SURPRISE! SURPRISE! | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: SURPRISE! SURPRISE! | Previous Challenge Entry
By Mariane Holbrook
09/03/20
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If I had a nickel for every time my mother said, "You girls will be the death of me," I never would have had to work a day in my life.

My sister, Janey, and I were widely known as the female version of the Katzenjammer Kids, mischievous children who were featured in a popular comic book series in the early 1940s. We were tomboys who eschewed playing with dolls in favor of hanging upside down from sturdy tree limbs or playing marbles on the sidewalk with neighborhood boys. We had a quart jar full of cat's eyes, opaques, pearls, aggies, and steelies which we had won from the boys.

Janey and I weren't bad kids. Three years older than I, Janey assumed the role of my mentor, caregiver, defender, and coach from the day I was born. I willingly followed as her shadow and accomplice. She was my best friend and advisor throughout my entire life.

When Janey was fourteen and I was eleven, we babysat manyneighbor-hood children to earn spending money. With no thought of saving, we'd take our cash downtown to the "Popcorn Shop" play the punch-cards for ten cents a punch. We won so many candy bars that our dresser drawers were full of them. When we offered to share some of our largesse with our older sister, Ginny, she was indignant in her refusal. "I don't want any part of your sinning and gambling which will send you straight to you-know-where."

My parents weren't as condemning and direct as Ginny; nevertheless, they had many serious talks with us about our conduct and questionable activities. Daddy talked with us quietly about our need to be born again and invite Jesus into our lives. Both Mother and Daddy were godly people and we knew they were right but we still weren't ready to make that serious commitment.

One day when I was sitting on the porch glider with Daddy, he talked about how God had changed his life when he served on a battleship off the coast of Italy during World War 1. He had seen so many buddies killed in battle that he was ordered to help repurpose the dining area into a morgue on the ship. I sat open-mouthed as he recounted various battles and I marveled that his life had been spared.

Finally, I promised Daddy that I would be born-again when Janey did. It was an empty promise because I knew in my heart that Janey would never give up her sinful ways and accept Jesus as her Savior. I was relieved when I heard Mother calling us in for dinner which handily ended the conversation.

Not long after, my cousin arrived at our church to hold a week of revival services. Janey liked him and agreed to go on the last night of the revival. As usual, she sat with her high-school-age friends while I sat on the other side of the sanctuary with my buddies. We filled in the notes of the hymn books with our pencils, played tick-tack-toe on the back of the offering envelopes with the ones sitting next to us, and passed notes back and forth to each other.

At the end of the service, when the altar call was given and the last verse of "Don't Turn Him Away" was being sung, who should run down the center aisle to the altar but my sister, Janey?

I was dumbstruck. I felt like I'd been punched in the stomach full-force by the heavy-weight champion of the world. Never in all my life had I been so hit by a surprise of this magnitude. My friends stared at me because they knew of my bargain with Daddy and they waited to see if I would follow my sister to the altar.

I looked toward the front to see if Daddy was coming for me, then I dashed through the door to the foyer and ran to the bathroom in the basement and locked myself in a stall. I was sure he wouldn't come looking for me there.

At home, everyone was congratulating Janey on her decision. She was saved in the finest New Testament tradition, her life was radically changed, and after graduating from high school and college, Janey, with her husband and three children, spent over thirty years as missionaries in Africa.

Addendum: Not long after Janey was saved, she walked with me to the altar to give my heart to Jesus.

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