Gerda’s Lament

by Sarah Earlene Shere, ©2024

(Mar. 13, 2024) — Little Gerda stood beside the riverbank, holding her new red shoes close to her chest. All the adults around her were convinced that Kay had drowned there. After all, it was the only practical explanation. He had last been seen out sledding. Upon searching for him, when he did not come home for supper, sled tracks were found going right into the river.

But children are not so easily convinced by what their eyes can see; they have faith that there is more than the visible and that nothing is impossible. Besides, even if her best friend had passed on to the other side of this mortal realm, Gerda had taken to heart the stories she had been told in Sunday school. One particular story came to the forefront now, that of Jesus raising his friend, Lazarus, from the dead. Perhaps Jesus would bring back her friend, as well. After all, Jesus made the river; He could command it to give Kay back to her.

With the faith and innocence of a child, Gerda stepped her toes to the edge and tossed her new red shoes into the water, requesting that the river give her back her best friend in trade. Immediately, the shoes were returned to her. Undaunted, Gerda climbed into a small boat and pushed further out into the water. But, as she leaned over the side with her shoes, a strange sound caused her to stop and listen. Down the river, she heard a kind of siren’s call. A grownup would have described it as the birds crying out to each other as they headed south for the winter. But Gerda found something familiar in the sound, as if it was beckoning her. Suddenly, she was sure it was Kay calling her name. Jumping back in the boat, she did not hesitate to row out into the current and let the river take her where it would.

One might have questioned why Gerda would be so anxious to bring Kay back to her. He had changed considerably since last summer when he claimed to have felt something, like a splinter, fall into his eye and another one pierce his heart. From then on, he mocked and harshly judged everything they once called beautiful. But Gerda believed the friend she once knew and loved was still deep down inside. She was determined to find and save him.