Teddy Green was small.
He was born that way.
Little Teddy was a name that was hung on him when he was young. But even as he grow
older, he could not shake it.
If he had been a puppy, they would have called him the runt of the litter.
Little Teddy had three brothers. They all were twice as tall as him.
Little Teddy got used to all the names he would be called. Shrimp, tiny,
midget, the list could go on and on. Ted heard them all, accepted them all and went
on with his head held high.
Despite his small size, Teddy's mother never babied him. She wanted him to stand on
his own two feet, to learn how to fend for himself. Teddy's father? It seemed he
almost ignored Teddy in favor of his three older and bigger sons. They all were
outstanding athletes. This was something Mr. Green could relate to.
But Mr. Green loved Teddy. He just did not know how to show it. He still
remembered when Teddy was born prematurely. How everybody was so afraid he would not
survive. Joe Green also could remember the first time he saw his little son,
wrinkled, laying there with tubes attached. So tiny, so helpless and it seemed so
unfair he had to go through so much suffering so early in life.
Teddy survived and he thrived. He just never got any size to him. Doctors
thought he should start catching up during the first two or three months of his life but
he didn't. He never caught up.
When it came time to go to school, Teddy was the shortest one in his class but he also was
the smartest. Because of his size and intelligence he always had the first
position in any line. He remained the shortest each year as all the children returned to
school.
Most of his classmates continued to get taller and taller. Little Teddy, he grew,
but remained extremely small.
His size never stopped him. In school, Little Teddy had the best grades. He
loved to read. Loved to learn. He stayed on the honor roll. Outside of school,
one of Teddy's favorite things to do was explore. It was there that often times his
size helped him. He could squeeze through small openings and crevices the
other kids could not get through.
Little Teddy was not the first to be chosen for a ball team, but he was the first person
they looked to if the ball was hit over Mr. Wilson's fence. Teddy was the only one
who could get through the small opening in the plank board fence.
Little Teddy got used to his stature as he got used to the teasing about it. He just
wished that his father would pay as much attention to him as he did his brothers.
The family was heading for church on Sunday when they saw a big commotion along the side
of the road. Mr. Green and the entire family left the car to see what the excitement
was all about.
A woman was standing beside a storm drain screaming.
"My little girl is down there. She was trying to get her ball and she fell
in."
Mr. Green looked, there only was a narrow slit that gave access to the drain. He
reached his big arm into the slit. He could hear the whimpers of the little girl
down below. He swung his arm in the darkness of the storm drain but he could
not feel her. Could not touch her.
He called to his sons. They all were tall. Had long arms. And being
thinner than their father, perhaps could reach deeper into the storm sewer and find the
little girl.
Each went to the narrow slit opening. Each reached in as far as they could.
They strained to shove their shoulders as deep as they could into the opening.
They called to the little girl to grab their hand. they could hear her crying
just below them. But they could not grab on to her.
A large crowd now had gathered. Everyone could hear the little girl;'s cry.
They were mixed with the screams of fear of the mother. The atmosphere was
growing more tense by the minute.
Quietly, Little Teddy slipped out of his Sunday jacket. He approached the
storm sewer entrance, where no one yet had been able to reach the little girl.
Instead of reaching down to the girl, Little Teddy began to squeeze himself through the
narrow opening.
He felt its tightness around his hips. He pushed a little harder and felt himself
slowly passing through the entrance. A few more pushes and he managed to work his
way into the storm sewer.
It was a short drop to the bottom, which was mixture of water and muck.
But as his eyes adjusted to the dim light, he saw the little girl cowered against the wall
of the sewer. Tears were running down her checks. A little red ball was
clenched in her hand.
Teddy reached out to her. She took his hand and he took her to where a few rays of
light streamed down from up above.
"I have her," Little Teddy yelled up.
He saw his father's strong arm reach back through the storm sewer entrance. He
lifted the little girl up until his father could grab her and gently pull her up and
through the entrance.
Teddy felt good that he was able to get the little girl out. But then he realized,
he had a problem, how was he going to get back out.
"Grab my hand son," his father called down to him.
Little Teddy looked at his father's hand, just a tantalizing foot or so above his head.
He strained to his fall height and he could not reach it.
"I can't reach you Dad," Little Teddy yelled back up.
Little Teddy was feeling more and more scared by the minute. He could see his
father's hand but just could not quite reach him.
"You can do it son," Mr. Green yelled back down to him. "You've been
reaching high all of your life and never have failed."
Little Teddy looked again at the outstretched hand. He gathered his body in a tight
coil. He jumped straight up. And as he thought he had missed once again, he
felt the tight clasp of his father's grip around his wrist and then felt this body being
raised towards the entrance.
Once to the top, Little Teddy had to take some time to squeeze back through that entrance
as he did to squeeze into it.
But it was strange, it seemed a bigger, taller Little Teddy that emerged from the storm
sewer than went into it. He still measured the same, but he sure enough seemed to stand a
little taller on his exit. He heard the cheers of the gathered crowd but more importantly,
he saw his father looming right above him.
Mr. Green bent down to help the wet and mud-smeared Little Teddy. "Son I am so
proud of you" he told Teddy.
"Because I helped the little girl," Little Teddy said, "I was just doing
what I thought was right to do."
"No son, I am proud of you because you have taken what God has given you and have
used it to the best of your abilities. I am not just proud of you today, I am proud
of you every day..
"Your brothers need a lot of help and encouragement to achieve in this world but you
have so much determination and drive, all I have to do is sit back and be proud of what
you do. I have been so blessed to have you as a son."
Teddy never felt small again. He realized his father loved him as much as his
brothers. And he knew in his heart from that day on, God had made him just as big as
everyone else, just in a different way.
By the way, Little Teddy became Ted that day!
God does not make any two of us the same way. We all are blessed with different
gifts and graces.
God only expects that we use the talents that He has given us to the best of our
abilities. What we may be lacking in one area, God has compensated for in another.
So instead of complaining about those areas in which we may feel small, daily we
should thank God for those things in which he has made us large. God allows us to be
as big as we want to be. Ask Teddy.
