Come On Worm (By Candy Statts)

“Come on Worm”

The mother peered through her white muslim curtains at the little girl sitting on the front porch of her house. The little girl wore white gloves and was talking to the worm that she was attempting to coax onto her hook, for she was going fishing. “Oh, please worm, please get on the hook. She poked a couple of times half-heartedly at the worm but the worm would not get on the hook. For some reason it struggled to wriggle out of her grasp. The little girl started crying and threw the fishing pole down. Then, with the wriggling worm still in her hand she went to her mother. “Mommy,” she cried wiping at her tears with her one free hand, “the worm won’t get on the hook”. The mother turned her head a little away from her daughter so she would not see the smile splaying across her face. But she lifted her daughter up into her lap and wiped her tears. She held her for a long moment as the gentle breeze came in from the half open window. She looked at the worm who was continuing to wriggle, striving to free itself from her daughter’s hand. She took the worm away from her and put the worm in a glass. Then she started to tell her a story. “Honey”, she said, smoothing her hair with her hand. “We don’t always do what we know God wants us to do. We struggle in God’s hands and wriggle and try to get away from his purposes, from the things we know are right and good. No amount of coaxing is going to convince us to do those things. We have to want to do them. That’s why God gave us the freedom to choose. Do you know what freedom is, honey” The little girl shook her head and the mother explained. “When you want a cookie and there are two kinds what does Mommy say?”. The little girl thought for a moment and then said “what kind do you want?” The mom said yes, that is right, and do you tell mom which one you want? Yes, the little girl said. So, the mother said, you had the freedom to choose which one you wanted. Oh, the little girl said I always choose the chocolate one. She giggled and leaned closer to her mother. Can we make cookies later? Yes, the mother said.