"little hammer"

On a summer day in 1392, a young boy hammered on the door of a small house in Deventer, in the north European lowlands. Would he be accepted into the religious community that lived here? He felt a passion for God. He did not want to go back home to the sweaty work of an apprentice blacksmith at his father's forge. What would he do if these Christian brothers said no?

As he waited for someone to answer, he couldn't have known that more than his personal future hung in the balance. The old prior who opened the wooden door looked down at the boy-dark, healthy-looking, shy, wearing clogs and rough-spun clothes and listened incredulously to his stammered explanation. He can only be twelve or thirteen. Why would a young boy want to pursue the toughness of a religious life?

Nonetheless, something in the boy's sincere and steady gaze, something in the intensity of his desire- "I want to seek God" -was very convincing. The door swung wider to let him enter...and soon the hearts of these Augustinian brothers also opened to receive among them this unlikely boy, whose name would echo through history and around the globe...known to us today as Thomas a Kempis, author of The Imitiation of Christ.

~from Come, Lord Jesus

Let this be thy whole endeavor, this thy prayer, this thy desire,--that thou mayest be stripped of all selfishness, and with entire simplicity follow Jesus only. ~Thomas a Kempis 1380-1471

orig. Thomas Haemerkken "little hammer"