Quotes from Haggai

by Laurie D. Smith

He was a large man,

Even behind the pulpit.

And he struggled with his notes as he spoke.

He wasn’t dynamic,

Or dashing,

Or deft.

It would take him awhile to get to his point.

Once in trying to do so

He recollected how his folks

Had kind of a hard time of it

During the Depression

And he was left with his grandmother for a while then.

But anyhow …

He told us how he’d memorized the Lord’s Prayer

And he’d always had it as a backup

When he didn’t have words of his own.

He continued.

“Now how many of us has had

Those same kind of feelings in life?”

He mentioned his wife and the grandkids.

As he was concluding he said

He’d kind of like to quote Haggai here,

“Now I come onto Haggai—

And nobody quotes Haggai very much,

He’s one of those little guys

Who kind of gets forgotten in the middle here

But I think he’s got something to say here.”

And he read to us from Haggai chapter one.

He soon concluded his talk,

“So that’s something to think about.”