The Old Man and the Child

April 20, 2020

I’m feeling a bit lazy tonight, so instead of my usual evening ramblings, I’ll tell you a story. I call it “The Old Man and the Child.”

“We’re almost there.” The old man wheezed as he spoke, his words forced through labored breath as he climbed the hill. His steps were measured and slow, each foot placed with a twinge of pain that went unnoticed by the child skipping along at his side.

“Are you sure,” the child asked? “You said we were almost there half an hour ago.” There was no irritation int he child’s voice; merely the impatience of youth, for whom even the slightest delay is an eternity. The old man knew better; years had taught him that some of life’s most delightful experiences were borne of delays, interruptions, and detours.

“See that grassy knoll up ahead? That’s the place”

“Really? It doesn’t look all that special. Why did you want to bring me here? There’s sure not much to look at.” The unmistakeable look of disappointment furrowed his brow.

“Come, have a seat.” The old man motioned, and the child came close, dropping down by his side. “Let me tell you a story,” he continued, not even noticing the wandering eyes and fidgeting hands of the child. “I must have been about your age...” The child rolled his eyes, sensing that this day might be full of boring reminiscences. The old man continued, carried away in his memories to a time and a place long ago.

“My granddad brought me here, to this very spot. I couldn’t understand, and can’t say I was even very interested in what he had to say. Even so, I remember it as if it were yesterday, because of the unusual thing he did that day.”

The child’s attention was now riveted upon the old man, his young eyes trying in vain to plumb the depths of the old man’s visage. “A special secret!” the child thought. Many were the times the child had imagined holding a secret which no one else in the whole world knew. and now today, that dream was about to come true.

“What did your grandpa do that was so unusual?” The child was fairly tingling with excitement, eyes dancing in anticipation. The old man stood slowly and painfully to his feet.

“You see nothing unusual about this place,” he asked? “Are you sure?”

The child looked around, but nothing seemed to have changed. “Just a bunch of bushes and one old tree. Seems pretty ordinary to me.” He was obviously disappointed. Maybe the secret was just a figment of the old man’s imagination.

Suddenly the old man barked out a command, all the more startling because the child had never before heard this tone of voice from him. “COME HERE!” he nearly shouted, then bending low on one knee, he gestured for the child to step up. As the child did so, the old man stood with an unknown strength and speed that lifted the child in one sweeping movement to his shoulders.

“Now what do you see?” he asked triumphantly. For a long moment, the child was speechless. Stretching out before them both but visible only from this lofty height was a vista that could not have been imagined when the child had both feet planted firmly on the ground. Fields and forests, hills and mountains draped in hues of deep to fading blue.

“It’s beautiful,” the child finally whispered, almost breathless at the glory spread before them, afraid that even the sound of his voice might somehow break the spell and splendor that lay before them in unending waves to the horizon and beyond. Just as quickly as before, the old man reached up and grasping an awaiting hand, swept the child earthward.

“Do you understand?” he asked.

“I’m not sure. It was so...so beautiful. I never would have known if you hadn’t picked me up and sat me on your shoulders.” The child hesitated before stating what was on his mind. “What I really want to know is, what did your grandpa tell you?”

The old man chuckled with delight. This was the moment he had been waiting—no, longing for. Looking into the child’s eyes, he said, “When I was a little boy, my grandpa brought me here, lifted me up, and told me what I am going to tell you. He said that standing on his shoulders, I would see more than he ever would. Child, never forget that you stand on the shoulders of those who went before you, and because you do, you can see farther, and behold glories I can only dream of. And because you can see farther, you can go farther, beyond, and better than I. I will always be proud of you, cheering for you, and praying that God will use you to accomplish greater glories than I will ever see.”

As they walked slowly home in the twilight, the old man’s eyesight fading in the shadows, he reached out his hand and found waiting the small hand of the child who even in the deepening darkness, saw brightly the path ahead.