One day Jesus is coming back is what
they swear at Sunday School and Amen and
Hallelujah and Amen-and-Amen
but No man knoweth the hour and neither
does no woman, any woman I mean,
there’s no mention of children there and all
I can remember of kids is Suffer
the little children to come unto Me
but why should they make me suffer to get
me to go–Hell, I’m suffering as it
is so I asked Miss Hooker to explain,
she’s our Sunday School teacher and she laughed
and then smiled, I think I would’ve smiled and
then laughed but what do I know and then she
said Jesus doesn’t mean suffer like you
think He does but I’m happy, Gale, that you
brought it up so that I can clarify
it for your classmates next week, “clarify”
means wriggle off the hook, I guess, then she
went on to explain did Miss Hooker that
Jesus meant encourage the children to
go to Him and forbid them not which is
fancy for and don’t try to stop ’em, there’s
nothing to fear about the Son of God
unless you’re a devoted sinner and
deny Him not only three times but many
and never ask Him to forgive you to
boot, then you’re in a Hell of a jam says
Miss Hooker, though she didn’t say Hell and
cursing’s a sin, I may not know about
what’s good but I do know something about
sin, I kind of pride myself on that, I
guess I learned it the hard way and I’d learn
it to Miss Hooker if I thought that she
was mature enough to handle it and
come to think of it what about Jesus,
how could He know about sin unless He
committed a few, too? Miss Hooker said
that I’m coming close to blasphemy so
I should go home and pray starting after
lunch and not letting up until supper
and after supper though she didn’t men
-tion dessert I should take it up again,
prayer that is, And while you’re at it, Gale,
she said, try taking up the Cross as well.
I said Yes ma’am but I haven’t got one,
a cross I mean and as for taking it
up I’m not even sure what that means, I
thought that it’s the Cross that took up Jesus.
I was halfway on my walk homeward
when that came to me, I almost doubled
back to tell Miss Hooker but I was so
hungry I had to live by bread alone.
Gale Acuff has had hundreds of poems published in several countries and is the author of three books of poetry. He has taught university English in the US, China, and Palestine.