Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: MAIL (02/18/16)
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TITLE: A Heart's Message | Previous Challenge Entry
By Francie Snell
02/25/16 -
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I looked at her and took a deep breath. “So, you going to be okay while I go pick-up the pizza? ”
Glancing up at me, she looked like a young girl with a stocking cap pulled down over her ears. “Yeah, I’ll be fine.”
“I should be back in about fifteen minutes. Anything else you need at the store?”
She listed a few items, then added, “Hey, on your way back, can you stop by my mailbox and pick up my mail?”
“Sure, no problem. See you in a bit,” I said, and went out the door.
***
I was prayerful about our association ever since we first met. It was at church, where Sandy’s newly born again husband Kirk had somehow managed to get her there that day. I think she would rather have been attending a funeral than our church on Soup Sunday. Even so, there she sat, silently looking down at the dining table while Kirk openly told the story of the home invasion they had survived the year before. They had been left for dead, and both remained in commas for about a month. The doctors considered it a miracle they both lived.
After the Soup Sunday introduction, it seemed that Kirk was now on a quest to get the four of us together. However, it was evident that Sandy didn’t share his ambition. I could hear her yelling angrily in the background when he would call us on the phone. “Nooo,” she’d holler, along with some other comments I couldn’t quite make out. She sounded intoxicated and he sounded frantic. “We gotta get together. I know you and Sandy would really get along.”
I tried sounding positive. “Well, hopefully, we can … sometime … just let us know when it works for you two.” I was doubtful his plans would ever come to pass. And I wasn’t sure I really wanted them to. However, a few months later, we met at a lake to fish, and then had a picnic lunch. Much to my surprise, the day went smoother than I had expected. That was the first and only time the four of us were together, and the last time we saw Kirk.
Not long after that, Kirk was killed in a freakish motorcycle accident right in front of their apartment. He hopped on the bike, revved the motor, and then took off like a shot, out of control. After about 3 seconds, he crashed. Sandy was the first to witness his crumpled body.
As horrendous as current events were, they oddly seemed to fit the status quo for Sandy’s life. The sequence of horrible mishaps she had endured in her life was mind boggling: mugged and beaten mercilessly by four teenage thugs when she was fifteen, injured severely in a car accident, victim of a home invasion, her husband's death, and now a broken foot.
I prayed for God’s guidance.
After a number of failed attempts at getting Sandy to church, she finally conceded to coming to a Wednesday night church service. A few weeks later she came a second time. She never said much, and I wasn’t sure where she stood, so I wondered what the Lord was doing in the privacy of her heart.
***
I walked in the door with pizza and mail. “Here ya go,” I said, handing the mail to Sandy. She quickly grabbed an envelope from the bundle and tore it open. A smile grew on her face as she read. Then she handed it to me. “Read this.”
Dear Sandy, CONGRATULATIONS! Bill and I are so happy to hear you’ve accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior… and what a blessing it is that your friend takes you to church on Wednesdays… were some of the many encouraging words she received that day from her Christian friends, friends I never knew about.
Though Sandy hadn’t conveyed her new decision with me personally, God showed me the wonderful truth of her salvation through the mail.
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