Words Written Long Ago
Kenny was watching the construction crew, they were getting
ready to tear down the old house across the street. Kenny’s mother
told him to stay in the house and watch out the window. Kenny
was sitting on the steps of the front porch instead. He never listens
to what his mother tells him to do, and why should he?, she has
never spanked him yet.
The crew unloaded a big brand new Bull Dozer with a loading
bucket on the front. It was still clean and shinny. The house was
about 125 years old at least, and it was still in good shape. They
are tearing it down to put in a gas station. After unloading the big
yellow Dozer, a couple of dump trucks showed up. The others left
leaving only the guy operating the dozer and the truck drivers.
Kenny watched as the dozer knocked each corner of the house off
first. Then the bucket raised as high as it would go and with it
raised the big dozer pushed the 2 story house over sideways. It
folded like a house of cards. The roof was the only part of the
house, that stayed together after it feel to the ground.
Kenny was amazed that it took longer to unload the dozer than it
did to tear the house down. Kenny watched as the dozer loaded
the dump trucks with the broken pieces of the old house. It was
lunch time now so the men turned off the trucks and the big dozer.
The men got their lunch buckets and sat on the far side of were the
dozer was.
Kenny’s mother had left for work already, he was thirteen and she
didn’t think he needed a baby sitter anymore. Kenny was not to
leave the front porch. Kenny couldn’t see the men and they
couldn’t see him as he ran across the street. He wanted to take a
closer look at the fallen house.
He climbed over the piles of broken bricks and lumber, then up the
fallen roof to the top. He peeked over the top to make sure none of
the men were coming back yet. Then he lost his grip and started
sliding down the steep slope on the roof. He was sliding faster and
faster on the way down, one of his shoes came off about half way
down.
Kenny slid right into one of the heating duct pipes that came up
from the furnace to heat the house. The metal duct pipe was
square and Kenny was wedged into it and couldn’t move. He had
slid into it completely hidden from sight, and down about 4 feet
from the outside opening. He would have yelled for help, but he
knew the men would be mad because he was there. He decided to
try and get out on his own first. He could wiggle his hands and his
feet, but the rest of his body he couldn’t move.
Then he heard the engine of the dozer start up, the men were going
back to work now. Kenny yelled and yelled, they couldn’t hear
him over the noise of the dozer working. Kenny could feel the
vibration caused by the tracks of the dozer moving across the
ground. He could hear the rumble of the broken bricks and lumber
being scooped up into the bucket. He could hear the boom-bang
noise of the stuff being dumped into the back of the dump truck.
Kenny was scared, he could hear the dozer get closer and closer to
where he was stuck. You could have been standing right there
beside of him and not have known he was stuck in the heating
duct pipe. Kenny had screamed so much, that he couldn’t speak
or make any sound now. He remembered his mothers words
again- "Stay on the porch Kenny". If only he would have listened
to her and stayed on the porch. Kenny’s mother loved him as
much as any mother could and she thought spanking a child was
not the way to raise him.
The big dozer picked up a load real close this time, it shook the
duct pipe Kenny was stuck in. Kenny could see out the end of the
duct pipe. The only thing he could see were some boards and
broken bricks. One of the wall studs had something written on the
side of it, facing Kenny. He read the words written on the wall
stud, it said "JESUS LOVES YOU."
When the house was built over a 125 years ago, one of the men
building the house wrote those words there. The words had been
covered up by the wall, for all those years. The man that wrote
them was a Christian. Some of the other men made fun of him for
writing it on the stud just before covering it up with plaster board
for a wall. They said, Why write it, no one will see it until the
house is tore down? The man said, You never know, it might
save someone a hundred years from now.
Kenny read the words over and over a couple times, then he heard
the dozer coming back to pick up another load. Kenny started
praying, he said, Jesus help me, help me, I promise to have my
mom take me to church, she does what ever I tell her to do. Save
me please, help me Jesus.
The dozer stopped, the engine had quit running, the man operating
the dozer tried and tried, but it wouldn’t start back up. He climbed
down off the dozer and told the man driving the dump truck to- Go
get the mechanic. The dump truck driver drove off to go after Bob
the Mechanic, if it could be fixed, he was the one that could do it,
he could fix anything.
The dozer operator walked around the pile of stuff he was about to
load up. He saw the shoe laying there on top of the rubble. He
started looking around and found Kenny stuck in the heating duct
pipe. He tried reaching into the pipe and pulling him out, but he
was stuck too tight. When the dump truck, followed by the
mechanic’s tool truck arrived a few minutes later. Jim the dozer
operator ran over to them and told them about the boy. The
mechanic had a 2 way radio in his truck and called 911.
It took a couple more hours before Kenny was free from the duct
pipe. The ambulance, police, fire dept., construction workers and
many other people were there watching. Kenny’s mother was there
when he was at last freed from the pipe. They gave him some
water and he got his voice back. Kenny pointed to the stud with
the words written on it, he told them all the rest of the story too.
Kenny’s mother, after she found out he was OK took him to the
house. She said, "Spare the rod and spoil the child, well not this
time".
Jim the dozer operator climbed back onto the dozer after the crowd
had all left. Bob the Mechanic said "Give it a Try". Jim turned
the key and the dozer started right up. Bob said , "I thought it was
tore up?" Jim turned the dozer off and climbed down. Bob said,
Now what are you doing? Jim said I am going to get that board
and take it home with me. The next day Kenny watched as they
finished loading the up the fallen house and hauling it away.
Kenny had to stand today, his back side was still too tender to sit.
Kenny’s mother did not worry about Kenny leaving the porch
today.
Sunday came and Kenny and his mother went to their church. Jim
the dozer operator went to his church across town, he took the
board with him to church. He told the story of what happened to
Kenny that day. Jim said, I was heading right for the pile Kenny
was in, before God turned off the motor and stopped the dozer. If
he hadn’t I would have scooped Kenny up and dumped him in the
back of the dump truck. No one would have ever known what had
happened to him either. At the dump site, they was covering the
stuff we hauled in with dirt as soon as the drivers dumped it.
Kenny would have been another missing face on a milk carton.
His mother would have spent the rest of her life, not knowing
where her son Kenny was.
Jim stepped down and the preacher stepped up. The preacher said,
That goes to show you, that the next time God leads you to do
something in his name sake, no matter how small or dumb it
seems at the time. God can do wonders with it, even after your
dead and gone. God never forgets any of the work you do, and he
rewards you for it. The reward may not come to you right away or
in this life time. God has perfect credit, the rewards are 100%
guaranteed.
The preacher said, Just imagine this man that wrote those words
on that board long ago. He is in heaven with Jesus sitting beside
of him, and a whole bunch of angels surrounding them both. Jesus
says to the man on that morning while Kenny was watching the
start of the house being torn down. Jesus says to him Watch and
see why God had you write that on that board, on that side of it
and in that place of the house.
The man that done that little thing watched every thing that
happened that day and heard every word said there.
Oh what a feeling for him that must have been. You see what
happens when you walk with God and listen to what he tells you,
and you do what he tells you to do. The preacher closed the
service and two people came forward and gave their lives to
Christ. Those words written long ago, still doing what God meant
for them to do, by saving people.
As the story was spread around, other churches asked for Jim to
bring the board and tell the story. Seventeen other people came
forward and gave their lives to Christ afterwards. The years
passed and Jim kept the board. One day a knock came on Jim’s
front door. A young man was standing there, he explained that he
had recently been called to preach. He asked about the board?
Jim invited him in and showed it too him. Jim had made a cross
out of the board and hung it on the wall over his fire place.
The young man touched the words with his finger tip as tears
started down the checks of his face. He said, These words written
long ago. They saved my life and changed my life as well as the
life of my mother, God rest her soul. You don’t remember me I
guess, I’m the little boy that was stuck in the pipe, I’m Kenny.
What happened that day, lead my mother and I to start going to
church. After just a short time, she and I were both saved. The
story of what happened, we both told it often to others.
Jim took the cross down off the wall and gave it to Kenny. Jim
said, It’s rightfully yours anyway. Kenny said, I’ll take it to
church with me Sunday and let the people there see the words
written long ago. Everyone needs to know that -Jesus loves you.
And no matter what kind of a mess you get yourself into, Jesus can
get you out of it and change your life in a way no else could ever
dream possible.
Written By : Johnny lee Hall
