Christopher's Journey: Sometimes it takes being lost to find yourself

  Chapter 10

  Chris woke to a voice. A familiar voice. When he snapped his eyes open, the voice vanished. He took off his jeans and t-shirt, slipped on his work clothes and wandered out the sod house door, up and around toward the outhouse. The field behind his home rippled with flowing grass that would soon be hay for the farm animals. Chris blinked his eyes hard and rubbed them like a child.

  The morning air was crisp and refreshing but yielded little help to wake Chris up.

  "Chris." he heard again from a distance. He scoured the land but saw no one. He turned toward the outhouse and just as he opened the door, he stopped and perked up his ears like a deer.

  "Christopher." he heard again.

  He turned his head toward the voice and saw a figure standing by the tree line on the other side of the field. Chris squinted to try to make out who it was. How could their voice be so clear from so far away? Reluctantly, he made his way toward the figure. As he got closer, he saw that it was a woman. Closer, it was an elderly woman wearing clothes not from this time. Closer, then closer.

  "Grandma?" he barely got out.

  "My boy.." she said stretching her arms out to him.

  Chris ran into her arms and began sobbing onto her shoulder which now laid several inches beneath him rather than him clutching her waist as he did as a child.

  Her warm hand stroked his hair as she gently shushed him.

  He backed up but still in her arms to look at her. Her ice blue eyes were just as he remembered.

  "Grandma, what are you doing here?" Chris asked trying to focus his blurry eyes upon her. "I miss you so much!"

  She smiled warmly at him and brushed her fingers across his face to wipe away the tears. "I just came, Christopher, to tell you how proud I am of you. You are doing a wonderful job."

  "I'm so confused. I don't know how I got here or why."

  "You know why, Chris. You've already discussed that with God, haven't you? And you're correct. Keep listening to Him and He will lead you. You are where you belong for right now. Embrace it, my boy for you never know where the Lord will lead you next."

  Chris nodded and clenched onto her as if he attempted to keep her there with him always. “I need you here with me. You’re the only family I have.”

  “You have a family, here. You are loved. I will always be with you, Chris. I’ve kept my promise to you and I’ve seen you grow.”

  She cupped his face with her hands and leaned in to kiss him on the cheek. Chris could feel her warmth as he clenched his eyes shut to shed more tears. When he opened them again, he was alone, laying in his bed in the sod house.

  His head fell back as he sopped his pillow with tears. “A dream, it was just a dream.” Chris ranted in anger. How he wanted to be with his grandma again and every time he thought he was, he realized it was simply a useless dream.

  Composing himself as much as possible, he whipped the covers off of himself and sat up. Something wasn’t right. He knew he had changed into his jeans and t-shirt the night before, but he was wearing his work clothes. The same clothes he’d slipped on before heading out the door... in his dream. Was it a dream or did his grandma actually visit him? Another tear escaped Chris’s eyes as he looked up to the heavens.

  “I’ll make you proud, grandma. I will.”