Zachary - The Boy Who Could Not Read

In the beginning there was a boy who could not read. His brother could read very large books with teeny tiny words in them. His sister could read small books with large letters and pictures of people and animals doing amazing things. But Zachary was a boy would could not read.

One day, while sitting in his room at bedtime, he picked up his Bible. He began to scroll down the page with his finger looking for any word he could read. Suddenly, it was there! Plain as day he could see the word “and” and he could sound it out, too. He saw the word “the” which makes no sense but he knew the word. When his momma walked in to pray with him that night, he announced that he had found 2 words in his Bible that he could read! He showed them to his momma and read them aloud. His momma told him that of all the books in the world, the Bible was the only one truly necessary to know. If he lived his whole life long and didn’t read any other book, he would have all he needed from that one very good book. “The Bible,” his momma said, is Holy. “It is set apart for us by God, just as you are set apart for God’s purposes.” Zachary felt proud. Zachary could read 2 words from the Bible. That was a good start.

As his brother got older, his brother began telling Zachary about all the wonderful stories in his very big books. As his sister got older, she began sounding out words Zachary would stumble over and she learned to spell things he couldn’t. Zachary knew he was not like his brother and sister. Things came harder for him, but he also knew he was set apart for God. Zachary was good at memorizing things. He was good at making up songs on the piano. He could make up rhymes. Zachary made his sister and brother laugh. He could negotiate disagreements. Zachary was the one who knew best how to tell a joke, sing a song and understand a heart. It was Zachary who knew how to work at something and do it nearly perfectly. Zachary understood what it was to try his best.

Then one day, Zachary decided he wanted to do something difficult. He decided to read a book. It was the biggest book they had in their house next to God’s Holy Book. The great big book was The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkein. He began. Word by word, line by line, and page by page Zachary, the boy who could not read, read that great big book.

By June 10, 2008, Zachary, who was 10, read the entire gigantic, enormous and wonderful fantasy epic novel by JRR Tolkein. Zachary was proud for he knew that no book was impossible. His momma was relieved for she knew that knowledge would now be at his disposal and God knew that every Word in his Holy Book would be read by Zachary some day. This was only the beginning.....

(......of what might be an editing career. Just as I was finishing this blog entry, Zachary, The Boy Who Could Not Read, read my article and informed me I needed to use more pronouns! I hope you will laugh along with me as I celebrate the very great accomplishment of a boy who is turning out to be The Boy Who Can Do ANYTHING!)