Short Stories

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The Beautiful Garden

Matthew 13:3 "And He spoke many things unto them in parables, saying, "Behold, a sower went forth to sow."

Every time I read the above passage of scripture, I’m reminded of a good friend of mine, Dorsey. When I was growing up, I helped a local farmer and developed some friendships that lasted. Dorsey also worked for this farmer. My daddy, Reverend A. J. Rozier, was their pastor, so they nicknamed me "preacher".

After years spent in the U.S. Army, I came back home and renewed my friendship with Dorsey. He had married later on in life, and both he and his wife loved the Lord. They especially enjoyed southern gospel singing. In fact, Dorsey was a right good singer himself. I would often visit with them, talk about the Lord, and sing a few songs for them. Dorsey’s wife, Amanda, wasn’t in the best of health and Dorsey had suffered from the disability from the wreck he was in while a teenager.

One day, Dorsey called me and asked me if I could "lay off" a straight row. You see, he wanted to plant a garden. Well, I said "Sure, I’ll be over soon." Well, we got his old Allis Chambers tractor hooked up to the planters and I commenced to "layoff" the first straight row. It was so curvy it resembled a "C"! I told Dorsey that was contour plowing, and we could get more on a "C" row instead of a straight row.

Well, ole Dorse crawled on that old orange tractor and planted corn, beans, okra and just about everything else. A few weeks later, he called me and asked me to come over and help him set up the tractor so that he could plow his garden. I went on over and took a look at his garden-it was beautiful! He told me that it was the best garden he had ever had. As I looked at the sweet corn, I noticed that some plants were about 12 inches high while other plants were six to eight inches high. The old planter had skipped, and Dorsey and Amanda thought I had slipped over in the night and replanted the corn. I said, "No, I haven’t done that." Then Dorsey said, "It was the Lord who has blessed this garden."

A few weeks later, the Lord awakened me from my sleep. It was about two a.m. I had been dreaming. In this dream, I went over to Dorsey’s house. There were many people there cleaning up, Amanda came to the door, and I asked "Where is Dorsey?" She pointed across the road and there he was, all dressed up in a pretty suit with a big grin on his face. He was waving bye. After waking, I said," Lord, you’re about to take Dorsey home, aren’t you?" The Lord replied, "Yes, in a few days." I began to weep and grieve for him. He was such an humble man, and I was happy and sad for him.

About two weeks later, on Sunday night, he was strong on my mind. I called him up and asked him if he was OK. He replied, "Yes, preacher, I’m doing fine." I told him that I loved him and appreciated him. The next Wednesday evening, he went out in the yard to feed the chickens and dropped dead with a heart attack.

When I went over to his house, it was just like my dream. People were there cleaning up, and Dorsey had crossed over the road. By the way, on his funeral day, he wore the same suit as the Lord had shown me in the dream.

Many is the time we had fellowship together, just the two or three of us. During these times, the Holy Spirit graced us with His presence as we talked, sang and prayed together.

Dorsey longed to go home to be with his Jesus. His life was a testimony of the grace of God.

Matthew 18:20 "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them."

Copyright 2003, Irvin L. Rozier

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