A Boy Challenges God

 

It started like any other day for Jay, an nine-year-old,  but what happened that afternoon would change his life forever.

 

Jay was growing up in a new subdivision in Woodhaven Woods, Michigan where his dad was serving as a minister.

 

The homes were new and had flat back yards with no fences and all backed into a wood line fifty to seventy yards deep. It was a great place for a youngster to grow up and play. Most of the trees were hardwoods, like oak and maple, tall and straight. All except one, says Jay. That tree was forked about four feet up. One fork was badly decayed and hollow near its base, the other was solid and healthy.

 

Jay remembers the afternoon was very windy, lots of threatening clouds but it wasn’t cold and it wasn’t raining. He was standing in his yard when he challenged God. He doesn’t know what prompted him. He just did. What goes through a boy's mind anyway? Jay tells it this way.

 

 “ I saw the trees swaying and said, ‘Ok God. You knock over a tree and I will never doubt you again.’ Within seconds there was a loud crack. "Even though

I was several hundred yards away I could see it was the forked tree that had fallen.

 "Some parents gathered around the forked tree and I went over to see. It was then I saw that the solid half of the forked tree had cracked all the way to the ground and toppled. Surprisingly, the decayed half was still standing. You could look right threw and see light on the other side. I don’t know what was holding that tree up. It looked as if it would fall over at any minute so the parents were keeping the children at a safe distance.

 

"I thought about it later. God knocked over the strong but held up the weak. You could read into that. The weak half of that tree never did fall on its own. Some men cut it down later to so it wouldn’t fall on anyone.

 

"I didn't tell a soul what I had said for the longest time. I guess I thought this was between God and me. Even now, decades later, I have only shared this experience with a few others for fear of being seen as bragging or something worse.

 

"But there is no doubt in my mind that God felled the strong half of that tree that day."

 

Jay Hessler

Woodhaven Woods, MI