<TITLE>14. Par 41-44</TITLE>L-41 I just walked on; after while I looked hanging out over a gate like this, there was a typical old Aunt Jemima hanging across the gate, and her big, fat cheeks. Had a man's shirt wrapped around her head like this and tied in the back. I was walking along like that, and I got up to her, tears running down her big, fat cheeks like that. She looked over at me, said, "Good morning, parson."
And I said, "Ma'am," said, "good morning."
She kinda grinned and looked at me, tears in her eyes. I thought, "She called me 'parson.'" That's what they call a preacher in the south, you know. And I said, "How did you know I was a parson?"
She said, "I knowed you was coming."
"What?"
She said, "I knowed you was coming."
I said, "I don't understand, auntie. Would you tell me?"
She said, "You know. Did you ever read that story about the Shunammite woman who didn't have any children, and she asked the Lord to give her a child," and said, "and Elisha come and blessed her, and she got a child?"
I said, "Yes, ma'am. I remember that."
She said, "I's was that kind of woman." Said, "I didn't have any children, and I prayed to the Lord; and I told the Lord if He would bless me, and give me a child, then I would raise it for Him." And said, "He give me a child," and said, "I've washed over the washboard (There was a little old haunt there on the side.)" said, "I've washed over the washboard and raised this child."

L-42 And she said, "When he got big, parson, he--he taken wrong road," and said, "he got out with the wrong company, and he's laying in here dying." And said, "The doctor man was here day before yesterday when he went unconscious and said he could never do no more for him. They'd give him 606, Salvarsan, and everything else, mercury and penicillin. Nothing..." Venereal, syphilis...?... valves out of his heart. And said, "There's nothing that can be done for him." And said, "He was laying in here a dying." And said, "Oh, Lord, I didn't want to see my baby die like that." And said, "I--I--if I could just hear him say that he was saved..." And said, "I prayed, and I prayed for two nights." Said, "This morning about three o'clock," said, "the Lord put me to sleep kneeling on my knees." Said, "I dreamed a dream, that I saw a man come with a light suit on, wearing a little hat, western hat set on the side on his head." I said, "Lord, I was the woman, but where's Your Elijah?"
Said, "Here comes..." Said, "I got right up out of that bed, and I've been standing right here ever since waiting for you."

L-43 That's the way I dress just exactly. Oh, brother, when Divine love is projected... That mother with her baby, nearly a hundred and eighty pounds, but he was still her baby, laying dying in disgrace. No matter how disgraceful he was, it was her baby. She loved him. That's a mother's love. No matter how much disgrace he'd brought; she still loved him.
And if you can't forget your baby, no matter what done, how much more can God not forget you. He said, "Your names are engraved on the palms of my hands. A mother may forget her suckling babe, but never will I forget you." No matter what you done, how far back you've gone, how much you've got into, God still loves you. God loves you; keep the...?... moving on. Don't worry...?...

L-44 Then she said--she said, "How I just couldn't do it?" And she said, "Parson, I dreamed a dream, and I saw you coming," and said, "when I looked down the street, and I saw that little light suit and that little hat, setting up on the side of your head," said, "the Spirit said to me, 'There he is.'" She said, "Won't you come in?"
And I thought, "O God." I thought, "Maybe this is where You led me to. This is the reason I was supposed to come. I didn't know. I opened up the gate, and it had a chain and plow point on it. I don't know whether you ever seen one or not. I opened up the little old door and went in.


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