Before They Cry

We were on summer vacation at our beach house.

My daughter, Mariana, was six years old and my nephew, Daniel, was ten. He came up with the idea of reselling kites to earn some money, and several children came to our house to buy the kites. When my daughter saw her cousin making money, she told me she also wanted to sell kites. I told her it would not be possible because her cousin was already selling them, which made her sad. Trying to cheer her up, I decided to prepare some sacolés, a type of popsicle, so that she could sell them, earn some money, and be happy.

I prepared everything and put them in the freezer.

She waited anxiously for the next day to arrive so she could sell them and earn some money. The day dawned, and it was raining.

For the next week, it rained in the morning, stopped briefly, and rained again in the afternoon. During the rain break, my nephew managed to sell kites, but nobody showed up to buy the sacolés. My daughter was so sad.

Sabbath arrived, and it was still raining as we left for church.

After sunset, we closed the Sabbath, and my daughter went to her room to play. It was then that I heard someone calling at the gate. I went to answer it and found a girl the same age as my daughter. She held an umbrella against the rain and asked if there were any sacolés for sale. I called Mariana, and she was delighted to make her first sale.

I remembered she had been in her bedroom with the door closed just a few minutes before and asked her why she had done that. (I had asked her to keep it open so I could see her.) She replied, “Mom, I was praying. I promised God that if He helped me sell the sacolés, I would return tithe on all I sold.” I was speechless. Before she had knelt down to pray, He had already put it on another little girl’s heart to ask her mother for money to go out in the rain at night to buy a sacolé. How wonderful is our God! If He hears the prayer of a six-year-old child, why would we doubt His love and infinite mercy for each of us?

Isabel Cristina de Almeida