Last time I mentioned how it came about that I wrote a book of childrens’ stories with a lamb as the heroine. All but one of the stories were tested in school and were very well received.

Why not that one? Well, this month for example the pastor of Amazing Grace Baptist Church of North Carolina announced that his congregation would be burning Bibles and books by Christian authors at Hallowe’en. His ‘reason’ is that ONLY the King James version of the Bible is the Word of God. All the others are satanic perversions. Billy Graham and Rick Warren are among the authors whose works will be burned. It is idiots like this who have been successfully fighting and financing their way into local Boards of Education to promote their insane agendas. This is the story that wasn’t included in the school set, because though it’s fine to have McDonalds, the Meat Marketing Board and the Dairy Council provide nutritional guidance for children, they must not receive any overtly spiritual data. This story could have produced professional problems for Shirley, guilt by association, so it wasn’t in the school tests. Remember this was for 4th graders. Here it is.

The most exciting day in Topsy Lambert’s life came one summer. She was jumping happily in the field near Catskill Farm. It was a fine sunny day. One of her jumps was very high and she saw far away across the big field a great crowd of people. They were putting up tents and making huts and shelters and they were singing.

Topsy Lambert knew that people who sing happily as they work are often nice to know. She knew a robin, and a thrush, and two blackbirds who sang a lot. And they were very nice to know. Besides, she was a lamb and wanted to know what was going on, so she hopped and jumped across the fields towards the people.

There was a little river in the second field, so she hopped and skipped and jumped towards the little bridge in the woods. When she came near the bridge she saw a man.

He was sitting cross-legged on the ground like Farmer Jone’s children did sometimes. His eyes were shut. He was dressed in clothes as orange as Mrs. Jone’s marigolds, and he was a smiley, happy looking man.

Topsy Lambert stopped. She didn’t like disturbing people or animals when they were asleep. Then the man opened his eyes and looked at her. They made her feel funny, in a nice sort of way. He smiled a great big smile and spoke to something in the bushes.

Two very big friendly dogs trotted out of the bushes and over to Topsy Lambert. One of them said, “Please come with us. Our Master would like to say hullo to you.” The dogs were even bigger than Prince the sheepdog, but Topsy Lambert wasn’t even the tiniest bit afraid.

She hopped and skipped towards the man. She said to one of the dogs, “I can’t understand human talk, so what can I do?” “Don’t worry,” answered the dog, “My Master always knows what to do.”

Topsy Lambert hopped right up to the smiley man. He put on a woolly cap the same color as his clothes and held out his hand to her. At once she smelt the smell of hay, and of her Mother’s warm milk, and daisies and buttercups, and a feeling of everything that was good, warm and beautiful spread around her.

So Topsy Lambert went right up to him, and she and the dogs sat down at his feet and looked at him. He reached out a long brown hand and touched her on the nose, just between her eyes. Then he spoke to her, and to her surprise she understood every word.

“I welcome you with love and respect little lamb,” he said. “Do you know my name?” “No sir,” said Topsy Lambert, who was always very polite. “I’m just a little lamb and I don’t know very much.”

“Don’t ever say that,” smiled the man in orange. “It was a little lamb just like you who once helped the great God with a big problem.”

“Oooooh!” squealed Topsy Lambert. “Was it really? What happened?”

“Thousands and thousands and thousands of years ago,” said the man in the woolly orange hat, “there was the first human child.”

“The great God called all the other animals together to show them the new baby creature. All animals know that the first word any creature learns to say is the name of God in that creature’s language. They know that the wind in the trees sings the name of God. They know that the water babbling in the stream is singing the name of God. So all the animals came forward to help the new baby by greeting it with the name of God in their own language.”

“The wolf howled the name of God. The baby was silent. The snake hissed the name of God. The baby was silent. Creature after creature stood before the baby and said the Holy Name in its own language. But the baby said nothing.”

“Now God had a problem because until a creature knows God’s name it cannot talk to God, nor God to it. All the animals and birds had made sounds too hard for the baby to understand.”

“Then a new little lamb stepped up. She was just like you. She had only learned the name of God in her own language that very day. But to help Him out she stepped up to the baby and said, Baa-baa.”

“Then the baby laughed and kicked and said, ‘Baba, Baba,’ which as everybody now knows means ‘Father.’ That was the first human word for God, and all because a little lamb, just like you, was not afraid to help.”

“That’s a lovely story,” said Topsy Lambert. “I must run and tell my Mommy at once. What shall I tell her your name is?”

The smiley man in orange stood up and started to walk away with his two dogs. “Those who love me call me Baba,” he said, “thanks to you.” And he was gone round a bend in the path.

Topsy Lambert never saw him again, but she often thought about him, and never again did she think, “I’m only a little lamb. What do I know?”