The Walking Stick
“Speak unto the children of Israel, and take of every one of them a rod according to the house of their fathers, of all their princes according to the house of their fathers twelve rods: write thou every man’s name upon his rod.” Numbers 17:2 KJV
One of my son-in-laws loves to fish. We can be riding down the road and he will see a little pond and he will say, “I bet there are some Bass in there!” I could have driven by that same pond a thousand times before and never even noticed it was there. But his excitement does breed excitement about fishing in me, too.
On one of our family vacations we went to the mountains along the Tennessee and North Carolina border. My son-in-law read on-line that there was a great creek with really good trout fishing. He said it would take about three hours to fish the creek and most of the reviews said it was very good fishing. Not being very experienced at creek fishing we headed out on our adventure. Figuring our feet were going to get wet anyway, I decided to wear the flip flops I brought. I had my fishing pole and my camera and I was really to go.
We started out real excited and I don’t believe he ever lost his excitement. Me? About four hours into it, and slipping and sliding on the wet rock, took the wind out of my sails. Then being told by a Park Ranger, who was fishing alongside the creek, we were only half way to the trail where we were planning to head back, really got me discouraged. I found a stick alongside the creek bed and I decided I would use it to help me through the rushing water. My toes, where the flip flops rubbed, felt like they were raw. I was just hoping there were no sharks in the water that would sense the blood that must be gushing from them.
It had been a long and tiring Presidential campaign. Although he was just the Vice Presidential candidate on the ticket, it was still a lot of hard work. They lost the election and the following summer he decided to take his family up to Campobello Island in New Brunswick, Canada. They had a summer cottage there. He was 39 years old at the time.
While they were on vacation the Boy Scouts were having a jamboree at nearby Bear Mountain. He decided to make an appearance at one of the events. Just imagine the excitement of the young lads at having a former Secretary of the Navy and someone who was just on the ticket to become Vice President. It is believed that one of the scouts at this event changed his life forever.
God issued a call for all the leaders of the tribes to gather together. When they came to the meeting He wanted each leader to bring a walking stick. At the time, there were twelve leaders. Each leader was to write their name on the walking stick they carried with them. Next He wanted them to place all the walking sticks in pile in the most holy place of their meetings.
I’m sure all the leaders were wondering what was going on. As you travel through the early pages of the Bible it becomes pretty obvious that having faith in God and doing what He asked without question was not one of their strong points. Another thing that is obvious is that they often questioned the authority of those who spoke for Him. This is another one of those stories.
As my son-in-law and I were traveling down the creek I totally gave up on the fishing. I was more worried about just making it to the end. My son-in-law never lost his excitement. In fact, he was so excited he rushed way ahead of me and would find a spot and fish there until I caught up. As I traveled down the creek I started to see little snakes swimming in the water. I didn’t get too panicked, because I hadn’t seen any buzzards flying overhead, yet. Besides, I had my mighty walking stick with me.
Poliomyelitis is an infectious disease that can be contagious. Ninety to ninety-five percent of the carriers never show any symptoms, but the disease can be inside them for up to six weeks. That means there is a possibility they can transfer it to someone else without even knowing it.
Our future President returned to his vacation home. A couple of weeks later he decided to take his three children: Anna, James and Elliot, sailing on their 24 foot sailboat, the Sloop Virco. After that he took a two mile jog to a pond and had a quick swim. He returned to the vacation home and dinner was waiting for him. He didn’t eat anything because he felt like he was getting a chill and he just headed for bed. By the morning his temperature was 102 degrees.
God told Moses that out of the twelve tribes he was going to prove which tribe would be called on to speak for Him. The twelve walking sticks, one from each of the tribe’s leaders, would be placed before the Lord in the Tent of Testimony. He told them that the rod of the man He chose would bud by the morning.
The next morning the rod of Aaron, Moses’s brother, of the tribe of Levi, not only sprouted blossoms, the rod also produced ripe almonds. The Lord then told Moses to put Aaron’s walking stick in the Ark of the Covenant. This is also where the Ten Commandments and a golden pot of manna were kept.
We finally made it to the end of our fishing trip. My feet remained sore for two to three weeks after it was all over. I still have the walking stick. It’s on my screened-in porch. Every year the story of my adventure gets better and better. One day my grandson is going to hear about the great adventure I had with his Dad. I’ll tell him how I battled a polar bear and a pack of hungry wolves, with an anaconda wrapped around my leg and all I had was this stick. All the while, your Dad was up the creek a few miles enjoying his fishing. Do you think I should throw in something about piranhas?
August 10, 1921 was the last day that Franklin Roosevelt would ever walk without any assistance. That next morning, as he awoke with the 102 degree temperature, he could no longer move his legs. Poliomyelitis, better known as Polio, had set in and many believe it may have been one of the Boy Scouts at the jamboree, who probably never showed any symptoms of the disease, who gave it to him.
If you go to FDR’s vacation home in Warm Springs, Georgia, called The Little White House, there is a museum on the property. There are several cases and over 100 canes of various designs that people gave to him from all over the world. I’m sure each design was picked to have a special meaning to this beloved leader. He always loved being up “walking” with a cane in one hand and someone gripping him firmly on the other side. He was actually just swinging his hips side to side and leaning on the cane to give the appearance that he was walking. There was always someone strong on the other side to make sure he wouldn’t fall. There are only five pictures that exist that show FDR in a wheel chair.
Prayer: Dear Mighty Father, Sometimes our strength just isn’t there. The world is getting the best of us. In those times, please be the cane that holds us up and helps us move forward. Amen.
