Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Prayer and Resurrection

It was raining so lightly that the drops could hardly be felt. She turned on her car lights so that they could see in the darkness. They made their way down a steep hill to the edge of a lake, which looked deep blue in the night.

A pier lingered out over the lake, frail like a toothpick floating in a bathtub. They barely even noticed it. She stepped out to the end, but he did not stray far from the shore.
"Be careful!" he called out, "I don't like the water at night. You never know what's going on beneath the surface."

"I'm not afraid," she said at the pier's egde. If it were not so wet she would have sat down.
The breath from their mouths pored out like the fog on the water. She hopped back on land and discovered a dying fire pit.
"Someone was here just a few hours ago," she said kicking the embers and stirring them feebly back to life. They glowed like orange jewels amidst the ash. There was still warmth left. "That feels so much better," she sighed.

"I know, right. It's gotten cold," he responded. A few moments passed where she kicked the mountain of ash with her Converse, uncovering deeper, warmer embers. The night's chill lifted from them now, and some of the glowing cinders studded her shoes but their heat was too weak to burn.

"Can I tell you something?" She was still shoving around ashes with her toes.

"Sure, go ahead."

"Someday I want to be someone's "go-to" person. The person that someone tells everything to the moment after it happens, the first person you think of. Just for once, I'd like to be the first person someone thinks of."

"Well," he said, standing on a chopped up log nearby, "you're kind of that for me. Like I tell you things right off the bat. I tell you things that I don't tell anyone else. You're kind of my "go-to" person especially at school."

"Really? I like that."

They climbed the steep, sandy hill toward the blinding car lights and she turned the key in the ignition. An empty sputtering noise made their hearts sink.

"Come on!" she urged turning the key again.

"No no no no no no," he laughed worriedly beside her, "we are seriously out in the middle of nowhere! Try giving it a little gas."

Nothing.

"Bloody hell," she sighed slumping back in her seat.

"Crap crap crap crap crap" he said. "What do we do?"

"Pray." She said flatly.

"Please, God!" they chorused in unison. "Please please please please God!"
They put their hands on the dashboard as though the car was a cripple and looked toward the inky sky. It's funny how fervently you pray when you really need something.

They felt as though they each had swallowed a cold stone. They were stuck. Stuck stuck stuck out on a hidden road away from friends or aid.

"Well, give it one more try," he said after a few minutes with a tone of resignation.

"Oh please God," the words echoes in her mind.

With little hope she turned the key. The engine finally roared to life.

"Thank you, Jesus!" she said punching the air enthusiastically.

Sweet God, sweet adventure, what more could they ask for?

When they are young, the world works out for them somehow, but as they grow older Murphy's Law seems an absolute. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
But right now the two are young and do not know of such things. Worries will work out, either through divine intervention or through sheer luck, for the time being. But someday something somewhere will shift and troubles won't be fixed so easily.

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