In a previous post, I wrote about a song that is on the radio now. John Michael Montgomery had a new song come out a year or two after we adopted Sammy. When he heard it, he said he liked it because it reminded him of his life now. His parents were not killed, but he was able to look past that part of the song, and see how the changes and the new home mirrored his.
According to urban legend, this is a true story, but the song’s writers say there is no truth to it at all. When asked about the origin, songwriter Harley Allen said
Allen says he and his brother have tried to track the tale’s source, without any luck. It’s posted on dozens of Web sites — usually with a title such as Held by Jesus or And the Little Child Shall Lead Them — with no attribution. “We don’t have a clue” about its origin, Allen says, “but if it ain’t true, it ought to be.”
Here are the lyrics:
Artist/Band: John Michael Montgomery
Lyrics for Song: The Little Girl
Lyrics for Album: Brand New Me
Her parents never took the young girl to church
Never spoke of His name
Never read her His word
Two non-believers walking lost in this world
Took their baby with them
What a sad little girl
Her daddy drank all day and mommy did drugs
Never wanted to play
Or give kisses and hugs
She’d watch the TV and sit there on the couch
While her mom fell asleep
And her daddy went out
And the drinking and the fighting
just got worse every night
Behind their couch she’d be hiding
Oh what a sad little life
And like it always does, the bad just got worse
With every slap and every curse
Until her daddy in a drunk rage one night
Used a gun on her mom and then took his life
And some people from the city took the girl far away
To a new mom and dad
And kisses and hugs everyday
Her first day of Sunday school the teacher walked in
And a small little girl
Stared a picture of Him
She said I know that man up there on that cross
I don’t know His name
But I know He got off
He was there in my old house
and held me close to His side
As I hid there behind our couch
The night that my parents died