Chapter Thirty One

Thirty One

Paine Harbor Community Hospital

Early the next morning

The next morning in the Intensive Care Unit of the Paine Harbor Community Hospital, Pastor Axel came to visit. As Marcus lay unconscious, Axel prayed and interceded asking for God to spare his life. 

“God, I’m interceding for this brother. I sense it isn’t his time to go, and I decree life to his body, in Jesus name!” Axel prayed with more assurance than he’d anticipated.

From out of his concussion mixed with blood loss caused mental fog, Marcus' eyes focused on Pastor Axel as he prayed. As clarity began to return, tears flowed down his face as he saw the incredible love and concern in his pastor's face.

“Pastor,” Marcus whispered hoarsely.

“Praise God!” Axel nearly shouted. “You're back! Thank you Jesus!”

“Pastor, there's something I need to say.”

“Shhh! You need to rest. You've been through a great deal, and you need to simply be still and give your body time to recover.” Axel encouraged.

“No. I have to say something,” Marcus insisted weakly. “Please hear me. I don't know I'll have another opportunity to say this.”

“Oh, of course.” Axel said realizing the significance of Marcus' tone. “I'm listening.”

“Pastor. Please forgive me.” Marcus sobbed. “I was so wrong. Incredibly wrong about everything! I don't deserve it, but, I have to ask, can you possibly forgive me?”

Tears streamed from Axel's face. His chest was heaving from the emotional impact of what he'd just heard. Swallowing his emotions in order that he might respond, Axel took Marcus' hand in his, and looking him straight in the eyes, said, “Marcus, I love you, and I gladly forgive you. You are my brother. You are my friend. You are forgiven. The love of Christ compels me to do so!”

As Axel spoke, Marcus slipped back into unconsciousness. What no one knew but him, was that he was hearing the Voice again, “Now, beloved Marcus, now it is your time. You’ve done what is needed. Come home, son.”

Suddenly the monitors began to blast their alerts, causing a large number of medical professionals to spring into action. After a heroic attempt to save his life, the Doctor realized the inevitable and shut off the monitor alarms. “Stop. He’s gone.” Looking at the wall clock, she said, “Time of death, 7:42am.”

Axel starred at the face of the now deceased Marcus Withers and saw peace.

Randall Hindrin

As the sun rose in the Eastern sky, Randall Hindrin decided to take a long walk on the cliffs overlooking Paine Harbor to think about what he'd experienced during the night. He had given up on getting any sleep, and his head was spinning with the message he'd received. 

“My entire life's work, a waste,” he muttered aloud with a broken heart. Looking to the east to watch the sun rise up over the cloudy horizon line with striking colors of red, orange, gold, lavender and yellow. Ordinarily not one to notice such a thing, he was strangely overwhelmed and warmed by the beauty that was on display. “It is beautiful,” he exclaimed aloud. 

“Nothing is wasted, Randall. Before every beautiful dawn like this, there must be the darkness of the night.” Oliver Grace piped in from nowhere. Oliver had been out jogging when he saw Randall walking on the path. “I believe God is calling you out of the darkness into His beauty. He wants for you to come home.”

Randall wasn't really surprised Oliver had joined him on his walk. “I see what you are saying, Mr. Grace,” he admitted. “It's doing in my soul what the Sun is doing to the world, it's giving me a beautiful light I've never seen before.”

“Mercy is new every morning. Come get your mercy, beloved,” Oliver encouraged. “Come home to the one place you've looked for all of your life, but didn't know how to access.”

“How do I access this life?”

“By faith. Choose to believe. That's all He asks. Believe and be saved.”

“I thought I was a believer,” he said reflectively. “But now I see I really wasn't. You might say I was a scientist of religion. I needed everything to be proven, to be reproducible in a lab. It all had to fit into my understanding, into my theological framework, into my doctrinal statement. How arrogant and prideful of me.”

Oliver was silent, allowing Randall to process these much-needed changes.

Stopping on the roadway, and turning to face Oliver face-to-face, he said simply, “I choose to believe.”

Adele Parker

For the first time in over a decade, Adele had stayed home from her job as Chief Financial Officer for Gourmand Enterprises. She was too overwhelmed with the events of the previous night to face a day of supervising her junior staff. At ten o'clock while sipping a cup of hot tea in her dining room, she was surprised to hear her doorbell ring. Walking to the door, she hoped it was a delivery driver but was shocked to see Mrs. Gourmand standing on her porch awkwardly holding a beautiful orchid plant in her hands.

Opening the door, she said excitedly, “Mrs. Gourmand! Good morning! What a surprise.”

“May I come in?” she smiled. “I heard you called out sick today and I thought to myself, 'Adele never does that', and I thought I'd bring you one of my orchids as a get-well gift.”

“Oh, of course. I'm sorry. Please do come in.” Adele said throwing open the screen door and taking the orchid out of Mrs. Gourmand's extended hands. “Thank you so much! That is so kind. Please come in. I was just having a cup of tea. Please join me.”

“Are you sure it isn't too much trouble?” she asked honestly.

“No, of course not.” Adele replied. “I'm actually feeling a bit better and I was thinking about going in to finish the day. Please sit here, I'll get the tea.”

Adele hurried about the kitchen getting things set for tea, adding some lemon cookies and a few slices of fresh apple she'd bought at the market yesterday. Calling back toward the dining room, she said, “I'll be right there! Do you prefer milk or cream? Oh wait, all I have is skim milk. Will that be okay?”

“Perfect.” Mrs. Gourmand replied.

Bringing the tea tray into the dining room, Adele said nervously, “Thank you for your kindness in stopping by! The orchid is amazing. I don't know how you do it in this climate!”

“I'll let you in on a secret, Adele.” Mrs. Gourmand said with a wink, “My gardener Hector is my secret!”

Both women had a good laugh over this tidbit of honesty.

“Adele,” Mrs. Gourmand said seriously. “How long have you worked for me?”

“I believe it will be twenty-seven years next April.”

“My goodness. We were both just girls back then!” she said laughingly.

“I guess you are right about that,” Adele said with a smile. “And you've been so good to me. I'm not sure I've ever told you. But it is true. Thank you so much.”

“Actually, it is I who owe you the thanks.” Mrs. Gourmand replied. “When I heard you called out today, I thought to myself, 'I wonder if she ever has done that?' So I called Human Resources and sure enough I was right. In over a decade you have never called out sick. Not even once.”

“Is that right?” said a somewhat embarrassed Adele.

“It is.” she replied. “And I figured, Adele must be pretty sick to call out, and then I realized I can't sit up in my big old lonely mansion when one of my most loyal employees is lying in bed sick. Which is why I'm here.”

“That is so kind,” said Adele with the beginnings of tears forming in her eyes.

“But,” she said as she paused. “I'm confused.”

“Confused?”

“Yes. Adele, I don't care you called off today. I probably owe you a year’s worth of sick time. But, dear girl, I'm looking at you, and you don't look sick at all.”

“I am feeling better.”

“No. That's not it.” Mrs. Gourmand replied. “I think I'm supposed to be here with you right now to help you with something you are going through. This may sound odd to you, but I'm here because I sensed God wanted me to come to you.”

“God told you?”

“He did.”

“Wow,” she said as the tears took over and Adele began to sob without shame or regrets. After a moment or two, Mrs. Gourmand reached into her handbag and gave her one of her custom designed handkerchiefs.

“How can I help you, dear?”

“You already have.”

“Come again?”

“You already have. I called off from work today, because last night God met me in my bathroom and helped me see something I was ignoring. Mrs. Gourmand, I've allowed myself to become a bitter old lady. And you know why?”

“No, I'm afraid I don't.”

“Because I was holding on to anger, rage, and grief over something terrible which happened to me many years ago.”

“I see.”

“I want to tell you something I've never told another person. You won't think less of me, will you? Because your opinion is important to me.”

“Adele there is nothing you could tell me which could possibly undo what I've seen in you, day-after-day, year-after-year for twenty-seven years.” she assured.

“Thank you, Mrs. Gourmand,” Adele responded.

“Please call me Penelope,” she said with genuine welcome.

“Oh. My. Penelope,” Adele said taking a deep breath. “Here goes. When I was twenty-two years old, I was brutally raped. I’d been out drinking with girlfriends at a bar, and someone followed me to my apartment. When the bell rang, I thought it was one of my girlfriends, but when I opened the door, he pushed his way in and raped me. He held me captive for hours and raped me again and again! I thought I was going to die and I even prayed I would.”

Pausing, Adele felt a degree of release in having spoken these secrets words. “And I've pushed every man away ever since, there have been a small handful of suitors, but I pushed them away! And what is worse is I blamed God for causing my rape. I’ve blamed Him and accused Him of not caring about me! And here I am today, a bitter old lady.”

Adele looked across the dining room table in fear over what she might see on Penelope's face. What she saw shocked her to the core of her being. Penelope Gourmand, shrewd businesswoman, tycoon and known as the 'Cruella DiVille of Paine Harbor' was weeping tears of grief. They weren’t polite tears building up in her eyes; rather they were flowing down here face. Shocked to see this, Adele suddenly realized she was safe. And then she heard the words of the Voice from late last night, “Trust me.”

“Oh, Adele,” Penelope was barely able to speak. Shaking her head gently side to side in sorrow, she continued, “That is so horrid. And you've carried it all alone for all of these years. You were all alone with this secret? It's heartbreaking. I am so sorry I wasn't there for you.”

“Penelope,” she said as she blew her nose and wiped her face. Intuitively she knew the worst had passed. Recovery was in sight.

“Yes.”

“You were right.”

“How's that?”

“You were sent by God. God sent you to help me learn to trust again. He told me last night the key to my freedom and the door to becoming full of life comes from the choice to trust Him. As you sat and listened to me, and wept your tears of love, suddenly I knew I could trust Him. And if I can trust Him, I will be free!” Adele said with growing confidence and a glowing face of joy.