I Want You To Walk

“I WANT YOU TO WALK”

-Arthur Gordon (A Touch of Wonder) relates a story that graphically describes the impact that one life can have on another. The man Gordon spoke of had been stricken with polio at the age of three and his parents had abandoned him in the Depression era.

Taken in by a foster family from a New York City hospital, he went to stay with their family in Georgia at the age of six. The family had hoped that the warmer climate would have an effect on the young boy. What improved his condition was the attendance of an elderly woman who was called Maum Jean. She took this frail, lost, lonely little boy into her heart. For six years, she daily massaged his weak legs and administered to him her own hydrotherapy in a nearby creek and encouraged him spiritually with her stories, songs, and prayers.

“Night after night, Maum Jean continued in the massaging and praying. Then one morning, when I was twelve, she told me she had a surprise for me. She led me out into the yard and placed me with my back against an old oak tree; I can feel the rough bark of that old tree even to this day.”

“She took away my braces and my crutches. She moved back a dozen steps and told me that the Lord had spoken to her in a dream. He had said that the time had come for me to walk. ‘So now,’ said Maum Jean, ‘I want you to walk over here to me.’

“My instant reaction was fear. I knew I couldn’t walk without my braces and crutches because I had tried. I shrank back against the solid support of the tree. Maum Jean continued to urge me.”

“I burst into tears. I begged. I pleaded. Her voice rose suddenly, no longer gentle and coaxing but full of power and command. ‘You can walk, boy The Lord has spoken Now walk over here.’”

“She knelt down and held out her arms. And somehow, impelled by something stronger than fear, I took a faltering step, and another, and another, and another, until I reached Maum Jean and fell into her arms, both of us weeping.”

“It was two more years before I could walk normally, but I never used the crutches again. All of that happened a long time ago. I live in another town, now. But I still think of Maum Jean often, and the main thing she taught me: that nothing is a barrier when love is strong enough.”