Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: Home (01/09/06)
-
TITLE: Welcome Home | Previous Challenge Entry
By Lori Braswell
01/11/06 -
LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
ADD TO MY FAVORITES
Samuel. Her heart sighed as her pale eyes moistened. He was the most loving and gentle man she had ever known. She loved him with all her heart even still. With the picture held out in front of her, she nodded in satisfaction. This was how she still saw him: young, brave, strong. The photograph was a picture of a young soldier leaning against a car with his arms crossed looking confidently handsome. He had a wide dimpled grin on his face and a twinkle of good humor in his eyes.
Martha had met him only two weeks prior to that photo and he had been smiling at her when it had been taken. They had married after he had returned from the war eighteen months later. She had heard some say that war changed a man, and she supposed it was true. The kind young man she had grown fond of in such a short time had returned to her definitively changed. Where once he had been just a kind, polite, church-going young man, he had returned matured into a truly compassionate, generous man who had a deepened commitment and relationship with Jesus. He had lived every day of his life loving people and letting them know what a loving God he served.
Laying the picture on a small table near the trunk, Martha stood slowly and laboriously walked across the room to the bed. In it lay an elderly fragile man who was but a remnant of the man she knew. Gently she straightened a thin white strand of hair from his pale forehead. His eyes were vacant and glassy, unseeing as Martha leaned over and brushed a tender kiss on his cheek. “My brave, strong soldier.” She whispered as she lovingly cupped his face in her thin aged hands.
His poor body had been through two wars and the ravages of cancer, yet still he had been strong and survived. He had never complained, never lost that gleam in his eye until the last glimmer of recollection had slipped from him. Now, he stared silently ahead as his body and mind continue to fail. Every day Martha continued to reminisce aloud about the life they had shared. She would read to him from the Bible and sing hymns until her voice grew hoarse hoping for some recognition in his eyes. Sometimes it came in an instant and then, in a flash it would disappear.
Listening to his labored breathing and watching his eyes slowly close, she knew it would not be long before he left her. “Home.” She blew the word through her lips like a prayer. She knew he had yearned for Heaven for a long time; and knowing that there his frail body and mind would be strong and whole once again, she too longed for him to go Home. The best home she could ever remember was with him, but she knew it could not compare to the life that awaited both of them in eternity.
Martha tenderly held Samuel’s hand as she sang “As We Sail to Heaven’s Shore.” His last breath drawn on the final phrase of her song, she sang him into the entrance of Heaven. With tears rolling down her cheeks, she lowered her head to his chest and whispered, “Welcome Home.”
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
Accept Jesus as Your Lord and Savior Right Now - CLICK HERE
JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.
My favorite line is...
"She blew the word through her lips like a prayer"..
excellent piece!