Image by Tung Lam from Pixabay
The kind of pull Mrs. Velma Stepforth had on the people around her was manifested in that Capt. R.E. and Mrs. Thalia Ludlow, Sgt. Vincent and Mrs. Melissa Trent, and Maj. Thomas and Mrs. Gloria Stepforth all were on Zoom when she asked them to hear her tell them:
“Come get all of your children – come get all of them – do y'all hear that – and you know Vertran is streaming it live!”
It had started with a conversation between six-year-old Grayson Ludlow and his eight-year-old sister Edwina. She was gardening, and he had come out with his Legos and patiently was building Lego buildings around the plants without disturbing them. She had seen this and given him a big hug, and then they had started working together on weeding and building.
“We gotta really do this,” Grayson said, “because that song is on again.”
“What song?” Edwina said.
“That one in which they paved paradise and put up the parking lot,” Grayson said.
“Look, we're not doing any of that around here – I WILL BREAK BAD and I'M NOT AFRAID OF PRISON!” Edwina said.
“Oh no – oh no – oh no – oh no,” seven-year-old Amanda Ludlow said as she ran to get her siblings eleven-year-old Eleanor and ten-year-old Andrew, and then also best friend eight-year-old Gracie Trent from next door.”
“Hold on – let me get the holy water that Pop-Pop blessed with the food yesterday,” Gracie said.
“And that's where I came in,” Mrs. Stepforth said, “because Gracie went right over to ask what was going on and found about the plan to pave paradise and put up a parking and had no idea who Joni Mitchell is and the song she wrote – and so when Eleanor said, 'But who does that?' and Edwina said, 'It doesn't matter who it is they're evil!”' Gracie turned into your mother, Vincent, and right after that, turned into me.”
“Ain't it the truth, and y'all know that ain't nothing but the devil – I've been telling y'all!”
The Trents and the Stepforths fell out laughing, because Melissa and Thomas Jr. were Mrs. Stepforth's son and daughter, and Sgt. Trent's mother was Gladys Jubilee Trent, and Gracie could turn into both her grandmothers at any time.
“OK, but, we have to do something about him!” Edwina said. “I'm not going to hell, so I'm not scared of him either because Jesus has got us – we're not going to just stand here and let this happen!”
“There's gotta be something in the Bible,” Eleanor said, and Andrew went and got Capt. Ludlow's Bible.
“Um … let me check Papa's bookmarks … yes, it says here, 'Resist the devil, and he shall flee from you.' So basically, we just have to get to wherever the paving is happening, and we can shut this whole thing down.”
“OK, but, what exactly do we do? Do we need signs and stuff?” Gracie said.
“OK, Papa has another note here … uh, it says that when there was a dispute over the body of Moses, the archangel Michael said to Satan, 'The Lord rebuke thee' … so basically we resist the devil by turning him over to the Lord.”
“You mean God gets to break bad by Himself and we don't get to help Him?” Edwina said.
Andrew sighed.
“Eddie,” he said, “the devil is kinda big. Think about it – who down here is just rolling up on Paradise with pavement?”
“Well, yeah,” Edwina said.
“But we have stuff to do, though,” Gracie said, “because you know every time the children of Israel had a fight, the Lord did the fighting and the people just played their instruments and sang.”
“This is true,” Andrew said. “Papa has bookmarks where that stuff happens too.”
“Well, we need a song, right now!” Edwina said.
“See, this is why you are blessed to have brown grandparents and brown besties, because we have songs over here for everything,” Gracie said. “We just gotta get a rehearsal in before going to where they plan on paving paradise.”
“And that's all we gotta do, because Papa has another note and bookmark here,” Andrew said. “You know Papa wasn't really an environment type of man, but he has a bookmark where the Lord says, 'I will destroy them that destroy the earth,' so this is kinda serious for them. When you destroy the environment, God says He's coming for you.”
“Well, I'm going to be like Gracie and Velma here – I've been telling y'all!” Edwina said.
“Let me get Milton and Velma, because you gotta have soprano, alto, and tenor in a gospel choir,” Gracie said. “Y'all get all your siblings and just group up next to who you are comfy singing with – Pop-Pop taught us how to sing harmony, so we're gonna teach you real quick, and then we're going to learn 'I'm a Soldier in the Army of the Lord' real quick.”
“Y'all listen to them – listen to them and COME GET YOUR KIDS!” Mrs. Stepforth said, and then walked outside to hear the camp meeting going on...
“We are soldiers in the army of the Lord … we are soldiers in the army!
Got our war clothes on in the army of the Lord … “
“Y'all hear this? Melvin went and got your bass out, Vincent, and just went on in, and Vanna came out with the tambourine, and Col. Lee took a look and went back in and then brought out his electric guitar and is playing like he was Rosetta Thorpe's only white student … .”
“Gon' resist the devil in the army of the Lord …”
“Then, Tom no. 3 got home from work, and he just fell out not knowing how this all started – 'They say the young people don't know the Lord, but look at this!' – and just happy danced until he tripped and fell and is just lying there holding up his hand to heaven like he is my grandmother but still ain't really heard a word that has been said... .”
“Ain't gon' pave up paradise in the army of the Lord, ain't gon' pave up paradise in the army ...
"No new parking lots in the army of the Lord, no new parking lots in the army ...
“And you know Vertran is here livestreaming it – Tom no. 2, this is your nine-year-old – check the comments!”
“Oh … uh … we've got people saying the revival has finally broken out in Lofton County among the young people.”
“And I need you to know that we are about to roll into the homegoing service for Tom no. 1 and Mrs. Maggie Lee because they heard the conversation from the beginning and are both on the floor and have broken every rib they have and can't breathe for laughing!” Mrs. Stepforth said. “COME GET YOUR KIDS, Y'ALL!”
“Well, since Andrew is looking up my bookmarks, I do have one at Psalm 8:2: '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,'” Capt. Ludlow said. “So, maybe … .”
That stopped all the adults on Zoom short.
“Y'all gotta understand,” Capt. Ludlow said, with a slow smile, “that Edwina is my granddaughter, and God loves us all very much. He would send deliverance and a revival just for her and me to keep the devil from getting a hold on us so y'all and the rest of Lofton County can be safe!”
“Ain't it the truth, y'all, ain't it the truth,” Sgt. Vincent Trent said, and then, with the utmost reverence, all the adults on Zoom fell out laughing before Mrs. Stepforth carried the computer out into the yard so the guardians could join the song on Zoom, and finally Mrs. Lee and Mr. Stepforth came out too … so Edwina learned that indeed, everybody that she knew and respected knew how to praise the Lord when the situation was too big for them, and trust Him to do the rest. And Capt. Ludlow, her grandfather, was reassured: just as the Lord was giving him what he needed to move from being a man of war to a man of peace, Edwina, who had to fight her way through foster care, was getting what she needed too.