Shirley Lee Johnson

Small Precious Things Shirley Lee Johnson

When my dad and I talked in the past, I never paid attention because, usually, it was something foolish. However, one day, I decided to listen, to just listen to what the man had to say. Intertwined in the midst of the foolishness was a wisdom that I never knew my dad possessed. He had substance to him, something tangible, a wisdom beyond anything I had ever experienced in my life. It was something that you could sink your teeth into if you let the things he said get in you. At this point, I realized that God had given us a treasure packaged in the form of Arthur Ricks. We were so busy looking at his rough exterior that, for some of us, it took a minute to get to the treasure that the Lord had tucked inside of him. My dad possessed a strength almost impossible to perceive until cancer reared its ugly head. Then that treasure, all those precious jewels that had been lying dormant in him was discovered. We realized there was a strength, wisdom and type of love flowing from him and through him we had never experienced before. He taught us the true meaning of the love of God._While caring for dad, I was made to know that we must learn to see our hands in God's hands in the midst of trying situations, God's perfect hands imparting the help that our weary life-worn hands need. And when we think of weary life worn hands, we think of the trials and tribulations that the individual had to go through for their hands to look that way. The experience they have learned from all their labor under the sun. They humbly put those hands to the plow completing the work of the kingdom. Small, gnarled, hardworking hands - two small precious things that reflect experience enveloped in the beautiful perfect hands of our Father._This book contains a few of the tidbits of wisdom that I picked up along the way.