Free From – Chapter 26 – July 26th
I hope you will join me this month as we JOURNEY each day through our short story. It is about finding FREEDOM in the midst of all the captivating pieces in life that steal our peace which we need FREE FROM!
FREE FROM
July 26, 2021
Psalm 51:7-15, ‘Soak me in Your laundry and I’ll come out clean, scrub me and I’ll have a snow-white life. Tune me into foot-tapping songs, set these once-broken bones to dancing. Don’t look too close for blemishes, give me a clean bill of health. God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life. Don’t throw me out with the trash or fail to breathe holiness in me. Bring me back from gray exile, put a fresh wind in my sails! Give me a job teaching rebels Your ways so the lost can find their way home. Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God, and I’ll sing anthems to Your life-giving ways. Unbutton my lips, dear God; I’ll let loose with Your praise.’ (MSG)
Chapter 26
As if the sky sensed the mood and knew of the circumstances, it clouded over gradually, the slight break in the temperature welcomed. There were some tired trees that stood as fatigued sentinels guarding the government building which housed many governmental offices, including human services. Lazy leaves hung as if they were too worn out to wave in the cool breeze that was coming in from the ocean. Suddenly the sky dumped as if it were crying too. It seemed a million miles from the downtown city sidewalk where Legend awoke every morning up until a couple days ago.
Annie hadn’t been able to stop her steady stream of tears since she’d pulled into the parking lot where they had sat with open windows and the minutes scrolling by like a woman playing on Facebook. She had been as breathless as the air outside until the clouds moved in, holding on his every word. Finally, the silence in the car became deafening except for the raindrops beating on the window, drumming on the roof.
“Do you think he was Jesus, that little black man?” She asked, her voice spiked with awe. She shrugged her shoulders in wavering disbelief and then found a lazy tear she swiped as it trickled off her chin.
Legend sighed. He could tell Annie anything once upon a time. And suddenly he felt he could again. He didn’t know what this was, but it was if all the years had disappeared, like the pain and hurt, anger and betrayal, had never occurred, or maybe it did to friends of theirs and they were seeking each other to learn how to help them through it. Decades were melting like ice that the sun suddenly shone on.
“I do. I truly do,” Legend sighed. This wasn’t the first time he had chanced believing what had been prophesied over him in that prison cell, but it was the most defined. There were still so many obstacles in their broken, lost and wandering years, but the first time ever, Legend envisioned the possibility. He closed his eyes and the image of a dilapidated old house appeared on his eyelids. He saw the wrecking company tear through the walls, dropping them in a pile of rubble. As if he were viewing a slideshow, he witnessed the gutting of the interior of the home, and momentarily, nothing was left but particles of debris that remained in the cracks and crevices. The show moved on and he held his breath as they built it back, framing the walls, setting the beams, hanging the drywall and making an interior appear out of dust. At once, the home took on a personality of its own, character and definition coloring the walls, blanketing the floor. He couldn’t believe his eyes as he watched hopefully; the family crossed over the threshold and invaded the space that not long before had been nothing but wreckage and crumbling walls, a shack needing to be torn down. The restoration in his mind had been magnificent, unbelievable, incredible, and Legend suddenly knew the vision was a picture of his family, a promise of rebuilding what really had been destroyed becoming a reality.
He opened his eyes to find Annie watching him, a small smile finally lighting on her lips. “We better go. The little guy will wonder where I am.” She shook her head sadly, a hundred memories running through her mind, Legend could tell.
“Hey, I called him ‘little guy’ too!” he exclaimed, the similarity not being lost on him.
True, Trace had been patiently waiting, sitting in a small chair, his chin resting on his arms on the table before him. The sadness on his face stretched a heartstring to almost snapping inside of Legend. He would only do this once. He wouldn’t let this kid keep going through this. He didn’t know how he could help or change things but Trace didn’t deserve this. No child did. He deserved to be free from the torment he had to wear like a hand-me-down. This was going to change. Today.
He spotted Annie and Legend as they came through the playroom doorway and jumped up from his seat. He tore across the threadbare carpet, but a surprise greeted them. He barreled into Legend’s legs almost knocking him off his feet. “You came! You came!” he cried. “You promised you would, and you came!”
Legend couldn’t help himself as the emotion cut loose, especially when he heard Annie say, “Well, I guess you’ll be coming home with us tonight after all. Wouldn’t want to disappoint the little guy, now would we?”
To Be Continued…
