Maggie nursed Jenny again. When she had finished and changed her, Matt cleaned the used makeshift diaper in the ocean. Then he took Jenny, giving Maggie a brief break. Before long, Matt helped Maggie get her back in the sling as drowsiness overtook them all.
61
Matt woke with a start. Something didn’t feel right. There was still no breeze, and not a ripple on the water. The sliver of a moon was still high in the sky, not giving much light, but there was enough to see silhouettes and shadows. It was movement that had wakened him; Maggie had stood up. He watched her make her way to the far end of their lifeboat and hold the baby in a seemingly strange, almost detached way.
“Good-bye, Jenny,” she whispered. “I will always love you.”
She held her cooing child out from her, to take one last look.
“MAGGIE! Jesus!”
Hearing her name, Maggie turned, suddenly irresolute, confused. Upon hearing the name of Jesus, the spell was broken.
Matt quickly made his way to her, holding on to the coffin handles for stability. “Let me hold her,” he said sternly.
The enormity of what she had been about to do overwhelmed her. Meekly, she put Jenny into his waiting arms and burst into tears. Her head sank down and her arms dropped limply to her side. Her silhouette in the moonlight was one of utter dejection. Gone was the joy.
“Come sit,” he said. She complied, as if in a trance. “Don’t say anything. Just let me speak. I know what happened.”
“How could you?” she countered weakly.
She could feel his compassion, for her and for Jenny, as he laid the baby gently in her arms and put a strong arm around her shivering shoulder. She was not cold; the shivering was due to the near-death experience she had just had. Not her death, Jenny’s.
He answered her, “I am so sorry. If Jenny had died, her blood would have been on my hands. Kind of like with my Rachel.” He paused, gathering his thoughts. “I knew what would happen. I just didn’t think it would happen while I was with you. I thought I had time to warn you. I should have known better and told you earlier. Maggie, the first thing I want to tell you, is God’s love for you is sure, and nothing will ever grab you out of his hand. But there is one who hates you. Hates everything about you. Wants to steal everything you have, kill you and your loved ones. Destroy you completely.”
“The devil.” She knew about the devil. “And he almost grabbed Jenny.”
Matt could see that Maggie was settling down. “Yes, exactly. The devil would like you to think he is God’s equal, that his battle against God is a battle of equals. But he is not. He is a liar and the father of lies.”
She had stopped shivering so he relaxed his hold. “But God is still in charge,” he said. “Tell me what happened.”
“I was holding Jenny. I woke up and a person was standing in front of me, on top of the water. He was glimmering, sparkling very brightly. He looked beautiful, like an angel. He said, ‘I am Jesus. I am very pleased with you. You have passed all my tests so far, but there is one more. I gave you Jenny back so you could say good-bye to her, but you must give her back to me. Don’t worry, I will keep her safe and give you peace. I will heal your scars completely and give you children in place of Jenny for you to love.
“ ‘You pulled her out of the water. You must give her back the same way, by pushing her under the water. I am going back to heaven right now, but I’ll be watching. Say your good-byes, then give her back.’ Then he disappeared.
“I felt sick at what I had to do, but I didn’t want to disobey Jesus, who has been so wonderful to me. Oh, what happened? I felt powerless to do anything except what he told me to do. So I said good-bye to Jenny. She had her hand around my finger. She was so trusting and so little. Then you called to me, and when you said the name of Jesus, a cloudiness went out of my mind and I realized something was very, very wrong.” It came out all at once, and she ran out of breath.
“Maggie, you have a very sharp mind and an excellent memory. I could give you a long checklist on how to tell if it is the devil, and you’d be able to recite it to me right off. But our fight with the devil is not a battle of wits. If it were, he would most assuredly win, anyway. The devil is a liar. He can tell all kinds of lies. He can take the nastiest, foulest lie and make it appear to be the truth. However, there is one statement that God won’t let him make, and that is ‘Jesus is Lord.’ He cannot say it. When a spirit presents itself to you, either physically or in your mind, you can use that as a test.
“Another thing the devil does is to pander to your desires, especially physical desires. He did that two ways. He said he was pleased that you had passed the tests. When he said that, you let your guard down, because it is a wonderful thing to be told that by Jesus. The other way is that he promised to make you beautiful, by healing your scars completely. Everyone wants to be beautiful, right?”
“Yes. Is that a bad thing?”
“When you met the real Jesus, was he beautiful?”
“Beyond all comparison!”
“And then he showed you his scars? Did that make him less beautiful?”
“No. Really, it made him more beautiful when I found out he had those scars because of me and he wanted me anyway.”
“Look at it this way. You had a perception of beauty that you desired, and the devil tried to get you to trade Jenny for that beauty.”
The darkness hid the shame written on Maggie’s face. “It almost worked. I was willing to trade my whole life for Jenny earlier.”
“When Jesus, himself or through his spirit, tells you to do something, he won’t make you feel sick about it, or confused. There will be clarity and peace. You’re very young in your new spirit. Let me back up a bit. Your spirit is full-grown, but as long as you’re in this life, your actions are going to be done by your soul and body working together. Your soul is that part of you that thinks, has emotions, remembers, and decides. Your spirit is that part of you that is joined to God’s spirit and talks with him.
“The reason you felt sick was that your own spirit recognized the devil and was reacting against him. But you haven’t learned yet in your soul, how to hear what your spirit is saying to you. Don’t worry, that will come as you mature.”
“God used you to save Jenny. You said earlier we might go our separate ways, Matt. I don’t look forward to that at all. What will I do then? My spirit has so much growing up to do.”
“As far as Jenny is concerned, remember that children are a gift from the Lord. They are awesome gifts, but they are awesome responsibilities also. Jenny will belong to the Lord one day the same as you do now, and you will help her. You may eventually have other children—I hope you do—and they will be just as special as Jenny.
“The devil is temptation personified. When you’re tempted to do something wrong, or right for that matter, learn to listen to your spirit. If you don’t have that peace, chances are it’s not the right thing to do.
“Find a friend, a woman, who has the same kind of relationship with God that you do. Or a group. Look for someone more mature in spiritual things than you. Just remember that your relationship with God himself is most important, and he will never give you bad advice, even by mistake.
“Finally, rehash daily the gifts God has given you, and thank him for them. When you get back home, write them all down. As amazing as your day has been, there may come a time when you are tempted to give those gifts up, to reject them or renounce them. Remember that God has shown you great things because he wants to use those things in other people’s lives. The devil doesn’t want that. He will try to steal them from you.”
Maggie was silent for a few minutes, trying to absorb everything. “Can we take a few minutes and do that now? I’d like to reminisce about everything, starting when I won the prize and came over to the States.”
“That’s a great idea, and I’ll add to it some things that got me onto your return flight. But first, I need to admit to God that I failed you and ask for his forgiveness and yours.”<
br />
“And I need to ask forgiveness from God, for not listening for his spirit, and almost giving Jenny away.”
Their prayers and discussion took them longer than they thought it would, then sleep came quickly. And with it, Maggie’s joy came back.
62
In the morning, just before dawn, there was the faintest shushing sound, like a sled makes when it goes down a snowy hillside. There was light in the sky, but that edge of the sun peeking first over the eastern horizon had not yet put in its appearance. The sound did not waken the sleepers, nor did the next sound, a rattling like marbles in a metal can. After that, they all three slept through a clanging and banging like all of the silverware falling out of the drawer onto a wooden floor. Then silence. It was not the stillness in their ears that woke them; it was the stillness of their lifeboat. The Good Ship Myrtlewood had run aground!
Maggie opened her eyes first. Jenny was still quiet in the sling, but she opened her eyes and focused on her mum’s smiling face. Maggie was sitting on the pad with her back on the upper coffin. Her bum was sore, and she found herself hungry. But wait, what is that? She balanced Jenny between her knees so she could rub her eyes and come back to the reality of unending ocean all around them. “Matt, look!”
Matt sat up, perplexed that the GSM was not shifting in the water with his movements. Ahead of him was the sea, but it appeared they were much higher than it. What they saw all around, between them and the sea and in every direction, was very light-colored and flat. It was impossible to tell if it were liquid or solid. “Wow!” was their simultaneous reaction.
Just then, the first golden rays of the sun washed over them and they got a better look. A solid surface beckoned to them, exciting them, tantalizing them. They turned to each other and burst out laughing. Uproariously. Jenny, startled by the hilarity, cried loudly with fright. Maggie held her close and the fright subsided, but not the crying. “She’s hungry. I’ll feed her in a minute, but first let’s put our feet on solid ground and thank God for rescuing us.”
“No, Maggie, wait! Not yet. Besides, I don’t think you could feed her in a minute. That would be a world record.”
“Well, I could feed her a lot faster than you could!”
The banter was good; it took their minds off their increasingly complaining stomachs. They were both hoping, without mentioning it to the other, that God’s showing himself strong for her involved food.
“We need to think this through before we step off our little ship,” Matt said. “God has just given us a one-hundred-and-twenty-five-square-mile island. That’s bigger than some countries. Let me hold Jenny while you stand up and get some circulation back. While you get started with her, I’ll take a quick look around.”
Maggie took Jenny back and began to nurse her. She followed Matt’s gaze where her field of vision would allow. There were shallow but wide grooves on either side of the pallet leading to the ocean, about fifty meters away. The area in front of them was flat and level, and there was either a sharp slope or sudden drop-off in front of that, which was not obvious from their vantage point. It appeared the pallet on which the coffins were secured was completely resting above the surface of whatever that solid substance was. She watched as Matt stood up and turned to survey behind them.
Suddenly, he whirled around and jumped down onto the pallet, coming to a rest on the pad next to her. He was wild with delight and excitement, gasping for air, and pointing.
Whoa, she thought. “Wow, you’re pretty agile for an old man!” Calm down, please, and tell me.
“What?! If you were my daughter I’d, um, …”
“I am your daughter. You’d what?” she demanded.
“I’d wash out your mouth with soap.”
“Right, you have soap? You’ve been holding out on me?”
“You should see—”
“Jenny’s not half done yet.”
He stifled his excitement, at least for the time being. “Okay, here’s what I’ve been thinking. You’re a British citizen, I’m an American. Both countries may try to claim this island as a sovereign territory, you know, being part of the UK or the United States. I’m hoping they will recognize our right to own this island. I don’t know how anyone else could claim it. It wasn’t even here yesterday.
“They may try to decide by asking who got here first. We were both asleep when that happened, and it may come down to who stepped on the surface first. I propose we step off the pallet simultaneously. After that, I don’t think there’s anything special to do besides explore.”
When he said “explore”, Matt got excited again. Then it was time to switch Jenny to the other side.
“Matt, there is something special to do while we wait for Jenny to finish. We still need to thank God for the fulfillment of your dream and worship him for being who he is. Wow, where did that come from?”
“Yes, he is teaching you in your spirit, and that teaching is filling your heart and flowing into your conscious thoughts. As wonderful as it is to sing in the spirit, let your mind, heart, and voice worship in English, too. And some of our deepest worship comes when there are no words at all. ‘Worship him for being who he is’ is very profound. There are a lot of reasons to worship him. He is our creator and that in itself is also a sufficient reason.”
They spent several minutes thanking God for what he brought them through, and for the promises still to be fulfilled. Then Maggie asked, “When you start to sing in the spirit, you almost always start with the same song. Would you teach it to me? It sounds so simple, but so wonderful.”
“Sure.”
He sang it several times, while she followed along. Then he stopped. She looked at him in surprise.
“I’d like you to start,” he said, “now that you know it. You will eventually have your own starting song, or maybe you’ll use that one, or maybe no song at all. I do it that way often. You start, and I’ll follow. You pick the key and the tempo. Act as if I’m not even here. Sing in English as long as you like, whatever words you want, whatever comes to you.
“Change the melody if you want to, sing in the spirit if you want to and for as long as you like. After we start, when you are singing in English, I’ll just hum or be quiet. That way, I won’t interrupt you, and I’ll join in when you sing in the spirit.”
Jenny finished long before Maggie, but she just rested quietly in Maggie’s arms, enthralled. Finally, their voices trailed off, and they basked in the silence, each quietly enjoying the closeness of their father.
Directly in front of them, the sun was fully up, with the entire reddish-gold disk above the horizon. “I guess we know which way east is. Look, Maggie! What do you see in the water?”
“The dolphins.”
“I didn’t think we’d see them again. There must be several dozen.”
“C’mon, Matt. I’ll bring Jenny and we’ll explore the brave new world. I wonder where we are?”
They stood together on the pallet, facing the ocean. Maggie held Jenny in one arm and put her other around Matt’s waist. Matt put his hand around her shoulder. They each put out their right foot and stepped forward off the pallet, promptly sinking in the mud up to their knees. Their left feet were still on the pallet. They both lost their balance and started to pitch headlong. Matt twisted them both hard to the left. Maggie ended up on top of him, holding Jenny on top of her.
“I think I’m still pretty agile for such an old man. Or maybe that four-letter word starting with ‘s’.”
“I didn’t think you used that word.”
“What, ‘spry’?”
Belly laughs. A little mud wasn’t going to ruin their joy.
They had picked the deepest part of the mud to step into. After they sorted themselves out, they made their way to the trough running around the north side of the GSM, where the mud was only about four inches deep. It was quite solid under the surface mud. All around, as far as they could see, it looked like the surface of the mud was covered with large and small potatoes.
/> “Come around to the back and I’ll show you what I got really excited about. You’ll never believe it!”
Maggie was learning quickly. “Why are people so surprised when they ask God for something and he does it?”
“Touché!”
They followed the trough around, and there were lined up five identical shiny metal cabinets, connected to each other in a big tangle by a long jumble of wires, belts, and steel cables. The empty one they had examined earlier was still held fast in the cargo net. The trough extended past the farthest cabinet.
“It’s as though God made us a path, so we could get to the cabinets without sinking in the mud.”
“Hmm,” Matt replied. Suddenly, he shouted, “No! It’s an anchor! Look, when the island was coming to the surface, it was pushing all the water up. The water had to go somewhere. It rushed to the ocean. It would have swept us back out to sea, but these cabinets acted like an anchor and held us back. The water flowed around the sides of our boat and the cabinets, and washed some of that mud away and piled it up in front of our boat.”
“Yes, I still think God made us a path, so we could get to the cabinets without sinking in the mud.”
“Well, let’s follow this narrow path. It’s God’s way, you know.”
After the empty one, the second cabinet held plastic bags full of empty water bottles, soda cans, snack wrappers, and other trash in small metal bins. “The water bottles were mostly capped, so the cabinet tried to float,” Maggie said.
The third cabinet was loaded with trays containing the alternate dinners that the economy passengers had ordered, but never got to enjoy. The meals were well wrapped and mostly intact.
“I will never again complain about how hard it is to unwrap the meals.” Matt said. “Let’s put Jenny down on this, then you can join me for a most sumptuous feast. Look, there’s even plastic knives and forks.”
The Wreck Emerged Page 18
