Stitches ’N’ Stories for Little Sisters
(And Not So Little Ones!)

Daniel and the Lace

or, A Perfectly Horrible Brother

Ksanndra Hauffer

“Daniel!” The lithe figure of a young girl sped around the corner of the barn, over the gate, and into the garden. “Daniel!” she said as she reached the garden and grabbed her older brother by the arm, “Give me that lace immediately. Now.”

But Daniel only grinned slowly and lazily, as he replied, “You wouldn’t want it now.

“Yes, I do, too,” the girl returned, “I don’t care how dirty you got it. It’s still lace and it still took me many hours to make and I need it.”

Daniel, who from all appearances was deaf, leaned on the garden gate, took out his pocket knife, and began to widdle one of the posts marking the carrots that were planted there. “It would cause you pain to see it, Susie, and I don’t really want to do that, so I guess I’ll just keep it for now.

“You know I don’t like to be called Susie; my name is Susanna, and I do want my lace! Give it to me! Now! I need it!” she flashed back.

“Who needs lace anyway?” Daniel asked the sky, meditatively.

“Daniel, give back whatever you’ve taken from your sister right now.” Papa spoke from behind the children.

Susanna had been so intent on getting her lace back, and Daniel in keeping it, that neither had noticed their father standing behind them.

“And when you give it back, I could use your help in the barn.”

Daniel reached slowly and carefully in his pocket and pulled out a snail, a few greasy bolts, then several tiny pieces of unrecognizably dirty lace.

Susanna stared in horror at the pieces. “That isn’t my lace, Dan,” she cried, “And you know it.” Tears filled her eyes. “I’m telling Mom. That’s what I’m going to do. You’ll be sorry, you perfectly awful brother!”

Daniel watched her open the gate and start toward the house, before he spoke. “I told you that you wouldn’t want it.” And then he went whistling off to the barn.

“….I’ve told it just like it happened, Mama,” Susanna finished her tale of woe. “And my lace is all cut up and it took so long make! I can’t use it for my pillowcase now. All because of my perfectly horrible brother!” And Susanna dissolved in tears in her mother’s lap.

Mrs. Meyer stroked her daughter’s dark hair soothingly. “I’m sorry, my dear, that your brother ruined your lace; that was very wrong of him. And I know you worked very hard on it. But there is something else you lost that I am even more concerned about. Do you know what that was?

Susanna propped herself up on one elbow and looked into her mother’s eyes. “I didn’t know I lost anything else,” She exclaimed in surprise.

“Yes, you did, and it is vastly more important than a foot length of lace.”

“What?!”

“You lost your temper, Susanna. You lost control of it; and that is something you must never do.”

“Oh. But, but…”

“But, what Susanna?”

“But, Mama he took my lace and cut it up. And it was my daintiest pattern too.”

“My dear there are things that are more important than lace, don’t you agree? And one of those is holding your temper or keeping your peace. The sooner you learn to have complete control over your temper, the better off you will be. My dear remember, whatever happens to you in life, the peace must be kept. If it is not, you are just as wrong as the person who did the wrong to you.

“But Mama, I try, but Dan makes me so mad, I think he spends half the night thinking up mean things to do to me every day.”

“Susanna, that is just it, you try. I know you cannot do it in your own strength—it is impossible for me, either. But you are a daughter of the King of Kings, and He has promised to supply all your needs, including this one. If you will ask Him, He will give you the grace to have peace reign in your life.”

“I wish the Lord seemed as real to me, as He does to you, Mama…. I sometimes wonder if He is really there….”

“You must not doubt that He is there. If you doubt His existence, you will get nothing from Him. Yet, I know how easy it is to crowd Him out, especially when you are young, because He is not visibly at your side. What you must do is talk to Him constantly, tell Him everything. Read His Word as much as is possible and with God’s help, practice what you read. Ask God for help to unwind your heart of terrestrial things of this earth—like your lovely lace—and place your heart in another country—a heavenly one. It reminds me of a beautiful verse I once heard,

“I want, by my aspect serene,
My actions and words to declare,
That my treasure is placed in a country unseen,
That my heart’s best affections are there.

“You, see my dear, now that you are a daughter of the King whose palace is in Heaven, this world, this present home is not really where you belong. Someday, when your body is laid to earth, your spirit will soar up to this home, your real home. For right now, you are just journeying there. Now let me ask you a question, dear; when you get home, to your Father, the King, and to His palace, will the foot of lace Danny tore up matter to you then?”

Susanna gazed silently at the pieces of dirty lace she held in her hand. Would these matter when she was in her Father’s mansion? “No,” Susanna replied, looking up into her mother’s face.

“You are right, dear, it will not matter the least bit then. So I would encourage you not to lose your temper; for over there, nothing material in this life will matter. And also, Susanna, someday, most likely, someone will really hurt you and take a lot worse than a foot of lace. But if you learn now to go to your King for help and set your affections in His Kingdom, nothing, nothing, can ever hurt you.

“Thank you, Mama,” Susanna said quietly, rising from her seat on the floor.

“You are welcome, Susanna,” Mrs. Meyer replied, and she watched with loving eyes as her daughter picked up the family Bible and walked outside toward the chicken house, to the tree that had been her favorite place since childhood.

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