Mother Superior Theresa has risen several hours before dawn. France had been invaded, and was under occupation by the Germans. Many families had fled before the enemy, and some had left their children in Theresa’s care, here in the Convent of Providence. The children were in hiding, awaiting the chance to return to their homes – if indeed such a chance would come to them. It was now her duty to take care of them, reassure them and keep their minds absorbed in biblical tales. Mother Superior Theresa thought about which passages she might choose to entertain the boys today – perhaps something from the Old Testament? They would enjoy the drama, and such was the least three well-mannered boys deserved.
“Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. During the last watch of the night the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion. He jammed the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the Israelites! The Lord is fighting for them against us!” Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen.” Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward the shore, and the Lord swept them into the sea,” read Mother Superior. The boys listened, their eyes wide with fear and wonder.
“We had to run away too, Mother Superior, from our homes in Paris. But will God listen to us? In the trains everyone was fighting with each other. One man even pulled a woman by the hair and threw her suitcase out of the train. There was a baby beside me that never stopped crying. And an old man who was weeping. He said that the German invasion would be the ruin of France, but I didn’t know what he meant, and he said that we wouldn’t be safe no matter where we went. Papa told him to stop talking like that in front of me, because it was scaring me, and I felt afraid after that...will God hear our prayers, Mother Superior? Does he only protect the people following Moses?” asked one of the boys, named François.
“I wanted to ask that too! Will God protect us?” Paul interjected. “Because I saw...I saw...I saw bombs falling. Along the tracks there were hundreds of us walking with our suitcases, and it was hard, very hard. My legs hurt. Was God there when Papa lost his leg? And when Maman…when Maman...” Paul began to choke on his words.
“When your dear mother joined the heavenly family, God was there my son. She is in His care now. Your mother is at peace now, up there, where she can watch over you,” answered Mother Superior in her gentle voice.
“Does that mean that God doesn’t watch over the Germans?” asked the last boy.
“God watches over all the world, but he leaves men to commit evil. God has a destiny for all of us, but he works in mysterious ways,” Theresa reassured him.
“Myst-mysterious?”
“That means we cannot understand his plan for us, or see how He is doing what’s best for us.
“I don’t understand. Do you think I will one day?” asked François.
“No, my child. You must have faith, and heaven will guide you.”
Alan Alfredo Geday