from that which I need to reach, but You are able. I stretched as far as I could and opened my eyes. I so was near to it I had to stop and think. Is this thing real? Has the Lord really done this thing for me? Has He really answered my prayer right here in the middle of this cold damp night?
I closed my eyes and prayed some more. 'Now, Lord I've got to have something to wrap me up because I'm getting cold and stiff.' I reached my hand up as high as I could and saw that I was just inches from that bar where I could get a hold of it. 'I'm so near there, Lord, but You can reach the difference. You have reached the difference, far more than that. I'm going
to reach my hand again and again because I know You are going to give it to me.'
I stretched as far as I could and I was just about an inch from the bar and I prayed and thanked the Lord for what He had already done and what He was going to do. 'Now Lord, You know I need something to cover me up, cause I had warmth on my mind then. I knew my son was wrapped up and warm in bed, for I had already tucked him and fixed him for the night. So I stretched again as far as I could and looked up to see what I could reach. There was a high-back chair sitting there. 'Now, Lord, there's an afghan there that can wrap me up. I'm asking you to let me get a hold of it, to pull it down here, to wrap me up with it so I can get warm.'
I stretched a last time and was about a quarter inch short but there were some little threads hanging down. 'Lord, its just a very tiny little space. I'm asking You to reach it down to me. You can do it.' I caught the little ends of the threads and twisted them around my fingers and gave a quick jerk. The afghan slid off the back of the chair and landed on top of me. A large afghan and a smaller afghan that had been given me for Christmas. I had laid it there and it slipped right off on top of the other one. I said 'Thank you, Lord for my cover. You've given me everything that I've asked for so far and I just praise Your name for it. Lord, I know your are able, You are capable, and You are willing and I thank You right now.'
I took the big afghan and threw it around me with the arm I had free. I was getting where I could use my right arm some. It was my right hip that was injured. I got that afghan and spread it down over my legs and body. It was so comforting and warm. 'Thank you Lord for covering me up. I asked You to and You have.'
So I laid there and put the small afghan up across my shoulders. There was also a heavy shirt that I had laid out on top of it for the nurse to put on my son when she came to help me in the morning. 'Thank you, Lord for this shirt'. I put my arms through it, put my head through. I never could get my shoulders down in it. I had to lie on the floor the entire night. When I got that over my head I said 'Lord, I just need a pillow, if I just had a pillow.' I put my head back where I was now on the floor and there was an artificial sheep skin that I had washed the day before. I had laid it there to put under my son that morning. It had fallen off right at my head. I reached again and said 'Thank you, Lord, for my pillow.' I took it and folded it up four ways and put it under my head. 'Lord, You have done everything I ask you, and I thank you for doing it.' I never had such a warm comforting feeling in my life. My entire body had this warm comforting feeling.
I laid there a few minutes and then I said 'Lord, you've done all this but I am going to ask more because I still need it and You have what I need. You have salvation for me. You gave blood on the cross for me. You've got promises for me. And you're coming back to get me. Whenever you're ready to take me home, I'm going, because You promised me. I know when You brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, you passed over them. When You went over, You saw the blood. You passed over those houses unharmed. The rest of them had dead bodies in them. I know that when you come back again, You will look for the blood that was shed on Calvary's cross for my sins. You say that if I accept thee as my savior and take that as propitiation for my soul, then the things that You have prepared for my salvation, that if I will accept if by faith, then I will receive them. I know that you've saved my soul. I know you've done so many wonderful things for me and I know there are more You are going to do before this nights over.'
It was about 4:30 in the morning when I had gotten myself wrapped up. I didn't wrap myself up. The Lord did after I asked Him to. He just dumped it down on me. All I had to do was spread it out.
I laid there a while and said 'Buddy, we are going to have to get together and fix something up so somebody will find us in the morning. He said 'Who will be the next people who will be here?' I said 'The way I got it figured out, there won't be anybody unless the Lord sends somebody, but He can send anybody any time he wants to.' But I said this is ours and the Lord's night. He will send when He's ready and we will be pleased, happy, and thankful when He sends. Then I said 'Lord, it's been a long night, and the first person that I can think of that might be here in the morning is the man who brings Meals on wheels.' Buddy asked what time he would come. I told him they don't start sending out the meals until 9 AM and its usually about 10:30 AM when they get here and it was 8:30 PM when I had fallen. That night we had spent in prayer and praising. It was about as much as we had ever praised. We couldn't but help thanking Him between each answer.
Jonah stayed three days and nights in the belly of a whale, yet the Lord brought him out. He was with him all the time. We'd been there just a few hours, far from days and nights. I told Ron 'that when the man comes from Meals on Wheels, there is one thing that we are going to have to do. We're going to have to holler in unison three or four or five different things before we can expect them to understand. They may not hear us at first.'
I always had the back door open when they came. The screen door is latched. They will think something is wrong when they get to the back door and find it's fastened and they can't get in. I said 'Together now let's practice saying 'We need help, we need help' three times in unison.' By this time we were hoarse because we had prayed and praised the Lord so much during the night. 'We need help!' When he shakes the door again, and he will, we will we shout that. Ron interrupted and said 'What if he doesn't hear us?' He will. I said 'Let me tell you what I just now thought of. The man that comes this morning wears a hearing aid and I have no way of knowing how well he hears. But he will hear because the Lord made deaf people to hear, blind people to see, and lame people to walk, dead people to rise. The Lord knows how to do it. When they get here, don't worry about it.'
I said 'The next thing for us to call for is 'ambulance' three times together. Then we will say 'kick the door down!' We practiced that three or four times together in unison. 'That's what we are going to do.' Ron said 'What if he doesn't hear any of them?' I said 'The Lord can make him hear.' The man did show up from Meals on Wheels at the appointed time. We called out the first thing four times and got no response. We then told him to kick the door down. He knocked on the wall and indicated he had heard us. He said he would get us some help.
The thing that had come to my mind before was that the man probably would not hear us. I wasn't sure how well he could hear. How easy it is to doubt. It would have been so easy to have been fearful that he would not hear us because he wore a hearing aid. It proved a real test of faith to believe God could make him hear us.
In time help did arrive, several police officers, and an ambulance. I was taken to the hospital and had surgery to repair my hip. I was assured that Ron would be taken care of while I was in the hospital.
*****
Only people who have ever had a hip surgery can understand the pain it is and only the Lord can help them bear it. The Lord was wonderfully good to me and I thank him for it and am still praising His name. For the Lord has done wonders for me. The first time I went down for my check up in the doctor's office he showed me where I had grown some new bone in there since he operated. He said that I was doing fine and was to come back the next month.
I went back the next month for my second check up and he came out and said 'Ms Rice, you are healed.' I said, 'Thank the Lord for that. I asked Him for it. Now you know who the best doctor in Anderson is. I asked the Lord to pick one out and you know who He selected. So you know it has to be you.' He just smiled and went on out without saying anything. I don't know what he had on his mind, but he didn't say anything. He's done a good job for me as far as I can tell and I am just waiting for the next step. He told me that he hoped to have me up on a walking stick in three or four weeks. I wondered how it would be possible to be up in that short of time. Then I thought that the Lord has done things more wonderful than that for me. So I am waiting to see what the Lord really does have in store for me.
April 13, 1997
At The Hospital
Dear Lord as I sit here,
and look up at Your moon,
I think of You up there,
and may You come very soon.
When I look at my patient,
somehow I can see.
In a very short time,
this well could be me.
Lord, You saved me and kept me,
for lo these fifty years.
I’m living on Your time
and I have no more fears.
You've kept me in sickness
and given back my health,
a wonderful family.
I know I have Your wealth.
You give to me now,
as You have before.
I thank You, Dear Lord,
and I still expect more.
You've showered down Your goodness,
at a wonderful pace.
You've poured our Your blood,
Your love and Your grace.
You just keep on giving,
and giving to me.
and one day quite soon,
Your dear face I'll see.
And then I can thank You,
through eyes filled with tears,
for Your leading and guiding me,
down through the years.
I'll sit down besides You,
in Your wonderful land.
And all mysteries You've hidden,
I'll now understand.
When I see Your pierced hands
and Your dear smiling face,
I'll say thank You Dear Lord
for Your wonderful grace.
1973
Into His Face
He laid me down to look awhile,
straight up into His face,
and while I rested in His care,
I learned His loving grace.
It hurt, o yes, so much at times,
I scarce could hold back tears,
while with His word He comforted one,
and quieted all my fears.
“You’re mine” said He, “I bought you,
Don’t you know?
Remember you were born again,
long many years ago.”
“I've watched along the path you've walked
through all these many years.
I've comforted, guided, cared for, loved you,
regardless of your fears.”
“I've watched your children, each one grow,
I've saved them very young.
I've heard each prayer you've ever prayed,
each hymn of faith you've ever sung.”
“Your dear mate I've chose for you,
my watchful eye hath kept.
He’s very dear to me, you know,
I've guarded him with love.”
“But now its time to rest my dear,
for just a little while.
The cares are great and you are tired
my own dear blood-bought child.”
I closed my eyes and thanked Him then
for his tender loving care.
I dared not open wide mine eyes,
for I knew he was still there.
Elva Mize Rice
August, 1952
In hospital following hysterectomy
Ninth Birthday
When you were born that night to me,
God gave to you a boat,
to sail upon life’s rugged sea,
and you were set afloat.
God gave the helm direct to me.
He said don’t ever fear.
When trouble comes or sorrows too,
you know I’m always near.
We’re guides, lo, these many years,
His keep I've often sought.
Before you came to live with us,
your soul with blood He bought.
You’re just a boy today, my son,
Someday you'll be a man.
The years will pass by, one by one,
and then you'll understand.
Life’s road is rough and long and steep,
that leads up to Success,
and you must plod along the Way,
until you reach the Crest.
Now you've reached the summit’s peak.
My lord is your Lord now.
Today you took Him at His word.
By faith you became his own.
Now down the road of life we tread.
There’s not just we two, rather three.
The same One waits for all of us
that hung upon the tree.
He’s Coming back to take us home
we know not the day or hour.
But this one thing we surely know,
we’re in His keeping power.
Will I be here or gone above,
Just now I cannot know,
but when He gives my Home call,
I'm ready and off I'll go.
Elva Mize Rice
March 1, 1951
My Morning Prayer
Good morning Lord, a brand new day,
you've given just for me,
to see what I will do with it,
especially for Thee.
Lord, help and show me and guide me
to what I now must do,
to walk upon the narrow way,
in harmony with You.
Please keep my eyes, my ears, my mouth
and guide my footsteps too.
Please guide my hands to find
something I can do for you.
Thou died’st for me long years ago
that I with Thee might live.
A Heaven Thou hast prepared for me.
O what more could You give?
I go to prepare a place for you
You told them on the mount,
“and if I go, I'll come again.”
Still on His word we stand.
Dear Lord, each morn when we awake,
we pray to Thee and sigh,
we’re one day closer to Your call
than we were yesternight.
Even so, come Lord Jesus.
Elva M. Rice
September 21, 1979
My quadriplegic son, Ron (Buddy), and I live alone, and have for some years now since my husband was called home to be with the Lord. There are different brothers from Bethany Chapel in Anderson South Carolina who have been of great help to us over the years. Each one of them has selected a night of the week and they come down and help me get him in bed. Ron's usually in bed but they help me get him dressed for bed and then have prayer and Bible reading and tell us good night and leave us until the next morning. We look forward to that every night. It's a great boon to have one of the brothers come in and read a chapter and spend some time with us; prepare us for the night and leave.
We had the latch on the back screen door fixed so it was very hard to unfasten, almost impossible, from the outside. One night, about 8:30 PM, we were getting ready for bed. The brother went home, which was Kent McGahey that night. After he had gone, I went to fasten the door, that back door. After I had locked the door, while I was out there, I turned to come back in. I don't know what happened, but I fell backwards to the floor. I could hear my leg bone snap inside. I more heard it than felt it.
I'm almost eight-five. The Lord's been wonderfully good to me, wonderfully good to me. He's always taken care of me and I expect Him to from now on. I expect to see Him in Glory. In fact, I know I'm going to because His Word has told me I will. That's what we got to call on; His promises; His words, His Holy Spirit, His guidance, His wonderfulness. He's just been so good to me. I don't know how to explain it.
When I fell, I heard my right hip shatter inside the bone. I heard it just crush. I knew that I'd broken my hip. It really hadn't started hurting me just yet. It hadn't been long enough yet to send a message to my brain that I was injured. I knew I had been injured but it didn't send the message right then, it didn't yet pain me.
I said 'Lord, I broke my hip, I know I did. Because I heard it when I fell, and I felt it. Lord, You know how it is here tonight. Now there's nobody here but my quadriplegic son and he's inside in his bed. I've got him prepared for the night and there's no one out here but You and I. What's done here tonight You're going to have to do. And I know You will because You've always been so faithful. And You've promised. I'll follow Your promises.
If I ask anything in Your name, doubting nothing, then I'll receive it. I'm going to ask a lot of things in Your name tonight, Lord. You said that up until now, in your writings, that we've not asked You for anything. I'm asking You, Lord for things tonight. I'm going to bring things before You that I've never asked You for before, because I never needed them, but I'm going to ask for them and I'm going to receive them because You said You would do it and I know You will. And I'm thanking You before I even ask for these requests. And I'm thanking you for Your marvelous love and grace to do that.'
So I started then. I had no way of getting in. I was lying on a plank floor and I had no way of getting across that porch into the kitchen. The door was left open. If I had closed it I don't know what might have happened. But the Lord knows all things. He knew what was going to happen. He had me leave the door open. We had been having some real cold winter nights. Just the night before it had been twenty two degrees. That would have been kind of chilly, lying overnight on that floor. The Lord saw to it that it had warmed up some this night. It wasn't as cold but it was still plenty chilly.
I worked part way through into the kitchen, still on my back. One leg, the one that was broken was opposite the way I wanted to go. I couldn't move the leg. By then it had started swelling. Pain had started in on it. I got closer. I said 'Lord I can't go much further the way this is hurting, the pain and all. In the meantime, my son heard me fall and he said "Mother, did you fall?'. I said, I'm OK , I'll be inside in a minute.' I couldn't afford to let him become excited and worried when he couldn't do a thing in the world for me. But I could pray. I scooted in there on the floor. I looked around and there was nothing I could put my foot against, that is, the one foot I could use. I did have my shoes on. I didn't have anything I could reach, no bedposts, nothing I could pull on to give me any leverage, nothing to let me scoot closer to where I wanted to go.
I stopped and told my son 'I have broken my hip and I'm lying here on the floor.' Naturally, he was excited and scared because he knew that we were alone. There would be nobody until the next morning. I told him 'you know we're going to be here all night, there's no one else coming.' He said 'Is there any way of letting anyone know?' I said 'no, there's no one. There's two telephones but they're both out of reach. I'm here on the floor and you are there, a quad, and unable to reach them.'
I said 'Lord, you know the position we're in, the condition we're in. You know that You're all we've both got. We both love You, and You love us. You died on Calvary for us. And we're coming to You with a need now that only You can supply. We're depending on You to supply it. Lord, we're asking You a lot of things and laying a lot of things down before You tonight and wanting you to do for us.' I said 'I believe I am going to get every one of them, because you promised me. You said, 'I'll never leave you or forsake you'.' 'Now, Lord, I'm lying here on the floor, with not a thing in the world I can do for myself. But I thank You I can look up, because I know You're up there and right around close to me, because I feel Your presence now. Lord, I know that You have to be here, because I know I couldn't otherwise have this sensation of pleasure of knowing the closeness, nearness and warmth of Your love such as I've got right now.'
While I was talking to the Lord I had a sensation of not lying on the floor. It didn't give that sensation. It had been hurting very painfully, lying on that cold floor. At once, I just had a sensation of comforting warmth and I had a sensation of being suspended gently, very gently. I was just on the floor, but there was no pressure, just as if I was suspended. Why, I don't know. But the Lord knows. He was there. He did it.
I said 'Lord, you know the position we're in. And You know what you've done for us. And what You're going to do for us. We're asking You now to help us get through the night until someone comes in the morning to help us to get up. I know it's going to be a long night but I know what happened when one of Your people had his boat stuck in the sand at night. Part of it broke off and he was being washed around and He said he wished for the day. I have a feeling we are going to wish for the day, the morning, before it gets here. You let this man see the day and he floated out on his boat and You saved him. You're going to let us see the day and You're going to let us come out of this. I know You are because Your promises are not broken. There are some things I need and You know it."
I turned to Ron and said, 'Buddy, can you see the clock?' He said 'Yes, ma'am' and he told me the time. I moved my head back and I could see the same clock on the wall that he could but we couldn't see each other. We had no way of getting any water or anything to eat the whole night or whatever period of time we had to stay there. Ron asked again 'Mother, do you think some body will come tonight?' I said 'I don't know if they will or not, but I know the Lord is going to be here. He's here right now. I know He's going to be here all night. Who else do we need?' Ron said 'I guess you're right.'
Naturally, I know Ron had a feeling for my lying there on the floor and not being able to get covered up against the cold. but the Lord knew about all of that. 'Lord, it's going to be all night before anyone's here without You sending somebody. Ron asked again 'Do you think He will send anybody?' I said 'Yes, honey, somebody will come. The Lord won't just let us lie here, with nobody coming. It may be in the morning but He's going to comfort, sustain, and keep us in the hollow of His hand until in the morning. In the morning when it's time for anyone to come, we'll be right here. Don't worry. The Lord's here and He's going to be all night.'
We laid there all night. It was getting on towards morning. I said 'Buddy, I'll tell you what we will do to pass the time. We're not going to lie here all night and worry. We're going to lie here and pray. Something tells me this is going to be one of the greatest nights in our lives. We will spend it with the Lord. And He's going to spend it with us. It's going to be us and the Lord. There's not very many people who have the opportunity to spend the night with the Lord. And there won't be anyone breaking in on our meditation and our discussions. I think this night is going to be ours and the Lord's. Ron, you pray. You can see the clock . You pray five minutes and close. Then I will pray for five minutes and close. Right on through the night. If we do that then we will have several hours of good time to pray. That's what we're gonna do. Quote scripture to the Lord because it's His Word.'
I said 'Lord, recall it to our minds, so we can talk to each other with it (scripture). We prayed back and forth for two or three hours. After a long while, Ron asked again 'When do you think anybody will be here?' I said 'I don't know but the Lord knows and as long as we are in His care, what are we worrying about? We know He's going to take care of us. I'm not worried.
Ron said 'Are you not uncomfortable?' 'Sure, I'm uncomfortable, but I'm not worrying about it cause it's in the Lord's hands. There's not a thing I can do. I've already done what I can do. There's nothing I can do but trust Him, and I'm trusting Him. That's for you to do also. So we did that for two or three hours.
I reminded the Lord of His promises and how He had taken care of His own in the lion's den and others when put into the fiery furnace. I knew He was a far greater God than to leave us like we were, because we belong to Him too. We were owned by faith in His Word, because He said 'I will in no ways cast you out.' I prayed 'We come in full faith and honor of Your Word, in full expectations, Lord. We're begging for deliverance, because we know you're gonna do it. In Your own name and in Your own time, for Your own purpose, our Father.'
We prayed a while longer, then I began to get a little bit sleepy but I wasn't comfortable at all. I knew Ron was a bit sleepy, and he wasn't comfortable either. We told different stories in the scriptures, different things the Lord had done, how he turned water to wine, different things he had done. We know He is able to do far greater things than we can ask or think.
I said to Ron, 'You know it took the Lord six days to make this whole earth. He made it in six days and rested on the seventh. We're told in the scriptures that He took His fingers and heaped up the hills and the mountains, took time to make them beautiful. When He went ahead to leave us He said 'I go to prepare a place for you and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there may you be also'. I know he did that. If He promised that, what can we expect after almost two thousand years? He's been working on Heaven for us. He's getting it ready for our homecoming and He's getting ready to welcome us home. What can we expect when this whole earth was made in six days?
I prayed most of the time with my eyes closed because I can talk better to the Lord with my eyes closed. There's nothing to hinder my line of thought and I like to think as clearly as my eight-five year old mind will let me think when I'm praying to the Lord. I looked over and saw that it was about eight to ten feet distance to anything that I might reach. 'Lord, you see how far I am from that bar in the kitchen. If I get anything for Ron myself or you get anything for him, you are going to have to get me over there because I have no way of getting there and You have. You're going get me over there. Lord, I'm gettin' cold. I can't wrap my self, it's chilly and after midnight. I'm puttin' my faith in You to wrap me up. Lord, I'm just asking You to cover me up and make me warm. I know you can do it. I know You will do it. And I am thanking You for having already done it, because You said You would answer my prayers. You said 'the reason you have not is because you ask not.' I'm asking You now to wrap me up.'
I closed my eyes and prayed maybe five or ten minutes or longer. I opened my eyes and stretched my arms as far as I could and it was 6-8 feet to where I could touch anything. 'Lord, You see how far it is from where I can reach anything, to the corner of that bar where I can grab hold of it and drag myself. I know You can make up the difference and make my arm reach there. I can't do it but You can. I have full confidence and faith that you're going to, that you're going to reach there and cover me up and make me warm and comfortable here tonight because You are able, Father. You said you would answer my prayer and I am asking you, believing I'm going receive it.'
I lay there a few minutes and opened my eyes and stretched my arm as far as I could. I was so far from it. 'Lord, You know the distance between here and there and who's go to reach it. You've got to. I can't. But You can easily do it and I believe in my heart you're going to do it, because of the promises You made to those who ask You in faith, doubting nothing and I'm not doubting a thing, Lord. I know You can do it.
I talked with Him just like I would talk with anyone. I could feel His presence. I was talking with Him and I said 'Well, I'm going to close my eyes and then I'm going to reach as far as I can and You will help me get over there to where I can pull myself. I stretched my arm as far as I could and I drew it back when I saw the long distance. After I prayed again, I opened my eyes and stretched again. I was at least a foot closer to that bar than when I closed my eyes the last time. I hadn't felt a single move. I hadn't felt a thing in the world. But the Lord had definitely moved me. I said' thank you, Lord, you've moved me at least a foot and I praise Your name for it. Now I am going to ask You to move me some more because I can't reach it from here but you can because you are all powerful. Everything is in Your hands.'
So, I lay there. After I prayed I stretched my arm as far as I could, I was yet three or four inches closer. I prayed 'Thank you Lord. You moved me three or four inches this time. Thank you and I praise your name. Now, I need to go a little further. You're going to have to help me a little more than this and I trusting you're going to do it for me. I know it in my heart You're going to do it because You promised it. You've never broken a promise and You never will.'
I prayed and reached again. Buddy had been praying five minutes and me five minutes. I reached again and I was a little bit closer. I prayed again and after a good while said 'Lord I don't know how far I'm from that which I need to reach, but You are able. I stretched as far as I could and opened my eyes. I so was near to it I had to stop and think. Is this thing real? Has the Lord really done this thing for me? Has He really answered my prayer right here in the middle of this cold damp night?
I closed my eyes and prayed some more. 'Now, Lord I've got to have something to wrap me up because I'm getting cold and stiff.' I reached my hand up as high as I could and saw that I was just inches from that bar where I could get a hold of it. 'I'm so near there, Lord, but You can reach the difference. You have reached the difference, far more than that. I'm going
to reach my hand again and again because I know You are going to give it to me.'
I stretched as far as I could and I was just about an inch from the bar and I prayed and thanked the Lord for what He had already done and what He was going to do. 'Now Lord, You know I need something to cover me up, cause I had warmth on my mind then. I knew my son was wrapped up and warm in bed, for I had already tucked him and fixed him for the night. So I stretched again as far as I could and looked up to see what I could reach. There was a high-back chair sitting there. 'Now, Lord, there's an afghan there that can wrap me up. I'm asking you to let me get a hold of it, to pull it down here, to wrap me up with it so I can get warm.'
I stretched a last time and was about a quarter inch short but there were some little threads hanging down. 'Lord, its just a very tiny little space. I'm asking You to reach it down to me. You can do it.' I caught the little ends of the threads and twisted them around my fingers and gave a quick jerk. The afghan slid off the back of the chair and landed on top of me. A large afghan and a smaller afghan that had been given me for Christmas. I had laid it there and it slipped right off on top of the other one. I said 'Thank you, Lord for my cover. You've given me everything that I've asked for so far and I just praise Your name for it. Lord, I know your are able, You are capable, and You are willing and I thank You right now.'
I took the big afghan and threw it around me with the arm I had free. I was getting where I could use my right arm some. It was my right hip that was injured. I got that afghan and spread it down over my legs and body. It was so comforting and warm. 'Thank you Lord for covering me up. I asked You to and You have.'
So I laid there and put the small afghan up across my shoulders. There was also a heavy shirt that I had laid out on top of it for the nurse to put on my son when she came to help me in the morning. 'Thank you, Lord for this shirt'. I put my arms through it, put my head through. I never could get my shoulders down in it. I had to lie on the floor the entire night. When I got that over my head I said 'Lord, I just need a pillow, if I just had a pillow.' I put my head back where I was now on the floor and there was an artificial sheep skin that I had washed the day before. I had laid it there to put under my son that morning. It had fallen off right at my head. I reached again and said 'Thank you, Lord, for my pillow.' I took it and folded it up four ways and put it under my head. 'Lord, You have done everything I ask you, and I thank you for doing it.' I never had such a warm comforting feeling in my life. My entire body had this warm comforting feeling.
I laid there a few minutes and then I said 'Lord, you've done all this but I am going to ask more because I still need it and You have what I need. You have salvation for me. You gave blood on the cross for me. You've got promises for me. And you're coming back to get me. Whenever you're ready to take me home, I'm going, because You promised me. I know when You brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, you passed over them. When You went over, You saw the blood. You passed over those houses unharmed. The rest of them had dead bodies in them. I know that when you come back again, You will look for the blood that was shed on Calvary's cross for my sins. You say that if I accept thee as my savior and take that as propitiation for my soul, then the things that You have prepared for my salvation, that if I will accept if by faith, then I will receive them. I know that you've saved my soul. I know you've done so many wonderful things for me and I know there are more You are going to do before this nights over.'
It was about 4:30 in the morning when I had gotten myself wrapped up. I didn't wrap myself up. The Lord did after I asked Him to. He just dumped it down on me. All I had to do was spread it out.
I laid there a while and said 'Buddy, we are going to have to get together and fix something up so somebody will find us in the morning. He said 'Who will be the next people who will be here?' I said 'The way I got it figured out, there won't be anybody unless the Lord sends somebody, but He can send anybody any time he wants to.' But I said this is ours and the Lord's night. He will send when He's ready and we will be pleased, happy, and thankful when He sends. Then I said 'Lord, it's been a long night, and the first person that I can think of that might be here in the morning is the man who brings Meals on wheels.' Buddy asked what time he would come. I told him they don't start sending out the meals until 9 AM and its usually about 10:30 AM when they get here and it was 8:30 PM when I had fallen. That night we had spent in prayer and praising. It was about as much as we had ever praised. We couldn't but help thanking Him between each answer.
Jonah stayed three days and nights in the belly of a whale, yet the Lord brought him out. He was with him all the time. We'd been there just a few hours, far from days and nights. I told Ron 'that when the man comes from Meals on Wheels, there is one thing that we are going to have to do. We're going to have to holler in unison three or four or five different things before we can expect them to understand. They may not hear us at first.'
I always had the back door open when they came. The screen door is latched. They will think something is wrong when they get to the back door and find it's fastened and they can't get in. I said 'Together now let's practice saying 'We need help, we need help' three times in unison.' By this time we were hoarse because we had prayed and praised the Lord so much during the night. 'We need help!' When he shakes the door again, and he will, we will we shout that. Ron interrupted and said 'What if he doesn't hear us?' He will. I said 'Let me tell you what I just now thought of. The man that comes this morning wears a hearing aid and I have no way of knowing how well he hears. But he will hear because the Lord made deaf people to hear, blind people to see, and lame people to walk, dead people to rise. The Lord knows how to do it. When they get here, don't worry about it.'
I said 'The next thing for us to call for is 'ambulance' three times together. Then we will say 'kick the door down!' We practiced that three or four times together in unison. 'That's what we are going to do.' Ron said 'What if he doesn't hear any of them?' I said 'The Lord can make him hear.' The man did show up from Meals on Wheels at the appointed time. We called out the first thing four times and got no response. We then told him to kick the door down. He knocked on the wall and indicated he had heard us. He said he would get us some help.
The thing that had come to my mind before was that the man probably would not hear us. I wasn't sure how well he could hear. How easy it is to doubt. It would have been so easy to have been fearful that he would not hear us because he wore a hearing aid. It proved a real test of faith to believe God could make him hear us.
In time help did arrive, several police officers, and an ambulance. I was taken to the hospital and had surgery to repair my hip. I was assured that Ron would be taken care of while I was in the hospital.
*****
Only people who have ever had a hip surgery can understand the pain it is and only the Lord can help them bear it. The Lord was wonderfully good to me and I thank him for it and am still praising His name. For the Lord has done wonders for me. The first time I went down for my check up in the doctor's office he showed me where I had grown some new bone in there since he operated. He said that I was doing fine and was to come back the next month.
I went back the next month for my second check up and he came out and said 'Ms Rice, you are healed.' I said, 'Thank the Lord for that. I asked Him for it. Now you know who the best doctor in Anderson is. I asked the Lord to pick one out and you know who He selected. So you know it has to be you.' He just smiled and went on out without saying anything. I don't know what he had on his mind, but he didn't say anything. He's done a good job for me as far as I can tell and I am just waiting for the next step. He told me that he hoped to have me up on a walking stick in three or four weeks. I wondered how it would be possible to be up in that short of time. Then I thought that the Lord has done things more wonderful than that for me. So I am waiting to see what the Lord really does have in store for me.
April 13, 1997
At The Hospital
Dear Lord as I sit here,
and look up at Your moon,
I think of You up there,
and may You come very soon.
When I look at my patient,
somehow I can see.
In a very short time,
this well could be me.
Lord, You saved me and kept me,
for lo these fifty years.
I’m living on Your time
and I have no more fears.
You've kept me in sickness
and given back my health,
a wonderful family.
I know I have Your wealth.
You give to me now,
as You have before.
I thank You, Dear Lord,
and I still expect more.
You've showered down Your goodness,
at a wonderful pace.
You've poured our Your blood,
Your love and Your grace.
You just keep on giving,
and giving to me.
and one day quite soon,
Your dear face I'll see.
And then I can thank You,
through eyes filled with tears,
for Your leading and guiding me,
down through the years.
I'll sit down besides You,
in Your wonderful land.
And all mysteries You've hidden,
I'll now understand.
When I see Your pierced hands
and Your dear smiling face,
I'll say thank You Dear Lord
for Your wonderful grace.
1973
Into His Face
He laid me down to look awhile,
straight up into His face,
and while I rested in His care,
I learned His loving grace.
It hurt, o yes, so much at times,
I scarce could hold back tears,
while with His word He comforted one,
and quieted all my fears.
“You’re mine” said He, “I bought you,
Don’t you know?
Remember you were born again,
long many years ago.”
“I've watched along the path you've walked
through all these many years.
I've comforted, guided, cared for, loved you,
regardless of your fears.”
“I've watched your children, each one grow,
I've saved them very young.
I've heard each prayer you've ever prayed,
each hymn of faith you've ever sung.”
“Your dear mate I've chose for you,
my watchful eye hath kept.
He’s very dear to me, you know,
I've guarded him with love.”
“But now its time to rest my dear,
for just a little while.
The cares are great and you are tired
my own dear blood-bought child.”
I closed my eyes and thanked Him then
for his tender loving care.
I dared not open wide mine eyes,
for I knew he was still there.
Elva Mize Rice
August, 1952
In hospital following hysterectomy
Ninth Birthday
When you were born that night to me,
God gave to you a boat,
to sail upon life’s rugged sea,
and you were set afloat.
God gave the helm direct to me.
He said don’t ever fear.
When trouble comes or sorrows too,
you know I’m always near.
We’re guides, lo, these many years,
His keep I've often sought.
Before you came to live with us,
your soul with blood He bought.
You’re just a boy today, my son,
Someday you'll be a man.
The years will pass by, one by one,
and then you'll understand.
Life’s road is rough and long and steep,
that leads up to Success,
and you must plod along the Way,
until you reach the Crest.
Now you've reached the summit’s peak.
My lord is your Lord now.
Today you took Him at His word.
By faith you became his own.
Now down the road of life we tread.
There’s not just we two, rather three.
The same One waits for all of us
that hung upon the tree.
He’s Coming back to take us home
we know not the day or hour.
But this one thing we surely know,
we’re in His keeping power.
Will I be here or gone above,
Just now I cannot know,
but when He gives my Home call,
I'm ready and off I'll go.
Elva Mize Rice
March 1, 1951
My Morning Prayer
Good morning Lord, a brand new day,
you've given just for me,
to see what I will do with it,
especially for Thee.
Lord, help and show me and guide me
to what I now must do,
to walk upon the narrow way,
in harmony with You.
Please keep my eyes, my ears, my mouth
and guide my footsteps too.
Please guide my hands to find
something I can do for you.
Thou died’st for me long years ago
that I with Thee might live.
A Heaven Thou hast prepared for me.
O what more could You give?
I go to prepare a place for you
You told them on the mount,
“and if I go, I'll come again.”
Still on His word we stand.
Dear Lord, each morn when we awake,
we pray to Thee and sigh,
we’re one day closer to Your call
than we were yesternight.
Even so, come Lord Jesus.
Elva M. Rice
September 21, 1979
Some Reflections on Nature
It's Snowing
Dear God, You make it look so clean,
this dirt and grime outside.
This snow has covered everything,
as Your blood has cleansed your bride.
We stand in awe before the scene,
as limbs and boughs stoop down.
Your sparrows now are hunting food,
upon the frozen ground.
“We’re in His care” they seem to say,
as here and there they spy,
the food you've hidden just for them,
in nook and crannies nearby.
The Sun is hid. The moon and stars
are shaded by your snow.
All’s quiet and still throughout the woods,
no wind , no chill breezes blow.
The rabbits and chipmunks too,
are scurrying for their meal.
The squirrel has long since gone to bed,
his fur-lined nest does appeal.
The lambs and pigs come on,
the cattle come a looing home.
The chickens have all gone to roost,
the dog gnaws on his bone.
We reach and get our old Guidebook,
You've left for us to learn.
We see the wonders of Your love
and pray for Your return.
Elva M. Rice
February 6, 1979
The Birds
I sit here, looking at the hill,
where everything’s so quiet and still.
The katydids are in full swing,
you know it’s fall, not spring.
For in spring the whippoorwills
resound and echo through these hills.
The robin and cardinal too,
the hawk, the crow and birds of blue.
When summer comes, their young to raise,
their nieces sing their Maker’s praise.
Among the leaves upon the ground,
they know their food can then be found.
Our God gives them fruits and berries too,
to feed their young until they grew.
He gave them worms and gnats and flies,
to close young mouths and stop their cries.
Tis summer now, their nests are bare.
The young have flown and they’re not there.
Perched high on limb and fence and vine,
a warning sung, it’s end of summer time.
The leaves will soon fall to ground,
these birds will not be seen around.
You'll look to see where they have gone
and realize they all have flown.
They’re flying south while times are good.
They gather here, they know they should.
For fall’s here and well they know
to warmer climes they now must go.
They try their wings, their strength to know,
for miles and miles they now must go.
They know this food is well nigh spent,
and times are as their Maker meant.
They'll sail away to warmer climes,
where food and shelter they will find.
They'll bask in wind and sun, and rain
and wait for spring and come again.
For aeons now, each year they make
this trip for their survival’s sake.
His plans for them have never failed
as through the skies they swiftly sail.
Their Maker sees, He knows, He cares,
He gives them help, and food He shares.
He made them and knows their end,
their paths charted, watched by Him.
He watches, and if one should fall,
He sees, He cares, He knows it all.
Through ways He cares for them and does.
We know He cares and watches us.
Elva M. Rice
September 4, 1978
Written at Gene’s house.
Dear God, You make it look so clean,
this dirt and grime outside.
This snow has covered everything,
as Your blood has cleansed your bride.
We stand in awe before the scene,
as limbs and boughs stoop down.
Your sparrows now are hunting food,
upon the frozen ground.
“We’re in His care” they seem to say,
as here and there they spy,
the food you've hidden just for them,
in nook and crannies nearby.
The Sun is hid. The moon and stars
are shaded by your snow.
All’s quiet and still throughout the woods,
no wind , no chill breezes blow.
The rabbits and chipmunks too,
are scurrying for their meal.
The squirrel has long since gone to bed,
his fur-lined nest does appeal.
The lambs and pigs come on,
the cattle come a looing home.
The chickens have all gone to roost,
the dog gnaws on his bone.
We reach and get our old Guidebook,
You've left for us to learn.
We see the wonders of Your love
and pray for Your return.
Elva M. Rice
February 6, 1979
The Birds
I sit here, looking at the hill,
where everything’s so quiet and still.
The katydids are in full swing,
you know it’s fall, not spring.
For in spring the whippoorwills
resound and echo through these hills.
The robin and cardinal too,
the hawk, the crow and birds of blue.
When summer comes, their young to raise,
their nieces sing their Maker’s praise.
Among the leaves upon the ground,
they know their food can then be found.
Our God gives them fruits and berries too,
to feed their young until they grew.
He gave them worms and gnats and flies,
to close young mouths and stop their cries.
Tis summer now, their nests are bare.
The young have flown and they’re not there.
Perched high on limb and fence and vine,
a warning sung, it’s end of summer time.
The leaves will soon fall to ground,
these birds will not be seen around.
You'll look to see where they have gone
and realize they all have flown.
They’re flying south while times are good.
They gather here, they know they should.
For fall’s here and well they know
to warmer climes they now must go.
They try their wings, their strength to know,
for miles and miles they now must go.
They know this food is well nigh spent,
and times are as their Maker meant.
They'll sail away to warmer climes,
where food and shelter they will find.
They'll bask in wind and sun, and rain
and wait for spring and come again.
For aeons now, each year they make
this trip for their survival’s sake.
His plans for them have never failed
as through the skies they swiftly sail.
Their Maker sees, He knows, He cares,
He gives them help, and food He shares.
He made them and knows their end,
their paths charted, watched by Him.
He watches, and if one should fall,
He sees, He cares, He knows it all.
Through ways He cares for them and does.
We know He cares and watches us.
Elva M. Rice
September 4, 1978
Written at Gene’s house.
Some Reflections on Family Life
Back Home
I came back home today to see,
if it seemed at all like home to me.
The place was there I hoped to see.
But nothing seemed the same to Me.
The steps were down, the front door leaned,
the windows out, without their screens.
The chimneys fell, the roof caved in,
a memory now, where home has been.
The rose is gone, no tender care;
beneath the house a broken chair,
a plow stock, and an old bed frame.
It’s not home now, oh what a shame.
Our Pa is gone and so is Ma.
There hangs his hammer and his saw.
And what rests here is this old pail;
some bolts, screws and rusty nails.
A bonnet, apron, and Pa’s old hat;
the broken rockers where they sat.
A worn out broom and mop was there,
but no one here now seems to care.
No, there’s no wash pan, nor soap.
Familiar things as I had hoped.
The old wash bench has fallen down;
the gourd and bucket on the ground.
What’s this I see upon the wall?
The axe Pa used to raise us all.
He hewed the ties and split the rails.
Ma built the fence beside the trail.
The barn is gone, the pig pen too.
The chicken house where catnip grew.
The tail that leads down to the spring
is no more now, like other things.
The orchard and the hills I've known,
with briars and weeds is overgrown.
No garden now, no tater patch.
Can’t close the door, there’s no latch.
I closed my eyes and shed a tear,
wondered why I’d come back here.
And then I turned for one last glance,
I'll go inside, just take a chance.
Inside I see bare papered walls.
The ceiling’s gone, it had to fall.
The leaking roof made it cave through,
just one more thing I wish I knew.
If all the twelve were here today,
and everyone could have his say,
I think we’d hang our heads and cry,
For good old days that’s done gone by.
We’d take a walk up through the hills,
and say “Dear God, can this be real?”
and then we’d stop and take a look,
then do some searching in the Book.
We’d read and see that in this land,
God meant for us to understand,
that life’s short and death is sure.
We’d better make our life secure.
By trusting in His blood, we see
the only Hope for you and me.
Today we dare not put it off,
tomorrow may be our eternal loss.
We’re only here for a short span,
so reach and take our Savior’s hand
and take by faith the words He spoke.
“Come unto Me.” This is no joke.
Our homes one day will be like this,
the things we have we'll one day miss,
but, if we've made our future sure,
our soul’s eternal rest is secure.
So come on now, let’s heed His call,
He died for us, for one and all.
He’s waiting now to hear us say,
“I thank thee Lord, I take thy Way.”
This world to us will come and go,
we'll stop the plow, the axe, the hoe.
We all grow old and pass away,
to dwell with Him eternally.
Elva Mize Rice
May 5, 1978
To Ron from Mother
Bear Hound
My baby brother is a hunter. He likes to hunt deer, anything, turkey in season, and everything else. He travels through Georgia, North Carolina, wherever hunting season is open. He enjoys it. One time he knew where there was a deer run, where the deer went down for water from the river. He went early one morning and found a large tree and sat down, and leaned back against it, facing the deer run. He had his gun. While he was sitting there a long while, it was a cool morning and he drifted off to sleep.
While he was asleep he awoke to a hot breath right on the side of his neck. A sniffing nose went up around his ear, his face, hair, all around. After a while a tongue began to lick him. He dared not move, not even open his eyes, as he knew that it had to be a bear or a panther. He knew if he moved a bit, he was a goner. He just sat there and prayed that something would happen. While he was sitting there, this tongue began to lick him real rough. He thought it gots to be a bear's tongue, it's too rough. It licked his face all over.
In a few minutes this old hound whined. In an instant, my brother knew that this was an old hound that had gotten lost from his master while he was hunting in those woods. My brother was the first human this old hound had come into contact with. He thought this the best sounded best looking old hound he had ever seen in his life. He just hugged him and hugged him and led him out of the woods. He had lost his appetite for deer that morning.
March 29, 1997
Apple Tree
Perhaps what we had done was overlooked because they were after that lie. My daddy always said "A man is no better than his word." He said if a man's word was no good and he couldn't believe him, he was a no account man. Just watch him. Mark it down.
One time I remember, when I was a little one, between three and a half and four years old. My daddy was just a young father and he started him up an orchard, just cleared up the land, terraced it down, and started his orchard. He would order his trees from Starks Brothers. Some from Sears Roebuck, way back then. He would dig holes where he was going to put them and then he would call me as his big helper. I would stand there and hold the trees up straight and erect while he tamped down the soil around them. I thought I was really something because I was helping Daddy start an apple orchard. He would tell me how good the apples would be and we would make pies and we would make jellies, and apple cider. I just loved those apple trees.
About the second year after we got them out, a few of the trees began to put little bunches of blossoms out on the tips of every branch. Daddy would take me by the hand, lead me around, and show me these and say "This will make a red apple and this will make a yellow apple and we will have some fine apples." When they got up large enough for one to tell they were going to be apples of nice size, he told me one day "There's not going to be but a few of these because this is a young orchard, but don't pull any of 'em, because if you do, it will cause the trees to drop their fruit before its mature and they won't bear as well. Well, I let that all sink down. I promised him I wouldn't. He would take me every week by the hand and show me the apples.
One morning I got restless. It had been raining all night on Friday and it was now Saturday morning and they slept in late. I jumped up and slipped out in the yard, down to the spring, out to the terraces to see the apples. Those apples were about as big as your fist at that time; yellow golden apples. There was a drop of rain hanging on the bottom of each one of 'em. I thought those were just the prettiest apples I ever saw. I stood there a while and looked at them, out on the tips of the branches. I reached up and he told me not to. "That one way out there on the end, he will never miss that and I'm going to see how it tastes." It was beginning to show color; beautiful.
The little forked tree was standing there and I just stepped up in it to reach for the apple. The tree split all the way to ground. One side went down all the way to the ground!
Oh! I was frightened. Oh! I knew I was caught and I knew I didn't know how to get out of it. And I knew I mustn't lie and I was in a quandary. So, I ran to the house as fast as I could. There was a pan of water there on the steps, where it had rained during the night. I washed off my feet, ran in, and jumped in the bed. I curled up, lay there awhile, but couldn't go back to sleep. I got as deep under those covers as I could get.
After a while my daddy got up and he got breakfast started. He was out walking around, looking at his apples. I knew what he was doing and why, but I didn't go to see. I was sleeping. Daddy came into my room a bit later where I was pretending to be asleep and asked me if I had been out of bed already. "No, Sir." "Are you sure?" "Yes, Sir." "Positive?" "Yes, Sir." "OK." He left and went back down to the kitchen.
After a while he said "Let's have breakfast." Mother finished our breakfast and we enjoyed it. Well really, they enjoyed it but I couldn't enjoy it much because I knew I had lied. And I was going to get in trouble if they caught up with me. But I was hoping they wouldn't quite come up with what I had done. After a while Daddy said "Hanna, guess what one of these children's done?" Oh! I just drew up in a knot. I knew I was caught. "Guess what one of these children's done. They's climbed up in one of the trees and split it all the way to the ground; that big one down there that had them pretty ones on it. Daddy asked mother if she had any idea of who did it and she had no idea at all. She said none of the children had been up. She had no idea that I had slipped out early. She was telling what was right. "All of them's been in bed, there haven't been any children here." He said "I have a way of finding out. It was one of these children here." I thought "He can't tell who it was because he was in bed asleep. I did that. I washed my feet and crawled back into bed."
Daddy turned to me and asked me "Do you have any idea who stepped up into that tree down there and split it all the way to the ground and ruined my pretty apple tree?" "No, Sir." I stood there a few minutes. Again he asked "Do you have any idea?" "No, Sir" He continued "Now you look me straight in the eye. Are you telling me the truth?" I said "Yes, Sir" because I knew I was in trouble and didn't know how to get out of it. I knew I shouldn't lie but I didn't know how to get out of it. I was in a quandary. He said "I'll give you another chance. Are you sure you didn't do it?" "Yes, Sir." He said "You know I have a way of finding out exactly who did it." Oh, oh. Where was he when I didn't see? He must have been watching me someplace. Then I got to thinking. Maybe daddies were like God and could see everything I did. Then I really was scared. I had been taught all my life that God saw every thing I did.
He said "come here." He told Mother "I have a way of finding out." He reached back into his hip pocket and took out a little stick that he had trimmed off just right with his knife. He held up the stick and said "This stick is the same length as the foot that stepped up in the apple tree because I measured it down in the footprints in the mud at the base of the tree." Oh, oh. I'm a goner. I just stood there. I was frightened to death. He asked me "Do you want to change your story?" "No, Sir." I was in deep enough and I didn't know which way to turn cause if I told a lie, I was telling another one. Then I didn't know what I was gonna do. Daddy said, "Well I got a way."
He asked Mamma to bring the baby to him and to turn his foot around. He took his stick out and measured it next to that tiny little baby's foot and that stick was much longer than that little foot. He said "It couldn't have been this one." I was hurtin' all over. He called my little sister, just two years old. "Come here, Elsa." He told her "Hold your left foot up here." So she did. Her foot came just a little over halfway on that stick. "Well, it wasn't this one. There's not but one more here that it could have been." To me again he said "I'm going to give you another chance to straighten things out if you want to." I was in such a mess then I didn't see any way out and I just went ahead and lied again. "No, Sir."
Daddy said "I want to measure your foot by this stick. Reach your foot up here." I was standing there. I went to lift my foot up there and that was the heaviest foot I EVER picked up. It would just hardly get up on his knee where he could measure it. When I got it up there and he measured it, it came out exactly right to the top of that little stick. He looked at me and asked "You want to change your story?" I was already crying and I didn't want to change any story. But I knew that he knew all about it.
He said "Now let me tell you something. My apple tree's ruined. Split open and I don't know whether it will ever amount to anything. I'm not worried about the apple tree. What I'm worried about is about my child lying to me like you lied this morning." I didn't have a thing to say. I was standing there, facing the facts. I had lied. He said "You know there's a penalty for lying. I'm going to give you a good lickin'." He went out in the yard and broke off five or six little twigs from a peach tree and pinched them together at the back and came back in. He pulled up my little gown which was already muddy and wet from being out on the grass and mud in the yard and orchard. He checkered my little legs real good in the back with that little switch. It just burnt and hurt and everything.
Daddy said "Remember, I'm not whipping you for the apple tree. I'm whipping you for lying to me. You gotta pay for a lie when I catch you in one." He wasn't fussing. He was just talking. I a whole lot rather he fussed. He didn't. He was just talking. "When you lie, you've always got to face it. You've learned early. You faced yours this morning. Now you watch that."
Oh, I went back in there and crawled in that bed. My little legs were just stinging and burning. But you know what? Next time that I was asked something I thought two or three times before I answered and I didn't lie again about that. I tried again a few times but I never could get by with it. My daddy or mamma could look me straight in the eye and tell when I was lying.
I lied that time but I raised a little boy a few years later and he tried the same thing on me. I remembered what my daddy had taught me and what my mamma had taught me and I was trying to teach him. So I spanked him one day for lying and I told him "Mother can always tell when you're lying." He said "How can you tell when I'm lying?" He was a little feller, only about two and a half. I said "Mother can look in your eyes and tell when you're lying." So a few days later he came into tell me something and all at once he turned the backs of his little hands over his eyes and stood there while he was talking. I asked him "Ronny, why have you got your eyes covered up?" He said "I don't want you to see in there and know I am telling you a lie." He had tried the same thing I did.
Elva Mize Rice
March 29, 1997
Parents
Why do Ma's and Pa's grow so old,
when we kids are still so young?
They live the stories they have told,
and sing the songs they've song.
They've walked paths we still must walk,
but now they're treading slow.
They've crossed muck and mire of life,
through which we all must go.
They try to tell us but we balk,
we do not see nor hear.
Things they know, we still must learn,
although we walk with fear.
Our necks are stiff, our backs straight.
We think we stand up tall.
We think we rule the world today.
We know we know it all.
But let us strike a rocky place
or face a long steep hill.
We try to recall "What did they say?"
I think I hear them still.
O yes, they said "Look up my child,
when life is tough and long,
our Lord up there sees it all,
His ways with us is strong."
He left His spirit here to guide,
to keep and comfort too,
and if you know Him as your Lord,
He's coming back for you.
So read His book and wait and pray
and learn as along you go
and when you reach their age,
you'll see your pace and steps slow.
Do thank Him for the Ma and Pa
He's loaned your for awhile
and try to pass on to your kids
what they taught you as a child.
Elva Mize Rice
December 1, 1978
To My Grand Son
I hope one day that you will see,
how very much you mean to me.
As down life’s road, you now must go.
You can rush on, or pass or slow.
For life you know is a one way trail.
So do your best and never fail.
For there’s no turning back, you'll see,
Don’t take for granted. It’s free.
For years before you came to me,
God placed His son upon the tree.
With blood and sweat upon his brow,
secured the freedom you have now.
Don’t take it lightly, for an hour,
for you must travel in His power.
So stop, think, read, and pray,
for on ahead is Judgement Day.
Life, long or short, is but a span,
where measured by his loving hand.
But in His word you'll always find,
your loving care, He has in mind.
Today? tomorrow? We don’t know,
but down life’s path we all must go.
And over the hill, or ‘round the bend,
we could come to a sudden end.
Elva Mize Rice
November 3, 1979
Reunion
Time keeps right on passing,
it seems so slow,
but the years keep on stacking,
as older we grow.
Our hair was once glowing,
young, colored, and fine.
Now they’re all turning gray,
exactly like mine.
Some are just graying,
they’re still soft and fine,
and some of us, snow white,
exactly like mine.
Some of us are balding,
and some are just thin.
Our tops are all changing,
especially the men.
At our reunions we joke,
as we did long ago.
Our sparkle is going.
a fact we well know.
Sometimes as we tremble,
and smile through our tears,
we wait for the next time,
as we done for years.
These years keep on rolling,
one day they will end,
and then will recall,
all our cousins and friends.
We'll sit down to eat,
and some won’t be there.
Someone who is younger
will sit in his chair.
We'll say our good-byes,
and go home again.
After talking this over.
we'll plan this again.
How well we all know,
our Lord will soon come,
and carry us safely,
to a far better home
And all who have not known Him,
while living down here,
will not have a home,
with our loved ones up there.
As we are now living,
and still have the time,
let’s accept His shed blood,
and his offer divine.
And then when He calls us,
and we know that he will,
an unbroken circle.
will each one fulfill.
We'll see the nail prints,
made for us long ago.
There, no more annual reunions,
as down here below.
A permanent reunion
we'll have, way up there.
We'll sing and be happy
as Heaven we share.
Elva Mize Rice
May 16, 1982
Corn
A family is like an ear of corn.
God puts each grain in its place.
When He comes to take one home,
It leaves an empty space.
Elva Mize Rice
Summer 1983
I came back home today to see,
if it seemed at all like home to me.
The place was there I hoped to see.
But nothing seemed the same to Me.
The steps were down, the front door leaned,
the windows out, without their screens.
The chimneys fell, the roof caved in,
a memory now, where home has been.
The rose is gone, no tender care;
beneath the house a broken chair,
a plow stock, and an old bed frame.
It’s not home now, oh what a shame.
Our Pa is gone and so is Ma.
There hangs his hammer and his saw.
And what rests here is this old pail;
some bolts, screws and rusty nails.
A bonnet, apron, and Pa’s old hat;
the broken rockers where they sat.
A worn out broom and mop was there,
but no one here now seems to care.
No, there’s no wash pan, nor soap.
Familiar things as I had hoped.
The old wash bench has fallen down;
the gourd and bucket on the ground.
What’s this I see upon the wall?
The axe Pa used to raise us all.
He hewed the ties and split the rails.
Ma built the fence beside the trail.
The barn is gone, the pig pen too.
The chicken house where catnip grew.
The tail that leads down to the spring
is no more now, like other things.
The orchard and the hills I've known,
with briars and weeds is overgrown.
No garden now, no tater patch.
Can’t close the door, there’s no latch.
I closed my eyes and shed a tear,
wondered why I’d come back here.
And then I turned for one last glance,
I'll go inside, just take a chance.
Inside I see bare papered walls.
The ceiling’s gone, it had to fall.
The leaking roof made it cave through,
just one more thing I wish I knew.
If all the twelve were here today,
and everyone could have his say,
I think we’d hang our heads and cry,
For good old days that’s done gone by.
We’d take a walk up through the hills,
and say “Dear God, can this be real?”
and then we’d stop and take a look,
then do some searching in the Book.
We’d read and see that in this land,
God meant for us to understand,
that life’s short and death is sure.
We’d better make our life secure.
By trusting in His blood, we see
the only Hope for you and me.
Today we dare not put it off,
tomorrow may be our eternal loss.
We’re only here for a short span,
so reach and take our Savior’s hand
and take by faith the words He spoke.
“Come unto Me.” This is no joke.
Our homes one day will be like this,
the things we have we'll one day miss,
but, if we've made our future sure,
our soul’s eternal rest is secure.
So come on now, let’s heed His call,
He died for us, for one and all.
He’s waiting now to hear us say,
“I thank thee Lord, I take thy Way.”
This world to us will come and go,
we'll stop the plow, the axe, the hoe.
We all grow old and pass away,
to dwell with Him eternally.
Elva Mize Rice
May 5, 1978
To Ron from Mother
Bear Hound
My baby brother is a hunter. He likes to hunt deer, anything, turkey in season, and everything else. He travels through Georgia, North Carolina, wherever hunting season is open. He enjoys it. One time he knew where there was a deer run, where the deer went down for water from the river. He went early one morning and found a large tree and sat down, and leaned back against it, facing the deer run. He had his gun. While he was sitting there a long while, it was a cool morning and he drifted off to sleep.
While he was asleep he awoke to a hot breath right on the side of his neck. A sniffing nose went up around his ear, his face, hair, all around. After a while a tongue began to lick him. He dared not move, not even open his eyes, as he knew that it had to be a bear or a panther. He knew if he moved a bit, he was a goner. He just sat there and prayed that something would happen. While he was sitting there, this tongue began to lick him real rough. He thought it gots to be a bear's tongue, it's too rough. It licked his face all over.
In a few minutes this old hound whined. In an instant, my brother knew that this was an old hound that had gotten lost from his master while he was hunting in those woods. My brother was the first human this old hound had come into contact with. He thought this the best sounded best looking old hound he had ever seen in his life. He just hugged him and hugged him and led him out of the woods. He had lost his appetite for deer that morning.
March 29, 1997
Apple Tree
Perhaps what we had done was overlooked because they were after that lie. My daddy always said "A man is no better than his word." He said if a man's word was no good and he couldn't believe him, he was a no account man. Just watch him. Mark it down.
One time I remember, when I was a little one, between three and a half and four years old. My daddy was just a young father and he started him up an orchard, just cleared up the land, terraced it down, and started his orchard. He would order his trees from Starks Brothers. Some from Sears Roebuck, way back then. He would dig holes where he was going to put them and then he would call me as his big helper. I would stand there and hold the trees up straight and erect while he tamped down the soil around them. I thought I was really something because I was helping Daddy start an apple orchard. He would tell me how good the apples would be and we would make pies and we would make jellies, and apple cider. I just loved those apple trees.
About the second year after we got them out, a few of the trees began to put little bunches of blossoms out on the tips of every branch. Daddy would take me by the hand, lead me around, and show me these and say "This will make a red apple and this will make a yellow apple and we will have some fine apples." When they got up large enough for one to tell they were going to be apples of nice size, he told me one day "There's not going to be but a few of these because this is a young orchard, but don't pull any of 'em, because if you do, it will cause the trees to drop their fruit before its mature and they won't bear as well. Well, I let that all sink down. I promised him I wouldn't. He would take me every week by the hand and show me the apples.
One morning I got restless. It had been raining all night on Friday and it was now Saturday morning and they slept in late. I jumped up and slipped out in the yard, down to the spring, out to the terraces to see the apples. Those apples were about as big as your fist at that time; yellow golden apples. There was a drop of rain hanging on the bottom of each one of 'em. I thought those were just the prettiest apples I ever saw. I stood there a while and looked at them, out on the tips of the branches. I reached up and he told me not to. "That one way out there on the end, he will never miss that and I'm going to see how it tastes." It was beginning to show color; beautiful.
The little forked tree was standing there and I just stepped up in it to reach for the apple. The tree split all the way to ground. One side went down all the way to the ground!
Oh! I was frightened. Oh! I knew I was caught and I knew I didn't know how to get out of it. And I knew I mustn't lie and I was in a quandary. So, I ran to the house as fast as I could. There was a pan of water there on the steps, where it had rained during the night. I washed off my feet, ran in, and jumped in the bed. I curled up, lay there awhile, but couldn't go back to sleep. I got as deep under those covers as I could get.
After a while my daddy got up and he got breakfast started. He was out walking around, looking at his apples. I knew what he was doing and why, but I didn't go to see. I was sleeping. Daddy came into my room a bit later where I was pretending to be asleep and asked me if I had been out of bed already. "No, Sir." "Are you sure?" "Yes, Sir." "Positive?" "Yes, Sir." "OK." He left and went back down to the kitchen.
After a while he said "Let's have breakfast." Mother finished our breakfast and we enjoyed it. Well really, they enjoyed it but I couldn't enjoy it much because I knew I had lied. And I was going to get in trouble if they caught up with me. But I was hoping they wouldn't quite come up with what I had done. After a while Daddy said "Hanna, guess what one of these children's done?" Oh! I just drew up in a knot. I knew I was caught. "Guess what one of these children's done. They's climbed up in one of the trees and split it all the way to the ground; that big one down there that had them pretty ones on it. Daddy asked mother if she had any idea of who did it and she had no idea at all. She said none of the children had been up. She had no idea that I had slipped out early. She was telling what was right. "All of them's been in bed, there haven't been any children here." He said "I have a way of finding out. It was one of these children here." I thought "He can't tell who it was because he was in bed asleep. I did that. I washed my feet and crawled back into bed."
Daddy turned to me and asked me "Do you have any idea who stepped up into that tree down there and split it all the way to the ground and ruined my pretty apple tree?" "No, Sir." I stood there a few minutes. Again he asked "Do you have any idea?" "No, Sir" He continued "Now you look me straight in the eye. Are you telling me the truth?" I said "Yes, Sir" because I knew I was in trouble and didn't know how to get out of it. I knew I shouldn't lie but I didn't know how to get out of it. I was in a quandary. He said "I'll give you another chance. Are you sure you didn't do it?" "Yes, Sir." He said "You know I have a way of finding out exactly who did it." Oh, oh. Where was he when I didn't see? He must have been watching me someplace. Then I got to thinking. Maybe daddies were like God and could see everything I did. Then I really was scared. I had been taught all my life that God saw every thing I did.
He said "come here." He told Mother "I have a way of finding out." He reached back into his hip pocket and took out a little stick that he had trimmed off just right with his knife. He held up the stick and said "This stick is the same length as the foot that stepped up in the apple tree because I measured it down in the footprints in the mud at the base of the tree." Oh, oh. I'm a goner. I just stood there. I was frightened to death. He asked me "Do you want to change your story?" "No, Sir." I was in deep enough and I didn't know which way to turn cause if I told a lie, I was telling another one. Then I didn't know what I was gonna do. Daddy said, "Well I got a way."
He asked Mamma to bring the baby to him and to turn his foot around. He took his stick out and measured it next to that tiny little baby's foot and that stick was much longer than that little foot. He said "It couldn't have been this one." I was hurtin' all over. He called my little sister, just two years old. "Come here, Elsa." He told her "Hold your left foot up here." So she did. Her foot came just a little over halfway on that stick. "Well, it wasn't this one. There's not but one more here that it could have been." To me again he said "I'm going to give you another chance to straighten things out if you want to." I was in such a mess then I didn't see any way out and I just went ahead and lied again. "No, Sir."
Daddy said "I want to measure your foot by this stick. Reach your foot up here." I was standing there. I went to lift my foot up there and that was the heaviest foot I EVER picked up. It would just hardly get up on his knee where he could measure it. When I got it up there and he measured it, it came out exactly right to the top of that little stick. He looked at me and asked "You want to change your story?" I was already crying and I didn't want to change any story. But I knew that he knew all about it.
He said "Now let me tell you something. My apple tree's ruined. Split open and I don't know whether it will ever amount to anything. I'm not worried about the apple tree. What I'm worried about is about my child lying to me like you lied this morning." I didn't have a thing to say. I was standing there, facing the facts. I had lied. He said "You know there's a penalty for lying. I'm going to give you a good lickin'." He went out in the yard and broke off five or six little twigs from a peach tree and pinched them together at the back and came back in. He pulled up my little gown which was already muddy and wet from being out on the grass and mud in the yard and orchard. He checkered my little legs real good in the back with that little switch. It just burnt and hurt and everything.
Daddy said "Remember, I'm not whipping you for the apple tree. I'm whipping you for lying to me. You gotta pay for a lie when I catch you in one." He wasn't fussing. He was just talking. I a whole lot rather he fussed. He didn't. He was just talking. "When you lie, you've always got to face it. You've learned early. You faced yours this morning. Now you watch that."
Oh, I went back in there and crawled in that bed. My little legs were just stinging and burning. But you know what? Next time that I was asked something I thought two or three times before I answered and I didn't lie again about that. I tried again a few times but I never could get by with it. My daddy or mamma could look me straight in the eye and tell when I was lying.
I lied that time but I raised a little boy a few years later and he tried the same thing on me. I remembered what my daddy had taught me and what my mamma had taught me and I was trying to teach him. So I spanked him one day for lying and I told him "Mother can always tell when you're lying." He said "How can you tell when I'm lying?" He was a little feller, only about two and a half. I said "Mother can look in your eyes and tell when you're lying." So a few days later he came into tell me something and all at once he turned the backs of his little hands over his eyes and stood there while he was talking. I asked him "Ronny, why have you got your eyes covered up?" He said "I don't want you to see in there and know I am telling you a lie." He had tried the same thing I did.
Elva Mize Rice
March 29, 1997
Parents
Why do Ma's and Pa's grow so old,
when we kids are still so young?
They live the stories they have told,
and sing the songs they've song.
They've walked paths we still must walk,
but now they're treading slow.
They've crossed muck and mire of life,
through which we all must go.
They try to tell us but we balk,
we do not see nor hear.
Things they know, we still must learn,
although we walk with fear.
Our necks are stiff, our backs straight.
We think we stand up tall.
We think we rule the world today.
We know we know it all.
But let us strike a rocky place
or face a long steep hill.
We try to recall "What did they say?"
I think I hear them still.
O yes, they said "Look up my child,
when life is tough and long,
our Lord up there sees it all,
His ways with us is strong."
He left His spirit here to guide,
to keep and comfort too,
and if you know Him as your Lord,
He's coming back for you.
So read His book and wait and pray
and learn as along you go
and when you reach their age,
you'll see your pace and steps slow.
Do thank Him for the Ma and Pa
He's loaned your for awhile
and try to pass on to your kids
what they taught you as a child.
Elva Mize Rice
December 1, 1978
To My Grand Son
I hope one day that you will see,
how very much you mean to me.
As down life’s road, you now must go.
You can rush on, or pass or slow.
For life you know is a one way trail.
So do your best and never fail.
For there’s no turning back, you'll see,
Don’t take for granted. It’s free.
For years before you came to me,
God placed His son upon the tree.
With blood and sweat upon his brow,
secured the freedom you have now.
Don’t take it lightly, for an hour,
for you must travel in His power.
So stop, think, read, and pray,
for on ahead is Judgement Day.
Life, long or short, is but a span,
where measured by his loving hand.
But in His word you'll always find,
your loving care, He has in mind.
Today? tomorrow? We don’t know,
but down life’s path we all must go.
And over the hill, or ‘round the bend,
we could come to a sudden end.
Elva Mize Rice
November 3, 1979
Reunion
Time keeps right on passing,
it seems so slow,
but the years keep on stacking,
as older we grow.
Our hair was once glowing,
young, colored, and fine.
Now they’re all turning gray,
exactly like mine.
Some are just graying,
they’re still soft and fine,
and some of us, snow white,
exactly like mine.
Some of us are balding,
and some are just thin.
Our tops are all changing,
especially the men.
At our reunions we joke,
as we did long ago.
Our sparkle is going.
a fact we well know.
Sometimes as we tremble,
and smile through our tears,
we wait for the next time,
as we done for years.
These years keep on rolling,
one day they will end,
and then will recall,
all our cousins and friends.
We'll sit down to eat,
and some won’t be there.
Someone who is younger
will sit in his chair.
We'll say our good-byes,
and go home again.
After talking this over.
we'll plan this again.
How well we all know,
our Lord will soon come,
and carry us safely,
to a far better home
And all who have not known Him,
while living down here,
will not have a home,
with our loved ones up there.
As we are now living,
and still have the time,
let’s accept His shed blood,
and his offer divine.
And then when He calls us,
and we know that he will,
an unbroken circle.
will each one fulfill.
We'll see the nail prints,
made for us long ago.
There, no more annual reunions,
as down here below.
A permanent reunion
we'll have, way up there.
We'll sing and be happy
as Heaven we share.
Elva Mize Rice
May 16, 1982
Corn
A family is like an ear of corn.
God puts each grain in its place.
When He comes to take one home,
It leaves an empty space.
Elva Mize Rice
Summer 1983
Some Reflections on Christmas
Christmas at Our House
When Christmas comes at our house,
for several days before
there’s Santa and a holly wreath,
hung right upon our door.
There’re candles in the window,
and Yule logs in a stack.
There’s many Christmas stories,
in a neat and even rack.
The kitten’s by the fireplace,
the embers burning bright,
his eyes are on the chimney,
for Santa comes tonight.
The stockings hang there, side by side,
they’re red, yellow, blue.
You know three kids are living here,
instead of one or two.
The frigidaire is loaded,
the table creaks and groans.
Sweet odors from the kitchen.
It's Christmas here at home.
A spicy sweet aroma,
its floating through the rooms.
We're peeking out the window,
the guests will be here soon.
Elva Mize Rice
December 20, 1960
The Real Christmas
Long years ago, so we are told,
in Bethlehem, a town,
Our God of love from up above,
sent baby Jesus down.
He came to save us from our sins
he bled upon the tree.
When I see Christmas come each year,
that’s what it means to me.
They put him in a tomb one day,
a sort of earthy prison.
But when the third day rolled around
they found that he had risen.
“Go tell my own and Peter too,
lo, come to Galilee.
I'll meet them there as I have said
when they were there with me.”
He’s gone above, our God of love.
I'll come again, said He
to take my own to Heaven above,
to live eternally.
The years roll by, He lives on high.
His promise is still true.
He's coming soon, I don't know when.
I'm ready though. Are you?
As Christmas comes again this year
in honor of his birth,
let's keep our Christ in Christmas
upon this whole wide earth.
Elva Mize Rice December 14, 1958
When Christmas comes at our house,
for several days before
there’s Santa and a holly wreath,
hung right upon our door.
There’re candles in the window,
and Yule logs in a stack.
There’s many Christmas stories,
in a neat and even rack.
The kitten’s by the fireplace,
the embers burning bright,
his eyes are on the chimney,
for Santa comes tonight.
The stockings hang there, side by side,
they’re red, yellow, blue.
You know three kids are living here,
instead of one or two.
The frigidaire is loaded,
the table creaks and groans.
Sweet odors from the kitchen.
It's Christmas here at home.
A spicy sweet aroma,
its floating through the rooms.
We're peeking out the window,
the guests will be here soon.
Elva Mize Rice
December 20, 1960
The Real Christmas
Long years ago, so we are told,
in Bethlehem, a town,
Our God of love from up above,
sent baby Jesus down.
He came to save us from our sins
he bled upon the tree.
When I see Christmas come each year,
that’s what it means to me.
They put him in a tomb one day,
a sort of earthy prison.
But when the third day rolled around
they found that he had risen.
“Go tell my own and Peter too,
lo, come to Galilee.
I'll meet them there as I have said
when they were there with me.”
He’s gone above, our God of love.
I'll come again, said He
to take my own to Heaven above,
to live eternally.
The years roll by, He lives on high.
His promise is still true.
He's coming soon, I don't know when.
I'm ready though. Are you?
As Christmas comes again this year
in honor of his birth,
let's keep our Christ in Christmas
upon this whole wide earth.
Elva Mize Rice December 14, 1958
A Student's View Of Faith
#409
I don't think of myself as a numerologist or one that places significance on superstitious numbers. For example, you could find me living perfectly happy on the thirteenth floor of a building, excepting that some people might be hesitant to come visit me. I usually find Friday the Thirteenth to be a splendid day; kind of a reverse expectation of the day that so many dread. Yet, recently I noticed an obscure numerical co-incidence that merits notation here, if for no other reason than it gives me a good excuse to write about something I find quite important.
For several weeks I have been visiting an eighty-five year old saint, Elva Rice, in a nearby nursing home where she happens to live in Room 409. Several nights ago as I came out of the nursing home, entranced with the mysteries of the Hale-Bopp comet setting in the west, it occurred to my idle mind that there is a super-duper household disinfectant cleaner called simply "409." I don't know what brought this less-than-profound decidedly non-cosmic co-incidence of the universe to mind but it inspired me to get my brain out of idle and into a meditative state.
What emerged was an opportunity to consider a significant spiritual principle: we become like those we associate with, for good or bad. It has been an unfortunate reality that I have had a struggle with faith for many years while others simply know who they are in a spiritual sense and have a total certainty regarding the reality of God and Heaven. Most of the people around me have also struggled with doubt a lot and it is a rare person in my world that KNOWS for certain about God and Heaven or even wants to acknowledge the possibility of their reality. Birds of a feather flock together as they say.
In the past three weeks that I have been going to the nursing home I have made an important personal discovery. Faith is infectious! Ms. Rice has as strong and consistent and inspiring a Christian faith as I have yet encountered in my extended travels and she has infected me with it. I have found that my own tortured struggle with faith has been greatly diminished during the past weeks. I have even begun to experience a quiet wondrous knowing that is new to me in all the decades of doubting I have wrestled with. I find myself captivated with the idea that the Christian message is REALLY true and not subject to my doubts. Talk about a cure for fears and anxieties!
Last night I went back to that nursing home feeling like a student taking the most important course of study in the world: reality. In nursing homes there's no pretense. There's congestive heart failure, night terrors, constant screaming, vast isolation, loneliness, fear, dementia, PAIN. Big pain. But what I have learned there is that the Christian faith is for real and is bigger than any of these things.
Late in the evening my personal saint asked me to wheel her around those halls so that she could have prayer with her fellow patients. We went to several rooms and each time I was introduced as her adopted son. I stood behind her wheelchair and waited for her to pray. After some awkward silence she asked me to pray out loud. I did. You know what? I believed those prayers for those dear suffering women were heard in the highest parts of Heaven. I knew that I knew. I knew there was no more important thing in the world I could be doing than praying, laying my hands on those platinum heads. In that instant, I knew that I have been infected with the magic of faith. And, its safe from the strongest disinfecting cleanser, even 409.
In the Old Testament book of Isaiah we are told that the way to cool down a fire is to spread out the coals. Separate them and they will grow cold and dark. In the New Testament book of Hebrews we are told to not forsake the fellowship of the saints. We are like coals. If a number of coals are kept in proximity to each other, they will maintain their heat and light. In a few short weeks I have found that getting next to a red hot coal of faith has yielded much heat and light in my dark world of doubt. Last night, I found that I could take my own meager heat and light into those dark warrens of fear and bring possibility to those shattered and frightened souls.
Your own answer may be found in the back halls of a nursing home. It might even be found in a nearby church. And watch out, you might get infected for life and there's no disinfectant for a Faith infection except Heaven.
I don't think of myself as a numerologist or one that places significance on superstitious numbers. For example, you could find me living perfectly happy on the thirteenth floor of a building, excepting that some people might be hesitant to come visit me. I usually find Friday the Thirteenth to be a splendid day; kind of a reverse expectation of the day that so many dread. Yet, recently I noticed an obscure numerical co-incidence that merits notation here, if for no other reason than it gives me a good excuse to write about something I find quite important.
For several weeks I have been visiting an eighty-five year old saint, Elva Rice, in a nearby nursing home where she happens to live in Room 409. Several nights ago as I came out of the nursing home, entranced with the mysteries of the Hale-Bopp comet setting in the west, it occurred to my idle mind that there is a super-duper household disinfectant cleaner called simply "409." I don't know what brought this less-than-profound decidedly non-cosmic co-incidence of the universe to mind but it inspired me to get my brain out of idle and into a meditative state.
What emerged was an opportunity to consider a significant spiritual principle: we become like those we associate with, for good or bad. It has been an unfortunate reality that I have had a struggle with faith for many years while others simply know who they are in a spiritual sense and have a total certainty regarding the reality of God and Heaven. Most of the people around me have also struggled with doubt a lot and it is a rare person in my world that KNOWS for certain about God and Heaven or even wants to acknowledge the possibility of their reality. Birds of a feather flock together as they say.
In the past three weeks that I have been going to the nursing home I have made an important personal discovery. Faith is infectious! Ms. Rice has as strong and consistent and inspiring a Christian faith as I have yet encountered in my extended travels and she has infected me with it. I have found that my own tortured struggle with faith has been greatly diminished during the past weeks. I have even begun to experience a quiet wondrous knowing that is new to me in all the decades of doubting I have wrestled with. I find myself captivated with the idea that the Christian message is REALLY true and not subject to my doubts. Talk about a cure for fears and anxieties!
Last night I went back to that nursing home feeling like a student taking the most important course of study in the world: reality. In nursing homes there's no pretense. There's congestive heart failure, night terrors, constant screaming, vast isolation, loneliness, fear, dementia, PAIN. Big pain. But what I have learned there is that the Christian faith is for real and is bigger than any of these things.
Late in the evening my personal saint asked me to wheel her around those halls so that she could have prayer with her fellow patients. We went to several rooms and each time I was introduced as her adopted son. I stood behind her wheelchair and waited for her to pray. After some awkward silence she asked me to pray out loud. I did. You know what? I believed those prayers for those dear suffering women were heard in the highest parts of Heaven. I knew that I knew. I knew there was no more important thing in the world I could be doing than praying, laying my hands on those platinum heads. In that instant, I knew that I have been infected with the magic of faith. And, its safe from the strongest disinfecting cleanser, even 409.
In the Old Testament book of Isaiah we are told that the way to cool down a fire is to spread out the coals. Separate them and they will grow cold and dark. In the New Testament book of Hebrews we are told to not forsake the fellowship of the saints. We are like coals. If a number of coals are kept in proximity to each other, they will maintain their heat and light. In a few short weeks I have found that getting next to a red hot coal of faith has yielded much heat and light in my dark world of doubt. Last night, I found that I could take my own meager heat and light into those dark warrens of fear and bring possibility to those shattered and frightened souls.
Your own answer may be found in the back halls of a nursing home. It might even be found in a nearby church. And watch out, you might get infected for life and there's no disinfectant for a Faith infection except Heaven.
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