When Ethel’s door opened, I couldn’t get through the doorway fast enough...I almost pushed the door open myself. I was ready to receive what I had been waiting for.
I’m not sure at the beginning of the journey I would have realized it to be the treasure that I now valued it to be. Perhaps it would have been an interesting novelty, like the other books that I read, but nothing more.
As I opened the page and beheld the beat-up Bible, I breathed in the dusty air that surrounded it. I was holding a Bible at last, a Bible that I had only known in bits and pieces before.
As much as I valued the treasure in my hand, I recognized that it wasn’t the treasure that I had been seeking. I had already found what I was looking for in God. So while this was meaningful and important to me, I had a new found perspective in which to enjoy it.
Ming smiled when she saw me opening the package, and I appreciated her sharing my joy, even though she didn’t completely share in my excitement. Ming and I didn’t have the same values, but I still cherished her as a person who helped get me through a tough time. I believed that God had a plan for her life as well, and in time, she’d come to recognize it.
When I went home that night, I tried to sneak into my room without being noticed so that I could curl up with the Bible and read. When I went through the door I saw Grandma, and I knew that I couldn’t blow her off, not even for the Bible.
“Hi, Grandma. What’s for dinner?”
“Oh, I’m not here to make you dinner. I’m afraid you’re going to have to deal with your Mom’s meatloaf again or something else barely edible. I did have something to ask you, though.”
I internally groaned, not sure what she was going to ask me. Last night’s firefight occurred before I had made up my mind to follow God, so I can only imagine how it would go down today if she knew I had made up my mind.
“What question?” I said, setting my stance for a fight.
“What was the name of the girl in the journal?”
“Oh,” I said, taken off-guard by the banality of the harmless question. “Her name is Beth.”
“Not her, the other girl? The one that is her friend who invites her to church and talks to her about God and stuff?”
“That’s Faith.”
“That’s what I thought you said last night. It didn’t occur to me until later, but I think I may know who Faith was.”
“Really?” I said, quite surprised at the turn of the conversation.
“Yeah, I did the math. The age, place, and description all fit. I believe Faith is my mother, Faith Pennington.”
“Hmmm, yeah, that last name does sound familiar. So Faith’s my great grandmother?” I asked, disbelieving.
“Yes. She married Jason Stevens, my father. Is he mentioned? I know they knew each other in high school.”
“Ha, yes! That’s the guy that Beth flirts with occasionally. Wow!”
Wow was such the wrong word, but it was the only one I could think of in the moment. My great grandmother was instrumental in Beth coming to Christ, and now Beth returned the favor by leading me to Him.
God indeed is a big God.
Author’s Note
Are we doomed to Amala’s future? I don’t think so. But I also don’t think that a 2102 like Amala’s is so far fetched from the trajectory that our country is currently on. As Ayn Rand says, "...you’re free to change your course, but so long as you follow it, you’re not free to escape its logic."
So can we change our course? Absolutely. I’m convinced it will take nothing less than a big God to change the course that the United States is on. By continuing to remove ourselves from God’s good and perfect will for us as individuals and as a country, we’re doomed to life without Him. While our eternal destiny is certainly important, so is the life that we live on this earth. And God offers redemption from both our own sin and from suffering like what both Amala and Beth faced.
Will believers today stand up and fight for what’s right? Will we fight not only for the rights of the unborn but for the rights of the slaves in our own backyards? Will we defend the sanctity of God’s holy institution, marriage, not only by fighting for the definition of marriage but also against divorce? Will we reach out of our comfort zones and help those who are hurting from physical, moral, and spiritual poverty?
We live in a broken world desperate for help. God intends to use us to be part of the cure: if we’ll let Him.
I pray that you’ll join me in that fight, in the one that I too quickly forsake for anything and everything else that may catch my attention.
To find out more of what this might look like, please follow me at my blog: IgnorantHistorian.com.
Ronnica Z. Rothe
December 10, 2011
Acknowledgements
Thank you to those who patiently helped me weed through my rough draft: Mom (Yvonne Rothe), G. Zoe (Zoe Marie Head), and my one and only sister (Amanda Rothe). Thanks, Amanda, for also writing my blurb…you definitely write better about me and my work than I do.
As a reader, I’m indebted to the many authors I have read. I’ll never be as good a writer as my role models: C. S. Lewis, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, and Ayn Rand. As I edited this story, I noticed the influences of George Orwell, Orson Scott Card, Scott Westerfeld, and Jasper Fforde shining through. I’m sure my readers can find the fingerprints of many other writers on my writing as well.
Thanks to the friends and family who stood by me and encouraged me through the past year and its craziness. Thanks to my church, Open Door Baptist Church in Raleigh, North Carolina for not letting me settle, but pushing me towards Christ and dependence on Him.
Thanks to the free wi-fi of the Wake County Public Libraries, Chick-fil-a, and Panera for allowing me places to concentrate on editing. Chick-fil-a especially, for their endless Diet Dr Pepper.
And finally, and most importantly, thanks to God for giving me the idea and the skills to put it on paper. I absolutely could not have done this without Him.
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About the Author:
Ronnica is a Kansas native who currently lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. In high school, she was the nerdy type and enjoyed taking part in Science Olympiad as well as the school band. As you might guess, she also really enjoyed journaling, a habit she still keeps up today.
After graduating from Maize High School, she moved to Norman, Oklahoma to study meteorology at the University of Oklahoma. Two majors later, she graduated with a history degree. While in college, Ronnica made lifelong friends at the Baptist Student Union, where she also started to learn what it truly meant to be a follower of Christ.
After college, Ronnica moved to North Carolina to attend Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, where she received a masters of divinity in Christian ministry. Though she had always planned on moving west when she graduated, she got "stuck" in Raleigh thanks to her church where she learned what it meant to live in community with one another.
Ronnica has blogged for years which has increased her love of writing (and hopefully her skill). She also enjoys reading and crocheting in her free time.
Connect with me online:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RonnicaZ
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ronnica-Z-Rothe/172806819467838
My blog: https://ignoranthistorian.com
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