“See, this is where you are missing it, sir. My baby brother is not my brother by birth – he's my cousin, but because we have been adopted by the same father, he is my brother, forevermore. We are Christian people – we can't say we are not family with other people who have God as their Father, because God can adopt them like He can adopt us, and it says that in John 1:12: 'But as many as received Him, to them gave He the power to become the sons of God, even unto them that believe on His name.' There's no color or money or politics stuff in there.”
The phone number was rolling across the screen of an unfortunate church crashout over politics. Ten-year-old Andrew Ludlow called in and shut it down. The stream went off with the whole church silenced by the voice of a child.
“Sometimes you gotta do a 9-2-2 emergency call on people because – what's that term, Velma?” Andrew said to his best friend eleven-year-old Velma Trent.
“Just wylin' out – just wilding out, in non-African American Vernacular English,” she said.
“I mean, how much trouble with God do you want to be in during a pandemic – aren't we already in enough trouble?” Andrew said. “Why would anybody go start messing with folks when we are already in trouble? We can't go to school, folks can't go to work, there's no county fairs and games and stuff – God is shutting the world down as it is, and why do we need more trouble?”
“This sounds like a question for Grandma Jubilee,” Velma said, so the two children went to find Velma's father's mother, Gladys Jubilee Trent.
Grandma Jubilee listened and smiled and tousled Andrew's golden brown hair.
“Let me blow your mind a little more, Andy, since the Spirit has you out here looking out for folks,” she said. “Yes, I am Velma's grandmother. John 1:12 says you're my brother, too.”
Andrew and Velma considered this.
“Well, yeah, because John 1:12 doesn't stop with age, but this just got deep,” Andrew said.
“So, basically, our parents and grandparents are just older brothers and sisters, bringing us up until we get it and can do the whole Christian thing with them,” Velma said.
“The point is that all of us will be operating maturely in Christ together, eventually,” Grandma Jubilee said. “But you know, some people are throwing tantrums and not trying to mature.”
“Oh,” Andrew said. “That's what that was.”
“Babies don't want to share their stuff,” Velma said. “Yeah, Grandma, it makes sense now.”
“That's just sad … some of those babies were Papa's age,” Andrew said.
“So, let me blow your mind a little more: you don't have to choose to grow up physically, but you do have to choose to grow up, spiritually,” Grandma Jubilee said.
“Yeah, these birthdays do keep coming,” Andrew said. “Getting to double digits came quick!”
“And once you get here, you can't go back,” Velma said.
Grandma Jubilee smiled, and said later to Velma's mother's mother, Mrs. Velma Stepforth, “You can always tell when kids are always around their grandparents!”
Mrs. Stepforth laughed.
“Little Velma and Andrew are hilariously too old for their age … but there is something really different going on with Andrew Ludlow. The boy's reverence and handling of Scripture, understanding of God, and his concerns for people in light of that, are pastoral.”
“He is essentially pastoring his siblings as it is,” Grandma Jubilee said. “That baby boy, Lil' Robert Ludlow, will sit down with Andrew for hours with a Bible, and Andrew rolls through the concordance and asks God to show him stuff to show Rob and they just go through it. The other Ludlow grandchildren and our grandchildren will come hang out and learn too, so, in essence, in a pandemic, in addition to everything going on with the Good Neighbors Fellowship and Smallwood Baptist Church's Sunday School online, Andrew is running a whole Bible study here.”
“But you know who else, quietly, is driving that?” Mrs. Stepforth said. “Andrew's cousin, Col. H.F. Lee, leads a lay Bible Study for the Veteran's Lodge, and the colonel has taken to studying for his study on his porch and letting Andrew hang out while he does it. Which also tells us that the Ludlow grandparents have done really well in nurturing their grandchildren in the ways of the Lord in the few years that they have had them – and that Capt. R.E. Ludlow has also chosen to grow up.”
“Yeah, it was not looking good for half a minute, but I have buried all my children but Vincent, our shared son now, and his sister Victoria – I get what happened to him,” Grandma Jubilee said. “I understand why our grandchildren having parents and grandparents while his grandchildren don't might break his brain for half a minute. But you know, I looked up his records. Capt. Ludlow, functionally, never operated in the real world as a racist. His grandmother, Hilda Lee, and her best friend my grandmother, Mahogany Mae Jubilee-of-the-mountain, would not have it – those years where Hilda took him and raised him had their impact!”
“The cognitive dissonance must have been immense,” Mrs. Stepforth said. “I see why you gave him half a minute before coming and laying down Jubilee law.”
“I gave him half a minute to remember that Jubilee law is already in him, and more importantly, Jubilee law on the mountain on these subjects is based on John 1:12,” Grandma Jubilee said. “I told Vincent and Melvin to keep their guns loaded and sent a few extra cousins to drive by to make sure things were cool, but I didn't actually think it was going to be a problem.”
“Yeah, but that's because Mahogany Mae is your grandmother,” Mrs. Stepforth said. “You knew her, and what she imparted to the children around her about Christ, and His love for every type of person. – in addition to her going hunting with Hilda for those who decided they not only didn't believe it but were above all law. Not so much, on the mountain! You saw that, just as Capt. Ludlow did – you knew what was in him!”
“Good point, Big Velma,” Grandma Jubilee said, “and that also goes to the much bigger point. The reason that boy Andrew was able to shut all those adults up is because he made the correct assumption: he knew what was supposed to be in his fellow Christians. And they shut up, because either the Holy Spirit bore witness instantly, or they didn't want to be exposed.”
“Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast Thou ordained strength,” Mrs. Stepforth quoted.
“Because a child can be moved by the Holy Spirit, and say what the Word of God says, too,” Grandma Jubilee said.
Meanwhile, Andrew's grandfather, Capt. R.E. Ludlow, had seen his grandson come and get his King James English Bible, and then dial the number on the screen … and he had heard what Andrew had said, and also remained silent, the Spirit of God bearing witness to what Andrew had been moved to do and say. Later on, the grandfather would have to talk with the grandson about it generally not being a good idea to openly confront adults on false belief, but … .
“Out of the mouths of babes,” he said to Mrs. Thalia Ludlow. “God chose him to shut us squalling immature men up. I could not gainsay it, because I could have been one of those men, and not that long ago.”
“Not really, Robert,” Mrs. Ludlow said. “You've had your moments, but, I have known this about you from meeting you: you just don't hate folks like that. You might kill a few here or there in combat if need be, but you don't waste your time on hate.”
Capt. Ludlow laughed.
“That's so accurate,” he said. “My parents taught me how powerful minding one's own business is, and all my living elders were adept, without hate, of getting things done in the world with collaboration and cooperation – or NOT, but people stopped taking the other side of that bet pretty quick. And then I became a Christian, and I have been learning ever since better than what the worst of what I was taught gave me.”
Mrs. Ludlow smiled.
“And so, your father, Edwin Ludlow, self-sufficient, god-like, also came to Christ as well,” hesaid. “Even he got past it all, because of Christ.”
One great tear dropped from Capt. Ludlow's eyes.
“I thank God,” he said, “that I shall meet my father as my brother, later on, because God saves even Ludlow sinners.”
