THE CASE OF THE MISSING FINGER
Dear family and friends there’s a Swahili saying “Kikulacho ki nguoni
mwako” What ails you may be hidden in your own clothes
Psalm 14:1 (Read all of Psalm 14)
The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt,
they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
I was 4 or five years old, had just learned to count 12345…..by
using my fingers I had practiced all day long.
That night I don’t know what woke me up but while the rest of the
house was asleep I was practicing to count with my right hand there in
my bed in pitch darkness.
There was only one problem; I HAD A MISSING FINGER!!
When I counted them early they were five but this time no matter how
many times I count them I get only FOUR?!..(I was using my thumb to
count the rest of the fingers..) get it.? I forgot to count the thumb!
I let out a sobbing shout; “Mama,mamaaa! My finger is missing”!
All the siblings woke up and scrambled towards me, Dad and Mom woke
up and called Phyllys to go check on their odd child. Phyllys burst
into the room with the Kerosene lamp, with shaking hands quickly
grabbed my hand, didn’t see any wound or blood, she counted the
fingers.
They were all there.! A mixture of fear and anger and relief came out
with her words; Are you crazy?, Yeiyo, (Mama) they are all there he
must have been counting wrong” , she said. Everyone went back to their
snoring but I knew the family will never forget this one.!
Today I called home in Kenya.
There was a family re union for fellowship Rev Joshuah passed the
phone to all those who were present and I was able to greet and
exchange niceties with each one of them until it came to Phyllis
Naimutie my eldest sister…You know that one who always plays
‘mother’ no matter how old you are.
Naimutie is the second born in the family. Teaching was her profession
she taught us all to speak English,to count 1,2, 3 to 10,Shed say;
“Ero wou ene. “Boy,come here” in maasai she’d speak in a commanding
voice. Power that had been endowed to her by the two major generals;
‘My mother and father’. She’d always check my fingernails,my hair in
the morning before I went to school at Oloolua primary and if it was
not combed she took that torture chamber implement called the comb and
and gave me my daily portion of pain and suffering by mercilessly
combing my hair. Well today she was on the other side of the phone
10,000 miles away and guess what? After we exchanged greetings she
lowered the boom on me by asking me “Did you ever find the missing
finger”?!
I could hear the burst of laughter from the rest of the family
through the phone all the way from Kenya to United States Of America.
Funny isn’t it? Yet at that moment it was so real (The fool hath said
in his heart,) I had miscalculated and convinced myself that my finger
is missing…( The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. )
Yes sometimes we are controlled by the worries and fears of what we
see around us that we fail to see the presence of the living loving
God
song; Because he live I can face tomorrow, Because he lives
All Fear Is Gone………
–
Bishop
Manasseh Mankuleiyo
Oh To Be ‘His Hand’ Extended
