Evangeline

This is a view of North Mill Pond--a sight that I grew up seeing every time we drove down the long hill through town, turning left to go to Daggett's store. On a road that went past the mill lived a family who were quite poor whose children attended our school. The boy in the family was someone that I didn't like--and now as an older person, I realize that it was all peer pressure. He liked me and because some alpha male in the school didn't like him, no one else was supposed to, either. Now I feel stricken about how we must have been to him.

But I loved his mother. She taught our primary class at church. There we'd sit in the basement of the church on our wooden pews, while she tried to help us memorize scripture. She always had pictures, stories, and really cool artistic things for us to do. She had a beautiful name--Evangeline. How perfect for her role in our young lives, too.

This dear lady was so poor, and she walked with her toes pointing outward at 45 degree angles from a straight line. She had a lisp and always looked tired. I don't remember what she wore, or what kind of car she drove. I only remember that she gave us her all in our class and that she really wanted us to know Jesus. I absolutely loved her.

One of the things she did to help us memorize scripture was to hold up pictures that indicated what the next verse in the chapter was. There are so many memories of us chanting Psalm 8, as a whole group of wiggly, uncertain nine-year-olds. I shall never forget Psalm 8, nor could I ever forget Evangeline, particularly when I think of North Mill Pond in front of her house.

O Lord, Our Lord

How excellent is Thy name in all the earth.

who hast set thy glory above the heavens.

Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou

ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou

mightest still the enemy and the avenger.





When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy
fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast
ordained;


What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?



For thou hast made him a little lower than

the angels, and hast crowned him with glory

and honour.





Thou madest him to have dominion over the
works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:






All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;







The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and
whatsoever passeth through the paths of the
seas.

O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!