Christian Living

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An Easter Tale (Tail)
© 2005

by

Stephen A. Peterson


Sylvia Harjo, 17, Native American teenager, drove from her Lawton, Oklahoma home to Mount Scott on Fort Sill military reservation in search of wisdom, courage and enlightenment from God. She did so following a heated and long argument with her parents, being ordered by the courts to report in at home at 9:00 PM every day because she had gotten into trouble with the law for damaging more than 40 automobiles in a wealthy Lawton neighborhood on the other side of town.

Now at the based of Mount Scott, Sylvia left her backpack, the items in her pockets, all other possessions except the clothing on her back and the shoes on her feet then proceeded up the mount. Praying as she walked, she reached the top in an hour and forty-five minutes. On the mount’s top, the young woman took a deep breath, turned around in time to witness a most beautiful sunset in the Western Oklahoma skies.

“What are you saying to me, Lord? Do you want me to remain here, Lord, as I am? Shall I go below and bring back two tents—one for you Lord and one for me? Lord, I am so sorry for being a sinful, mean, disobedient person!” Immediately, the wind picked up, displacing Sylvia’s long black hair then nearly causing her to fall backwards. Without a verbal explanation, Sylvia took this event to mean that the Lord wanted her to bury her old life and walk in the way of the Lord.

Running, Sylvia returned to the base of the mount, quickly dug a hole then buried the possessions from her backpack and pockets for these things represented her past rebellious life which she felt she would no longer need in her new life. She returned home, gathered all of her possessions and mementos from her childhood years and rushed back to the base of the mount. On her way to Mount Scott, Sylvia thought, “God has given me a new life. I won’t need this stuff anymore. These things represent the time when I was a child, acting like a child and being rebellious. I will get rid of these things and begin my new life in the ways of the Lord.”

Arriving, Sylvia re-opened the hole as the sun set to bury her remaining old possessions and begin her new life. Once she finished, she started back towards Mount Scott with her two tents. As Sylvia picked up the tents to begin her trek, she turned back to pick up her flashlight and noticed an Easter lily in the mound of earth where she had buried the things of her old life. Dropping to her tents, Sylvia fell to her knees to tearfully asked God for forgiveness as the evening moonlight hovered over her and the Easter lily.

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