Summer
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17. Ashley took time to meet with God alone so she could question Him. Talk about her questions. Do you think it was right of her to question God? Why or why not?
18. Tell about a time when you or someone you know has questioned God. What was the net result to your faith or to the faith of the other person?
19. Ashley heard God tell her to look for Him in the gentle whisper. Read 1 Kings 19. What lesson was God trying to teach Elijah in this section of Scripture?
20. What lesson was God trying to teach Ashley from that same Bible story? What touched you most in the final chapter of Summer? How did the lesson of the gentle whisper bring healing to Ashley?
From
By Karen Kingsbury
Chapter One
John made his decision as his family was leaving the hospital.
Elaine had shared a moment with him and his family that had bonded them like nothing else had. He held her hand as they walked silently to the car. In a few hours, everyone would meet back at the Baxter house for dinner. They needed to be together, needed to share about the ways little Sarah had touched them, changed them.
But in the meantime, he couldn’t shake the certain feeling inside.
Elaine noticed it. Her car was parked not far from his, and before she went to it, she stopped. “You’re thinking about something.”
“Yes.” He smiled. He was worn-out and weary. But he was no longer discouraged, not after all he’d just witnessed. “I’ll tell you later.”
She would be coming over for dinner too, but for now she was going home. They all needed some downtime. “Tell me tonight, okay?” She angled her head, curious.
He wouldn’t tell her tonight, but he didn’t want to keep her guessing. “It’s just something God brought into focus for me.” He hugged her. “About how much I need you in my life.”
She looked surprised and touched and maybe a little shy.
They said their good-byes, but when John was alone in his car, the decision in his heart took root, writing itself across his soul and forever changing his picture of the future.
When he reached home, he went inside and took a long, slow breath. The house still held Elizabeth’s memories, the way it always would. He walked upstairs to their room and stopped in front of the photo of her on his dresser. “You were there today, dear. I felt you.”
Before he left the hospital, Ashley had shown him Cole’s picture. It brought him as much comfort as it brought Ashley and Landon. Because nothing could be more fitting than the image of Elizabeth holding little Sarah in heaven, taking care of her until they could all be together again.
He moved to the card table he’d set up at the end of his bed. Elizabeth’s letters were spread across it, and on one end was a stack of letters already copied. Six copies each—one for each of their children. He was almost finished with the project, almost ready to put the letters into scrapbooks and pass them out. He had a feeling there was something in those letters that would make a dramatic difference to all of their kids—one way or another.
Even with Sarah’s funeral planned for later in the week, he would focus his energy on the letters. It was time, and it was the right thing to do. When he was finished, he would know he’d finally found closure, finally walked through everything left of the woman he had so dearly loved. He would need that closure, because of the decision he’d made an hour ago.
The decision that one day very soon he would take the step he had been certain he would never take.
He would ask Elaine Denning to be his wife.