Can Anything Good Live on Lilly Street?
Part 1
By Essie Childers
It is an interesting thing about the past. The past is where our roots are formed. The past gives us our first beginnings on many things in life. The past plays a part in our hopes and dreams for the future. However, I am thankful that the past does not determine our destiny.
Do you have a moment to listen in on a conversation with me? If so, go to John 1:43-50. Jesus was choosing his disciples. He found Phillip and said, “Follow me.” Philip was talking to Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Now listen to verse 46. “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked. Philip said, “Come and see.”
Jesus, our Lord and Savior is from Nazareth! I believe you can answer the question for Nathanael. Chapter 1 tells answers another very important question. “Can Anything Good live on Lilly Street?”
There were many times I felt as if I was unworthy and looked down upon because I did not live in the right neighborhood. I grew up in a small four bedroom house, one bath room, and six people. I did not wear the latest styles nor did I have a telephone. We used the neighbor’s phone and bought dresses on the lay-a-way plan from a department store on wheels. I probably need to elaborate what a department store on wheel is. This is where a man drives a van from house to house with loaded with suits and dresses. It was actually a very novel idea for the early 60’s. Many households did not have cars to drive to the stores, so the “Dress Man,” as we called him, came to us.
Surrounded by drugs, thief, alcohol, cursing, and an occasional Saturday night stabbing or killing, I would wonder and call on God. I asked God, “What is my purpose in life.” “How can I continue to survive in such surrounding?” My parents stopped going to church when I was a teenager. I was so happy when my parents allowed my Godparents to pick me up to go to church. I felt like church was my private escape. It was my place of respite.
At the age of twelve, I became a Christian. However, I still felt “eyes” on my back and voices whisper, “Can Anybody Good Live on Lilly Street?” I would go home and cry my eyes out and wonder what the future would hold for me. Then, in the stillness of the night, I heard a voice whisper to me, “Come and See.” “Come and See.” I thought, “I remember reading that in the Bible somewhere. I searched and searched until I found it. I did. It was John 1:46. It was at this moment that I knew that God is saying, “Move over Essie, let me take over. Something’s good is going to come from Lilly Street!”
