Courage in the Face of Fear

Kevin awoke and lay staring at the bright sunshine and listening to the laughter of a kookaburra. Why am I feeling so excited? He wondered. It certainly can’t be because of that noisy bird.

Kevin and his parents had lived for five years in the country of Australia, but they still hadn’t gotten used to the call of some of the native birds.

Then Kevin jumped out of bed as he remembered that he had plenty of chores to do on the farm since his father had gone away for a few days. He was to be the man of the house in his father’s absence.
He was half way dressing when he heard the telephone ring. Kevin was reaching for a clean shirt when he caught a bit of his mother’s conversation.

“That will be fine,” she was saying. “We’ll look for Ralph about nine o’clock.”
Ralph! Not Ralph Brady! Surely he wasn’t coming for a visit today, of all days. Kevin sat back on his bed and closed his eyes, thinking about Ralph. Ralph and his parents had moved to Australia from United States just as Kenny’s family had, and they lived on the next farm.

At first Kevin had been happy to be friends with someone from ‘back home,’ as he thought of the USA. But that was before he became acquainted with Ralph and his mocking attitude towards anything that had to do with Jesus or religion.

Kevin shook his head unhappily. He knew Ralph would make fun of all the chores he had to do today also. He would want to go on a hike, and no doubt shrug his shoulders and make some sarcastic remark, as he always did, if worship was mentioned.

“Kevin,” Mother called. “Come to breakfast. Ralph is coming over for awhile to spend the day. You will want to have your chores finished.”

“Coming, Mom!” Kevin answered. Maybe if he hurried he could at least get through the milking and feeding the chickens.

A Lyrebird

Kevin wanted to tell Mother about the way Ralph acted, but when she bowed her head to ask him to say the blessing, he couldn’t. Maybe I’ll just have to try harder to understand him, he thought with a sigh, but he knew it would not be easy.

Ralph arrived shortly after nine o’clock. He frowned at the bucket of grain that Kevin was carrying to the chicken house and remarked, “Don’t you ever do anything around this place except feed something?”
“The animals and chickens have to eat also,” Kevin answered and tried to laugh. “Dad is away in the outback today, and I have to take over his chores as well as do my own.”

Ralph’s eyes rolled skyward. “Oh, my! I’m glad we’ve got hired help to tend to our chores. Ma would have to pick today for her dentist appointment in town. I sure didn’t want to go in with her, but she could have picked a better day. I thought we could go for a hike across the range or this outback, or whatever you call it.”

Kevin nodded. “We can when the chores are finished.”
Soon the chickens were fed, the water turned on the garden, and the corral gate opened for the milk cows to go to pasture. ‘There,” Kevin exclaimed as he latched the gate, “all through for the morning!”
“Whew!” whistled Ralph. “I should think so. All that work would last me a week. Don’t tell me you have to do all this again this evening.”

Kevin laughed. “No, I don’t turn the water on the garden twice. But come on, we’ll get our lunch. Mom said she’d have it ready. Then we’ll go on our hike.”
By the time the boys got back to the house, Kevin’s mother had the lunch packed. Mother smiled, handing the basket to Kevin, “Have a good time.”

“We will, Mom,” promised Kevin. ‘Thanks a million for the nice lunch.”
“Hope she packed enough,” Ralph said.
“She did,” answered Kevin, heading down the orchard path toward the hanging rock. “I know Mom. She always packs enough to feed a small crowd. It’s only a little more than a kilometre to the hanging rock, and it’s a perfect day for hiking.”

Kevin felt a little tired from his chores, but he enjoyed the fresh breeze and the beautiful scenery of the grassland country. He and Ralph had not gone far when they heard a chopping sound nearby. Ralph stopped and looked around. “Who’s cutting wood out here?” he asked.
Kevin laughed. “No one,” he said. “It’s just a lyrebird. It likes to imitate different sounds. It may begin crying like an injured animal before long.”

“Oh, this mixed-up country!” Ralph complained. “I don’t even know when a bird is calling, and this trail seems rougher each time we come over it.”
Kevin sighed, but not so Ralph could hear him. Ralph always seemed to have a complaint about everything. “It will be rougher still if we climb all the way up to the hanging rock. There are a lot of large rocks up there.”

“Yes, I know,” Ralph commented.
From Ralph’s tone of voice, Kevin thought he might now want to climb the small mountain, but when they reached the turn, Ralph started to speed up. “We may as well finish what we came for, not that there will be anything to see at the top,” grumbled Ralph.

“We’ll get a view of God’s beautiful world – a part of it at least.” Kevin tried to sound cheerful.
Ralph glanced back with one eyebrow lifted. “You always manage to bring God into everything, don’t you?”
“I think God belongs in everything we do. He created all things,” Kevin answered quietly and continued to climb.

The boys were about half way up when Kevin saw something on the ground in front of Ralph. It was a thick black ribbon of horror that brought a chill of fear to Kevin’s heart.
Swiftly he caught Ralph’s belt. “Don’t move,” he warned. “There’s a death adder on the path by that pile of leaves.”
Ralph blinked when he saw the snake, but he replied with a mocking voice, “So what? The snake is facing away from us. Let’s run. If it strikes, it will be the other way.”

“We’d better not,” Kevin told him. “We can’t be sure that the snake has seen us. If we move, it will. And even though its head is the other way, the death adder strikes backward. It will detect any movement we make so if we stand still, it won’t notice us. There is no way we can outrun it either, he moves as fast as lightning.”
“Oh, great!” cried Ralph in a hoarse whisper. “What do we do? Stand here all day hoping for a miracle?”
Kevin spoke softly. “I am going to pray and ask God to help us in some way.”

When Kevin had finished his prayer, he heard a strange noise from far up the mountain, but he didn’t look up. He looked instead at the black snake. Louder and louder the noise grew.
“Look out!” Ralph cried out. “There’s a rock rolling down the mountain! It’s bouncing down over stumps and other rocks straight for the pile of leaves. Let’s get out of the way!”

“No,” Kevin said in a quiet, firm voice, still holding Ralph’s belt with a strong grip to keep him from running. “Stand still. If the rock is going to hit where the leaves are, it will miss us. If we move, the snake may strike at us.”
The next few seconds seemed like hours. Then the rock smashed into the pile of leaves and onto the adder. The boys sighed in great relief as they saw the rock roll past them and on down the hill.

Slowly Ralph turned to face Kevin. ‘The snake is dead! The rock smashed it.” He paused, his voice quivering. “That rock! Where did it come from? Why did it come just when it did? Do you suppose it was an answer to your prayer?” Ralph looked questioningly at Kevin.
For a moment neither boy spoke. They were thinking of the rock that had rolled down the hill at the right time and in the right place.
Kevin nodded. “I think so, Ralph. I am sure God answered my prayer.”

“I am glad He did,” Ralph said.
Kevin nodded at Ralph in surprise. There was no mockery in Ralph’s voice when he spoke this time.
“I guess God does belong in everything we do after all,” Ralph added.
Kevin smiled. If it took a death adder to convince Ralph of that, he was glad that they had met it.

Sometimes it is difficult to witness and to live a Christian life with unbelieving friends and relatives, but if we pray for opportunities to witness, the Lord will bring about circumstances to make them be more open to hear His word. We just have to live for Jesus and when they are in need, they will ask for the comfort that they see we have in the Lord.