The Revelation

The Revelation by Virginia Ferrill Piland I turned sixty yesterday and last night I got to mulling over some things about age. I got to thinking about the Biblical threescore years and ten and it didn't hardly seem right that I had only ten more years to live. Why, I couldn't begin to finish all my projects in that short a time. I wondered ifI could set a bargain with the Lord to lengthen my years. Oh, Lord, I'm not a bad sort. I've lived fairly pure for the past sixty years. About the only thing I do sinful is tell little lies—whenever it becomes necessary—and people say I sometimes stretch things, but I don't mean no harm by it. I work hard. You know that, Lord. The neighbors say I'm a s^e to my thimble when they come over to admire my quilts and coverlets. And that's one of the things 1 want to talk to you about, Lord. You know I have all those unfinished pieces and it's going to take me a far sight longer than ten years. 1 want four quilts for each child and two for each of my twelve grandchildren. And you know, Lord, I've already been weaving four years on that Queen Anne's Lace coverlet for the spool bed, the one that came down to me from Grandma Davis, and I'm only a third through. I'll need at least eight years ahne for that. So you see, Lord, I NEED more time. Besides, I WANT more time, Lord, and wanting's not a sin. I've been planting ginkgo trees each time I get a new grandchild and I want to see those trees big enough to shade my house. It's kind of a memorial to my future generations. So you see, Lord, I NEED more time for my projects and I humbly say I WANT more time for my twelve ginkgo trees. Lord, if I mend my ways by cutting out lying and lessen up on my exaggerating, do you think you could extend my days? Give it thought, Lord. Anyways, I got up, took the Good Book off the high shelf, dusted it off. I wanted to see what it said about Methuselah. It was a true revelation what I 68 learned therein. Methuselah lived 969 years, but he wasn't the only one to live beyond 900. There was a whole bee swarm of them—Adam and Seth and Enoc and Mahalabel and probably some others they didn't take time to count up. Back then, it seems like people did an awful lot of begetting in their old ages. Now that was a revelation. Why, I never in my born days heard ofsuch. Lord, I got to thinking about what 1 said to you before. You know that I don't have twelve grandchildren. Matter fact, I don't even have one, but I MIGHT have twelve someday, so that's not exactly an exaggeration. And I don't really have twelve ginkgo trees either. I just like to picture a grove of big fan trees around my house. But, Lord, I do have one tree and it's grown only four inches in four years and that's a slow pace. Since there's only one instead of twelve, maybe you could grow it up a little faster. Give it thought, Lord. When 1 was a-reading the Bible, as I regularly do, Lord, 1 puzzled over the ages of all those people back then. Some of them lived 600 and 700 and 800 and even 900 years. And somehow I thought I might not be the only person to exaggerate, so don't hold it against me if I stretch things from time to time. But back to my story. Nine hundred years is a powerful long time. That little stub of a ginkgo could grow to full maturity long afore then, so I wouldn't need that many years. I could settle for way less than that. So I kept on a-reading, thinking I'd find an answer, a...