From Where I Sprang

Not far from where I live is a quaint little cemetery nestled in the piney woods in a community aptly called Pine LA.

In this pic is a first cousin, Marty Dykes, shown kneeling at the resting place of the remains of our paternal grandparents.

This marker over our grand-parents grave marks the site from which we sprang.

Henry and Celia Dykes carved out a living in this rural community back in the 19th Century and on into the 20th Century as sharecroppers.

For all you Johnny-come-latelies that's not a high-ranking level of living in the least.

That means where I sprang from was about the lowest form of living that a soul could ever imagine.

If you were poorer than that couple, you just didn't make it.

They literally lived off the land as tenants and what they didn't raise, or trap or caught they didn't eat.

There were no Walmarts or even that Dollar General store not long ago built in the little settlement to run to.

The clothes they wore were handmade and their transportation was on the back of a mule or in a wagon it pulled.

They were as poor as the dirt they farmed and that is where I sprang.

Marty lives in Virginia Beach Virginia and in his quest to revisit his ancestral beginnings and his own beginnings out in California where his dad raised him, brought him to my house for a long overdue visit back in July.

It's like he wants to reconnect with all his past before checking out as well.

Don't blame him, I am in the same venue.

Isn't it amazing how soon we forget?

I am reminded of what God told the Israelites upon being placed in Canaan, the land of promise.

He said, when you arrive and get settled into houses you didn't build and drink from wells you didn't dig and wax fat, don't forget from where you sprang.

You sprang from nothing.

You were just a bunch of sharecroppers living as tenants in Egypt. poor as dirt but I brought you out and brought you into this land that flows with milk and honey.

But they forgot and turned to the same idols that God kicked the former residents out for.

And God was not well pleased.

I look all around me here this morning sitting in the lap of luxury.

Ironically, I live in a house I didn't build.

I drive modern day vehicles and have so many blessings my grandparents never saw or even dreamed of.

Yet, it is so easy to forget where I sprang from.

And it's not just me.

My country has forgotten where they sprang from.

Congress will meet this morning and they will discuss everything but where we as a nation sprang from.

Somebody needs to stand up in session and scream, "Mr. (Miss) Chairman, the wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." (Ps 9: 17)

Of course, that is not going to happen so we as a nation continue to do business void of God and where we sprang.

Well, I can't help what they do in D.C. today or stop where they are taking us, to a living hell here on earth, but I can remember where I sprang from down the road about a 30 minute drive.

My granny lived to be the same age I am now at 72, my gramps only 65.

Apparently hers from the ravages of diabetes and he from a sudden heart attack.

They lived through two world wars and a great depression surviving by sheer hard work and determination and a faith in God.

My departure could come at any day as I sit here in the lap of luxury.

I will never know the hardships my grandparents went through to get me here on easy street but the least I can do is give thanks to the Lord above for being here.

Is there any reason why we should wonder why this country is in a melt down right now with all hell turned loose?

It's simply because we forgot where we sprang from.

God bless you and God bless America.