The Three Marbles

I came across this journal entry I wrote in 2007. I hope you enjoy it!

 The LORD your God will always be at your side, and he will never abandon you. Deut. 31:6b

When our children were younger, my husband Larry received a job transfer from our home in Northwest Missouri to the hills of East Tennessee. We had never lived outside of our home state before, and it was quite a challenge being away from family and friends. But it was a year that I’ll never forget, nor regret!

Larry’s job at that time was driving a road service truck for the company he worked for. His job kept him on the road for long hours each day as he traveled all over East Tennessee, and sometimes up into Virginia, to service utility trucks. We prayed each day for his safety on the road.

Our son Matthew, who was 7 years old at the time, had a bag of marbles that he played with now and then. One day as Matt was playing with is marbles, he had an idea. He ran and got an old t-shirt and cut a small square from it. He placed his three best marbles into the bag and put a rubber band around the top. When his dad came home from work late that evening, Matt ran and got his little marble treasure.

“Here Dad,”  he said as he reached out his small hand with three marbles clutched inside. “As long as you carry these marbles with you, you’ll know that you’re not alone out there on the road.”

Larry took the three marbles from Matt’s hand and smiled, “Thank you son! It kind of reminds me of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.” Matt smiled, knowing that his little treasure pleased his dad.

Larry kept those three marbles in his service truck for the remainder of the year that we lived in Tennessee. And Matt was right, they were always a reminder that Larry was never alone.

Over the years Larry would come across the marbles going through a drawer, or packing a box during a move to a new house, and each time he would remember the precious gift from his small son.

Photo by xandert at MorgueFile

In the summer of 2007, we had the privilege of dropping off our son, who was then 17 years old, at the Marriott Hotel in Kansas City. He would be shipping out to Fort Jackson, SC the next day for basic training for the Army National Guard. As we somberly sat in our Durango outside of the hotel, we prayed a blessing over our son. We prayed for God’s hand of protection to be with him over the next nine weeks that he would be away from home. Then my husband reached into his pocket and said, “Son, I have a gift for you.”

Before Larry’s hand had a chance to come out of his pocket, Matt’s eyes widened with delight, “The three marbles?”

“Yes, the three marbles,” Larry said as he handed the now worn bag of marbles into his son’s hand. “Just a reminder that you’re never alone.”

May 2007

The gift wasn’t new or wrapped in a pretty package with a brightly colored ribbon, in fact, it was a bit stained from the months that it traveled in a service truck, and the years that it was stored from one place to another. The rubber band that was so perfectly fit around the top of the cloth years before was now worn and cracked in places. But it was a gift that you could never put a price tag on. It was a gift once given from a small son to his Daddy that he looked up to, and now from a Dad back to his son whom he is very proud of, a son who is a soldier in the Army National Guard.

Debbie L Davis (c) 2007

Until next time,

Debbie Davis

One Blessed Chicky

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