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Chicago, Illinois. The Great Depression.
The three Levite sons are called to the bedside of their father, Adler. The very, yes... terminally, ill preacher receives them each, oldest to youngest. He gives each of them the encouragement he knows they will need, he holds each of them in his arms one last time, except now, he talks to God instead of the tearful child. Later he has them all come to his side, he places his hands, no longer strong and sure, on their heads, to the youngest, David, it was a very strange thing to have his father do.
"I ask the Holy Spirit to watch over you, and protect you." He said to them.
A few hours later the dying servant went to be with his Master.
The family fell on hard times in Chicago.
Mrs. Levite knew the city was not a good place for her to raise three boys by herself. So she moves her family back to her hometown. In fact, to her girlhood home itself. The log cabin she had been born in and in which her late father had lived for all of his ninety years.
Those two rooms became their home. Hard work on the farms in the area and adventures along the river and through the woods along it built a great respect for the Creator and His creation in the growing boys. Mrs. Levite met a good hardworking man in the area and they later married.
With their new stepfather, the boys grew physically and spiritually. Oil was in the family lamp and joy in their hearts, with God still watching over them.
One morning, way before dawn, David heard the ducks making a horrible racket outside in their pen. Sure some fox or other animal was in the pen killing the birds, he jumped out of his bed under the window and hurried into his overalls to see what was going on. David, as the youngest son much as the youngest sons in Old Testament days were charged with keeping the flocks and herds, was given the responsibility of tending the domestic ducks.
Holding the small flashlight he left the small narrow room he and his brothers shared and walked around the ancient cabin. He thought it odd that with all the ruckus the ducks had raised, Robert and John had slept through it, but the ducks were his to care for, maybe they just ignored it.
The pen was quiet and still.
No cloud of feathers or piercing eyes of a fox greeted him.
The birds sat quietly with their bills tucked under their wings. Asleep.
He looked around the yard around the cabin, everything was as it should be.
Puzzled he shone the light back at the ducks. 'What made all the noise?' he wondered to himself. Then he wondered more about being out in the night air when his warm cot and blankets were inside.
Just then a horrendous noise erupted through the calm. The ground shook. violently.
The sleeping ducks awoke with frantic squawking.
David ran back to the front of the cabin. He heard shouting and crying from inside a cloud of dust and debris. Robert and John were calling his name, digging through what had been part of the cabin roof. He heard his mother crying out for him.
"I'm here!" David called in to them.
From inside, somebody seemed to now being crying out to God in relief.
The morning revealed what had happened.
The century old ceiling over his bed had given way. Huge rough cut timbers had collapsed, smashing his bed to splinters. The broken window lay in pieces, sharp slivers of glass had ripped into his covers. The mud and newspaper insulation gave the scene an eerie gray tint.
Adler didn't have any worldly possessions worth anything to leave to his sons.
Instead he bequeathed to them gifts that would last through this life and into the next. His love for the Lord. The loving care of the Spirit, without which, this story would have never been told. He knew then that they would need their heavenly Father looking out for them in the place of their earthly father. His Ministering Spirits to watch over each until the time they rejoin him in Glory.
A half brother, George, died for his country during World War II, in the Pacific, on a bloody little island the family with the ducks years before had never heard of.
Robert was killed in an auto accident many years ago.
The two other sons served their country and their God in their ways. Ministering as each had been given gifts.
They then passed their faith along to their sons. Who in their given time have tried to pass it along to their own children. Extending the mortal hands and whispered blessing of that dying preacher in Chicago over scores of years and hundreds of miles.
This story is told to let others know those Ministers mentioned in Hebrews are still with those that believe in HIM who sends them.
"As I walk day by day, every one of which brings me to a time drawing near when I shall see my dad again; I still remember hearing his words with my young ears and my heart...end Ducks
: 'I ask the Holy Spirit to watch over you, and protect you.' Give God the Glory."David Levite
[NOTE: The Preceding was written by David Levite. All communication regarding said story will be forwarded to him. Thank you.]