Singin' from a Tree Stump

“Ah, let him go along again.  He’s really not any trouble.  I’ll watch out for him.”

Little John’s Dad’s friend was hearing the pleas of Little John, who wanted to go along with his Dad and the friend to cut wood.  Little John wasn’t old enough to go to school and just hangin’ out with his Mom was pretty boring for the little guy.

“I promise I’ll be good and I’ll stay outta tha way of dat ax. Please, Dad, let me go wif you.”

So, Dad relented.

“Get your jacket, Son.  I’ll tell your Mom you’re going with us.

So, off they went; lunch pails in hand and an ax thrown over their shoulders.

As they begin to chop, Little John began jumping around and climbing over fallen trees. Finally, they chopped down a tree leaving a stump that was big enough for Little John to stand  on easily.   So, there he stood for the whole world to see.  Suddenly, he burst forth with a song.  He sang and twisted around on that old tree stump.  The longer he sang; the louder he got. Finally, the two men stopped their chopping, turned around and stood listening to his latest rendition.

“Say, he’s not too bad for a young sprout. If he keeps on, he’ll probably be singin’ on the radio before we know it” said Little John’s dad’s friend.

Little John’s singing was just the beginning of his love of music. Who would have guessed that in just a few years, he would be standing on the hillside with his best friend, blowing his little bugle, scaring a pasture full of cows and exciting a yard full of school children. From then on, Little John continued to sing.  He sang wherever anyone would listen whether it was a tree stump or at church. Sometimes, he was playing his double necked steel guitar AND singing. In his later teen years, he was playing his double necked steel guitar on the Ozark Jubilee television show in Springfield.  And, even later, singing with me and another couple at the Albert E. Brumley Sundown-Sunup show in Springdale.

Parents, if your children are blessed with a musical talent from God, get them in a church where they can use that talent for His glory and bless other people with their gifts.

Music and the love of it………..you never know where it will lead.

 

“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

     Worship the Lord with gladness;

Know that the Lord is God.

    It is he who made us, and we are his

    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

 Enter his gates with thanksgiving

    and his courts with praise;

    give thanks to him and praise his name.

 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;

    his faithfulness continues through all generations.” Psalm 100 NIV