Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Wisdom From a Mother's Stolen Roses


Pick a day, any day, and see if any  moral restitution has made headlines anywhere in the world. I hope there is somebody, somewhere acting out some kind of moral restitution.  Those who are constantly in the spotlight, such as athletes and Hollywood Actors, find themselves always under a microscope in what they do and how they handle mistakes.

Since this post is following the Super Bowl, one athlete that comes to mind is Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, when talking about moral restitution. But in his case, it is how he turned his life around from 13 years ago while at a pre-Super Bowl party where two people were murdered. Even though Lewis was found with the victims blood all over his clothes, the only crime he was convicted of was obstruction of justice. But it now appears Ray Lewis has changed his life around in recent years and has found Jesus, as he now speaks the Word of God constantly.

In Truman Capote's short story Children on Their Birthdays (also a film by the same name), a 13 year old high society girl named Miss Lilly Jane, moves to a small town in Alabama with her mother. Throughout this story set in 1947, the young lass teaches the entire town about life and about being righteous outside of church. I love how she also uses big words that nobody in town understands.

A young lad named Billy Bob tries to woo Miss Lilly Jane with some roses. Only one problem though, he stole those prized roses from his mother's garden. And when Lilly Jane sees Billy Bob getting scolded by his mother, she suggests to Billy Bob to make moral restitution with his mother.

"What's that?" he asks.

Miss Lilly Jane replies, "You have to do something right to cancel the wrong."

As both children decide to sleep on thinking of a resolution, Miss Lilly Jane takes action on her own with the help of her mother.
They sneak off into the evening and needle and thread all of the stolen roses back onto the stems in Billy Bob's mother's garden.

The next morning Billy Bob's mother is amazed at what she finds in her garden, as if some great miracle has taken place. But as she takes a closer look, she notices that the roses were just reattached.

She asks Miss Lilly Jane why she had gone through all that trouble to reattach the roses, Lilly's reply, "It's moral restitution."

"What's that?" the mother asks.

"To cancel out the wrong, we must balance what we ought not to do with what we ought to do", Miss Lilly Jane replies.

Boy, imagine what today would be like if we had a million Miss Lilly Jane's in the world.

It only starts with one. Will you be that person?

You can check out this fantastic film on DVD at your local library. Or you can read the short story in the book: A Tree of Night and Other Stories.




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