The Identical
1
Now every time
You hit one more bump in the road
Feel the burden
Hit by the curves
Life's unexpected twists and turns
You feel your world is upside down
And you're tumblin',
tumblin, tumblin'
So take a hold from deep within
And find your life once again
You better go down easy
You got a lot to learn
You better count your blessings
Or you're gonna crash and burn
It was another world,
Alabama in 1935.
Middle of the Depression.
Not a job to be found for 100 miles
once the cotton was in.
William and Helen Hemsley would
have been better advised
to wait before marrying
and starting a family.
But as they usually do, love and passion
got in front of logic and patience.
And in obedience with the scripture,
the Hemsleys set about the business
of being fruitful and multiplying
in the big city of Decatur.
Sir.
Say, I was wondering
a fellow could do around here...
No, we're done till seeding.
Sir, please.
We got a baby coming due
and there ain't no...
Son, I don't have anything.
There's nothing I can do for you.
William, honey.
Meet your sons.
They're perfect, just like you.
Mr. William,
y'all got two fine looking boys here.
Tent revivals
were a common occurrence
in the rural South in the Depression.
People needing healing, prayer,
and just some hope in a
poor and frightening time.
For William Hemsley,
all of these applied.
What should've been the
happiest day of his life
was quickly becoming
the most troublesome.
...we first begun
Reverend Reece Wade was
a traveling evangelist
out of middle Tennessee.
And his message this cold October night
William's troubled soul.
And it is here that our
story truly begins.
Blacks and whites, Jews and Gentiles,
all equal in the eyes of the Lord.
All equal in the eyes of the Lord!
Amen.
And let us never forget.
of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ,
who says it is truly more blessed
to give than to receive.
Amen.
It is truly more blessed
to give than to receive.
That's my precious wife Louise,
sitting right over here.
We miscarried again over Thanksgiving.
The doctor over in Birmingham
told us to stop trying,
or it might be her that goes.
And all the gifts He's given us,
that's the one we wanted most.
All of our dreams were of having a baby.
Family of our own...
love...
to take care of.
Maybe... maybe y'all could
pray for us tonight.
For our own miracle.
What?
Now, I know this sounds...
Crazy? Absolutely insane?
Just listen to me.
No, William.
Just listen!
We can't do it.
We can't even feed ourselves.
Now we got two more?
I'm not giving away my babies!
I'll work two jobs.
I'll work three!
Having a job is my job!
And there ain't none!
There ain't no work anywhere.
We're drowning.
We got nothing and no way to get along.
They'll take them away from
us if we can't feed them.
What if they get sick or
something happens to me?
babies mending dresses?
So you just give them both up?
One.
Now, we can make it with just one.
No, William Hemsley.
Nobody is taking my babies from me.
Never.
They're here.
All right.
Well, I'm sure you're all wondering
why I asked you out
here so urgent and all.
I heard you at the revival,
reverend, and...
it made me think.
And I was talking it
over here with my wife
and we want to ask you something.
Let me see if I can make
this a little easier.
The Bible says we're all
brothers and sisters in Christ.
Our job is to love and
look out for one another.
Now Louise and I prayed
and talked over this
and we want you to have a
Oh no.
Thank you but...
Please take it.
Take it.
No, thank you, but that's not
why we wanted to see you.
You see, Helen and I have
been praying ourselves
and we think God's give
us both some answers.
Now, we can give everything we got
to raise one child and that is it.
Maybe someone else,
like a man and woman of God,
could give the other
a life we never could.
No, no.
You're beautiful and blessed people
to even consider such a thing.
But you're just tired, honey,
and scared and emotional.
Times is hard for everybody.
No, we prayed on it like you say to do.
No, William. We can't.
You preached it, reverend.
It's better to give than receive.
You don't know this ain't
God answering your prayers.
Maybe He's got something special
in mind for one of our boys.
You see...
it's God we're really giving him to.
That's what the Lord wants.
We both know it.
And you both know it too.
The Lord will choose for you.
I'll love him good for both of us.
Thank you.
And God be with you, sister.
Dexter Ryan is not to know
until Helen and I pass.
Give me your word on that, pastor?
Yeah, you have my word.
I don't know what to say.
There's nothing to say.
He's God's now anyway.
Now, go.
It was not uncommon
in the 1930s to lose a baby.
There was a funeral for the child
they gave away the next day.
All William and Helen could afford
was a shoe box to bury him in.
Of course, only they
knew the box was empty.
And somewhere, on the road
to their new life as a family,
stole away with his new son
and dedicated him to
the creator of life itself,
the king of the universe.
Amen.
Ryan Reece Wade,
welcome to your new life.
Christ the Lord is ris'n today
Alleluia!
Raise your joys and triumphs high
Alleluia!
You'd almost say
little Ryan Wade was
like any boy in the 1940s,
except for one thing.
When he sang a song,
Nehemiah, Esther, Psalms...
Job.
Job. Yeah, Job, Psalms...
Proverbs?
Proverbs...
How many books of the
Bible are there, Daddy?
You tell me. Sixty...
How many in the Old Testament?
You're on number 20 with Proverbs.
Now, come on.
And do not be conformed to this world,
but transformed by the
renewing of your mind.
That you may prove what
is good and acceptable,
the perfect will of God.
Jeremiah 29.
For I know the plans...
I have for you.
Declares the Lord.
Declares the Lord.
But when memorizing
proved to be a challenge,
Ryan knew instinctively
what every grade school teacher knows.
Turn it into a song.
Well
I know the plans I have for you
Declares the Lord
Plans to prosper and not to harm you
And then shall call and pray to me
And I will listen to ya
And ye shall seek and ye shall find
When you seek with all of your heart
Louise was smitten
with the boy's gift.
Reece accepted it, but, in his view,
Ryan was set aside to follow in
his footsteps as a man of God.
...price to pay
She sing and dance,
she jump and shout
Whoa, baby,
don't you just walk by me...
Am I the master of the fake ID or what?
Oh, no thank you.
Come on, man.
You can't be a PK forever.
PK?
PK. Preacher's Kid.
That's you.
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"The Identical" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 Nov. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/the_identical_20502>.
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