The Glass | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: The Glass | Previous Challenge Entry
By Katherine Boulanger
06/06/09
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So, was the glass half-full, or half-empty? Usually, for Christina, it was a pretty easy decision. She’d always been an optimist and said, “Well, it could’ve been worse. We could’ve had no water in the glass at all!” But today, things seemed different.

She’d received no word from her fiancée, who was off fighting in the war, for the past three months. Christina herself was living a typical life of a teenage girl in an economic downturn, struggling to make ends meet.

She’d just gotten the bills for this month; her mortgage, utility bills, auto loan, so on. Now she felt her first real wave of doubt pass over her.

She had barely managed to scrape up enough to buy groceries, and that was because no one wanted to hire a nineteen-year-old who couldn’t afford college, and whose grades had always been just barely second place—just low enough to deny her the benefit of a scholarship. She worked at a “drink shack,” as it was often called by herself and her peers, for six hours a day, and was always the one to step in for a worker who couldn’t make it that day. Even so, it was hardly enough to survive on, let alone enough to pay the bills.

Maybe she would have been able to shake it off, but the phone rang. She ran to it and picked it up, half-expecting it to be William calling from the airport to say his term was up.

“Christina,” a man’s voice crackled in the earpiece.

“Who is this?” she asked, puzzled.

“This is Michael, you know, Michael Gresham, your sister’s husband.”

“What? What is it? Is Beth okay?” Christina became frantic at the tone of his voice.

“She’s okay, I guess. She’s just gone into labor.”

“Three weeks early?”

“Well, the child’s premature. Pray for him, Christina, he’s going to come out really small, and not very strong. The doctors say she’ll most likely lose him.” Michael said grimly.

Christina heard him choking back tears. “Um, sounds like you better go. I’ll pray for the baby.”

Michael hung up before she could say another word. Christina fell back on her bed in disbelief. Most likely going to lose the baby! Where was the half-full to that? She felt tears sting her eyes, an unfamiliar thing to her.

But Christina fought the urge to despair. Instead, she rolled herself off the bed and fell in a kneeling position with her hands clasped in front of her. She took a few minutes, maybe four or five, to regain her composure before she began a prayer:

“Dear Heavenly Father, I know You don’t want Your child to die. My sister Beth is in the hospital, having the baby, but things aren’t going so well. Let the boy live, Lord, help him to be strong enough. I know You will help them, but show my brother-in-law. I thank You, Lord.”

Christina couldn’t think of any more words, but she felt an awkward sense of peace over her. It was God’s assurance that the baby would not die. She lay there, her hands clasped and her head resting on them, breathing deeply of this sense of tranquility.

Three hours later, the phone rang again. “Sister!” Beth’s cheerful voice rang over the phone.

“Bethy?” Christina asked.

“Of course it’s Bethy, what other sister do you have?” her older sister laughed.

“What’s going on? Is the baby alright?” Christina almost became frantic, but stopped herself.

“Praise God! He’s a little thing, but he’s fine. Doctors don’t think I’m going to lose him anymore.” said Beth.

A nurse’s voice called, “Mrs. Gresham, you need to rest for awhile.”

“Ah, I’m fine. But I guess I’ll rest. Goodbye, Christina! Come see the baby soon?”

“I will.” the younger sister replied as she hung up.

The next morning, a letter came for her in the mail. Christina tore through the envelope and read:

Beloved Christina,
Forgive me for not writing you in the past months. I was shot in the arm and couldn’t write. But there’s good news. They’re sending me home. I don’t know the day, but by the time you get this I’ll be back in Kansas, coming for you. I hope you haven’t lost hope in me.

With all my heart,
William Evans.

Christina gave a cry of joy. So there was the half-full! He hadn’t written, because he was coming home! God truly does have the most unexpectedly wonderful ways of filling the glass.

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