God’s Tears Done Finally Froze (An African American Folktale that I wrote)

Wandebe, a middle-aged African male, was very wealthy. He had all the riches anyone could ever want, and he had a family to share it with. Wandebe could’ve afforded anything he wanted in life, but one day he lost everything he and his family had.

The weather had been constantly changing. Two months ago there was a drought, last week there was a rainstorm, and now the ground was covered in snow. Wandebe and his family struggled to find warmth in the below thirty temperatures. His wife Naydene had just finished making supper, and now they were gathered around the fire pit preparing to eat. The two children cuddled under their mother’s wings, when the youngest of the girls peeked through the window of their small hut, saying “Mother, Why is the ground covered in snow?”

The mother couldn’t answer her daughter’s question, but remained thinking upon the answer. There had been no snow in years, why was it snowing now? She thought.

The previous year, God sent Wandebe an angel in the form of a dream. The angel told him to give up his wealth to help a land in famine. Wandebe disregarded the dream and told his wife nothing of it. Instead he bought a new house and a wagon that he didn’t need.

Naydene was a strong woman, who prayed to God both night and day. One night she spoke with God and in him she found the answer she had sought for. She now knew of her husband’s choice to defy God, by disobeying his orders, and that’s why her family was suffering.

She told her husband he was wrong and he should’ve done what was right, but instead of listening, he cursed her. Naydene didn’t want to tear apart her family, but had no other choice but to leave, because her husband was arrogant and disobedient to the word of God.

When Naydene and her two children left, they noticed the snow came down slower and slower, and then seized. And the same daughter who first asked about the snow asked “Did you ever find out why the ground was so covered in snow after so many years?”

This time the mother answered, saying” Darling, God’s tears done finally froze. But we no longer have to suffer.” Naydene told her daughters that God had become sad that the only man who had fortune wouldn’t share it to help others making the world a cold place, and God’s tears had no other choice but to freeze.