Turning Points in Life: Under the Shade of a Tree

Maybe you have noticed, as I have, that small acts can bear fruit, as the Bible claims, thirty and sixty and a hundred-fold. This is a story about my grandfather, Cyrus B. Dawsey (1886-1976), who became a missionary to South America and bishop in the Methodist Church.

The main event occurred in 1906 when Grandfather was nineteen on the Dawsey family’s farm in Aynor, South Carolina, right outside Myrtle Beach. My great-grandfather had died while my great-grandmother was pregnant with Grandfather, so he never knew his father. The sons made ends meet by working the small family farm. Great-grandmother served as a midwife in the community.

It was customary for Grandfather and his older brothers–Harley, Jesse, Waitus, Ellis, and Wilson–to wrestle and play around after their lunch before going back to work in the fields. It was sticky-hot, and on that particular day, Grandfather noticed that while he, Harley, and Jesse wrestled, Wilson had gone over to a big oak tree to kneel and pray under its shade. Without letting his brothers know, Grandfather eased close enough to hear Wilson’s prayer. Wilson prayed, “Dear Lord, make it possible for my youngest brother Cy to go to school and study so he can be somebody.”

Wilson’s prayer became an earthshaking experience for Grandfather. He did eventually graduate from Wofford in Spartanburg, South Carolina. But first, Grandfather attended what used to be called a “Fitting School.” Wilson (and the other brothers) made the financial arrangements. The school was set up to prepare backward students to the point where they could fit in scholastically with the entering first-year class. Before taking Grandfather to the train station. Wilson gave him his personal checkbook and said, “Cy, I don’t have very much, but what I have is yours. If you need money, use the check book.”

In later years, Grandfather shared that Wilson had always wanted to go to college but had never had the chance. He also said that Wilson was an extremely religious person with a most loving and generous heart. He ended up making a living by running a grist mill, dying of tuberculosis in his forties, I believe.

Grandfather openly and often recognized the spiritual influence Wilson had on him. And I and many others can attest to the hundred-fold fruit that Great-uncle Wilson’s love brought forth through his younger brother. But here is an observation that comes from my father. Throughout Grandfather’s life, his preferred place for daily meditations (to pray, read the Bible, and even prepare his sermons) was while in the shade beneath a large tree. Do you perhaps think with me that much of that love of shade trees goes back to his memory of Wilson’s prayer under the big oak tree on the family farm?

“The Lord is your shade at your right hand” (Ps 121:5).