—MOJuly, 1971NO.84—GP

1. I LOVE BEING A LEGEND—A MYSTERY! I always wanted to be a ghost when I was a little boy. I loved characters like Dracula and Frankenstein and Tarzan. And I would have added Space man to my list, but it was too early for him then!

2. I USED TO LOOK AT PEOPLE, AND THEY WOULD LOOK AT ME SO CONDESCENDINGLY: "Oh, that dear little child."—And I used to dream of being somebody big or important, but I never wanted them to know I was big or important!—And I used to think to myself, "You just think I'm a little nobody—just little ole me—but you don't know who I really am! I really am somebody important! I'm Somebody!

3. I'M ALMOST AFRAID TO SAY IT, BUT THAT'S HOW I FELT. Some people always misinterpret things! Well, I like to feel like I had some kind of supernatural powers that could influence them without their knowing it! I didn't want them to know it was me! I just wanted them to think I was nobody but little ole me—but at the same time I was really more powerful than they thought I was!

4. IT WAS LIKE I LIKED TO SUPPOSE I COULD THINK THINGS AND MAKE THEM HAPPEN, because I felt that God was in me!—And sometimes they happened!—And it didn't surprise me 'cause I just knew God did it because I wanted Him to!

5. I WAS JUST A LITTLE RUNT AND A PHYSICAL WEAKLING and nobody paid much attention to me, but I used to think, "I know more than you think I do, because God talks to me and tells me about you and all kinds of things!"

6. MY BROTHER AND SISTER SOMETIMES USED TO WONDER HOW COME I KNEW THIS OR THAT! They thought I'd been spying on them or something! I don't know—it just must have been the Lord showing me!

7. I WAS A VERY LONESOME LITTLE BOY. I had hardly any friends! I really was shy and bashful. I guess some people thought I was a little bit strange. I didn't see my mother much either. My childhood was at the height of her busiest ministry when she was away a lot. She asked me one time why I didn't play with other kids‚ and I said, "I guess I'm just different from other people!" A lot of kids were plying around at baseball or fishing or some other ridiculous thing, but I preferred to read books, and build radios, have a darkroom and develop films, and invent machinery.

8. I REMEMBER ONE TIME I INVENTED A CONTRAPTION that ran by a little motor‚ and could carry messages from the front house to the back house on a string! And I learned there was something called wireless telegraphy‚ so I started to learn the Morse Code and build radios! But I did everything in secret—I didn't want anybody else to know what I was doing! I even developed a code for my diary, so nobody else would know what I was writing. In fact, it was so secret that a few years later I even forgot it, and couldn't read it myself!

9. I WAS JUST THINKING ABOUT THIS TODAY! At last I've gotten my heart's desire! I wanted to do big things without anybody knowing I was doing them! I watched "The Ultimate Trip" and was so happy that nobody knew I had anything to do with it—that the Lord and I had started it all!

10. I LOVED TO BE MYSTERIOUS! I loved being the power behind the scenes! I liked keeping five cats in my room or building a tree house way up where they couldn't see me! I used to sit up in my tree-house, and I had a telescope and I could watch people! They didn't know what I was doing‚ but I knew what there were doing!

11. IF YOU REMEMBER GEORGE ARLISS IN "THE MAN WHO PLAYED GOD‚" YOU'LL KNOW WHAT I WANTED TO BE LIKE. It was the story of a very rich old deaf man who had learned to read lips and used to sit at the window of his beautiful mansion watching people in the park through his spy glass. he would read their lips, and could tell what they were saying to each other, even at that great distance, an early predecessor to our modern electronic eavesdropping. He could read their lips as they told each other their troubles, confessed their woes, and discussed their problems. When he discovered someone whom he thought really needed and deserved help, he would send his butler down to that person in the park with an envelope, sometimes even bearing their name, which he had read on their lips, and containing a goodly sum of money, to help them in their distress! When they would gratefully ask the butler who sent it, he was instructed to simply reply: "God!"—Thus the tittle for this eccentric old philanthropist who liked to influence people's lives and help those in need, but remaining strictly anonymous himself!—A true legend of London, known as "The Man Who Played God." But come to think of it, that's really the way God Himself is! He likes to remain unseen, known only by faith, but a very present help in trouble!—Love—MO

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family