The Cracked Acorn
The Cracked Acorn: the Answer
Moses took the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had made the Israelite’s swear an oath. He had said, “God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up with you from this place.” (Exodus 13:19)
The highway monument sits beside the road, once its glory could be easily noticed, but now time has gone by and traffic speeds on its way into Culpeper for bargains at one of the Super stores open 24/7. One must be traveling slowly and look to the right and there it is in a madness of timothy, foxtail, clover and different types of grasses almost covering its moment of emplacement. Mother nature is doing its best to hide this interloper. We see these appointments of kindness due to a sadness and loss alongside other roads and highways. Some are complaining to the Highway Departments that these are distracting and could cause accidents, for a lack of a reason.
Within this random chaotic arrangement of clover , weeds, and display of bucolic sent from above, flowers is a subliminal message. The staked unstable monument is a Styrofoam cross
with its head dress of WalMart vinyl chain of floral flowers. It is the cross and those who sat it in the ground must believe that there is a God and that there is hope and that eventually
somewhere beyond this arena of passing joys and moments of sadness is another place, eternal and there we shall all meet again.
Why any person would place a cross to be soon cast into the landfill or crushed by an attempt to mow and clear the byways for passing motorists. I could answer that I would have the answers to more of those questions that all of us face from time to time and have to answer, “I don’t know!” and, hope this is enough to have closure.
“A little girl was riding on the airplane across the Midwest to spend the summer with her grandparents. She was reading one of her favorite paperback stories,”Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm” when a young man took the vacant seat next to her. He attempted to start a conversation, “You know on long flights like this that time can pass more quickly if we have conversation. I would like to tell you, “Why there is no God and no heaven and nothing beyond this earth; you live and then you die and that’s it!”
With that the little girl looked up from her book, “Do you know why a horse eats green grass and leaves behind round clumps, the cow eats the same grass and leaves behind round patties and the goat does the same and leaves little pellets?” The young man laughed, “I don’t know.”
The little girl said, “The dimmest farmer knows and I know we have nothing to talk about,” and with that she went back to reading,”Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.”
A Cross for me to carry, on the road of life you see.
I know that I must tarry on to my eternal destiny.
For Jesus has a Crown of Life waiting just for me…
Dr. Donald E. Battle (written 2002)





