Chapter Twenty– Surprise Visit
After locking Grandma Bradley’s offering in the principal’s office, Keith and his dad headed up to the parking lot with Talia. Talia stopped dead at the sight of the odd couple waiting by her car. “Amu! Zanamu! What are you doing here?”
Talia flew into their arms, trying to hug and be hugged all at once. “Oh, these are my aunt and uncle. They are both Doctors Ramin. This is Mr. Joshua Bradley, and that’s Mr. Keith Bradley, the principal and the science teacher.”
“Ah,” was all Naddy said, and stood looking Keith up and down until he didn’t know what to do.
“How do you do?” Sophie said, offering a hand to both men and elbowing her husband. “Talia has probably told you we are archaeologists.”
“Yeah, the Indiana Joneses of Bible archaeology, she said,” Keith grinned, glad for a distraction from Uncle Naddy’s scrutiny, which showed no signs of letting up.
“How silly, Talia,” Sophie chided. “We came because we hoped to be able to sit in on your Bible class. We’ve heard so much about how well it’s going.”
“Unfortunately, you just missed one,” Mr. Bradley explained. “We won’t have it again until Monday.”
“Oh, how disappointing.” Naddy finally spoke. “Well, we have no plans at the moment, so perhaps we could take everyone out to dinner. Talia has said we have been making ourselves too mysterious, so it would be good if we could get better acquainted, and you could see that we are simple, ordinary people.”
“I’m so sorry to have to refuse such a gracious invitation,” Principal Bradley replied. “I have a daughter who requires constant care. She has caregivers, but there’s a gap between the one who comes in during the day and the one who cares for her in the evening. I need to get home, and I’m a bit late as it is. We have someone waiting for us right now so she can get home to her own family.”
“Ah, yes, Talia told us about this,” Aunt Sophie nodded.
“They could come to the house, couldn’t they, dad, and maybe we could order something in?” Keith suggested. After the visual probing he had gotten from Uncle Naddy, he didn’t know what made him issue that invitation, but everyone brightened.
“Perhaps we could have pizza, Naddy,” Aunt Sophie suggested timidly.
“I have not tasted pizza in twenty years,” Uncle Naddy mused. “It’s settled, then. Thank you for your kind offer. We shall meet your angelic daughter, of whom Talia speaks such praises, and we shall eat pizza!”
“It is incredible,” Naddy exclaimed when the order arrived. Keith's dad had tried to coach him to moderation, but they had ended up with a massive family variety box order, twisted cheesy breadsticks, spicy and mild wings, two different kinds of pizza, and regular breadsticks and marinara sauce as well. “All this variety. Once, it was just pizza. I love America!”
Keith warmed to Naddy a little more when he saw how Joana seemed to enjoy watching him. Naddy sampled every possibility and it seemed like she had as much fun as if she could eat pizza herself. He even took a turn feeding her, and stroked her hair.
“To bless, this is what you are made for, my child,” he murmured. For once, she didn’t have a snappy comeback, or any comeback at all.
They all watched One Night With the King together.
“My Talia, you have told us and told us to watch this, and we never made time for it,” Sophie said, wiping away tears. “Such terror she lived in, and such triumph she experienced.”
“So Mordecai, he stayed in Susa, even when other Jews left to go rebuild,” Naddy said. “Does that not mean that God can use us even if we live in the world, and have to use what the world gives us sometimes?”
“Oh, Uncle Naddy … ” Talia’s eyes seemed to beg her uncle not to continue whatever he had brought up. Keith and his father exchanged puzzled glances.
“God needs His people to be in the world, but not of it,” Joshua responded cautiously. “He doesn’t want us to go hide in seclusion, but he doesn’t want us to get down in the wallow, either.”
“The … wallow?” Uncle Naddy echoed.
“The pig sty, Amu,” Talia said.
“Oh, I hope I didn’t offend you. Are you Jewish?”
“Oh, man, the pizza – it had sausage on it!” Keith spluttered. “We never thought – Talia never said – ”
“We are not Jewish,” Sophie hastily explained. “We are Persian.”
Naddy laughed. “We live and work mostly in areas where people are very strictly observant. And we rarely even hear English spoken, so the idioms are not clear sometimes. No, no, there is no offense. This is good fellowship and good food. After all, we are not under the law, but under grace, no?”
“That we are,” Joshua answered. “But, to get back to your question about using what the world gives us – I think that’s the way you put it – it depends, I think, on how it might affect other Christians. All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient. We mustn’t offend brothers who might think it’s wrong to do what we believe is harmless.”
“Yes, this is true,” Naddy agreed. He got up to help as Joshua and Keith started picking up boxes and clear away dinner.
“And Paul also said, All things edify not,” Joshua continued. “What might not be harmful, per se, might also not be something that strengthens us. It doesn’t break us down, maybe, but it doesn’t build us up. We have to keep letting God build us up, getting closer to him, not figuring out how far away from Him we can get, but still be ‘okay’, whatever that means. I don’t think we’re ever okay if we have to keep saying, ‘Did that push me over the line? Did that go too far?’”
“This is wisdom,” Naddy nodded as he sat back down beside his wife. “Very well, Sophie, you are right. No more Monte Carlo. God must fund our digs some other way from now on.”
“Oh, Amu!” Talia cried, jumping off the couch from where she had been sitting under a quilt with Joana. She wrapped her arms around his thick neck. “God will provide. I know he will!”
“Monte Carlo?” Keith echoed. Aunt Sophie rolled her eyes.
“Now, what else do I need to do to purify myself?” Naddy demanded, leaning forward and extending his huge hands to Joshua.
“To – purify yourself?” Joshua repeated.
“Yes, yes.” Naddy’s head bobbed up and down. “I have recently gone through not only a near-death experience, but have been castigated for being – what was it, Talia? – For ‘playing with defilement’. So I give up the gambling. Now what else is playing with defilement? Do you think I should give up pork? I am already circumcised.”
“Wait, wait,” Joshua protested, holding up his hands. “I’m not sure where you got this ‘playing with defilement’ idea from, and maybe I don’t even need to know, but it sounds a lot more serious than the external things in your life. Sin comes from our own nature. It’s not what goes into a man that defiles him, but what comes out of him.”
“Dad's right,” Keith chimed in. “The Scriptures talk about that all the way through. We’ve got to purify our hearts, or, rather, let God do it, because of course we can’t do anything. Jesus said to the Pharisees that ‘they could scrub their cup on the outside til it shone’, is what my grampa used to say, ‘but on the inside, they were still wicked wolves, grabbing for what wasn’t theirs’.”
“Of course! Of course!” Naddy lurched out of his seat. “They are not mine! I have dug and chased and pursued as if they were mine, and they are God’s!” He fell down on his knees with a great crash. Everyone jumped. His big hands thrust high in the air. “God, forgive me. I have reached out my hand for what is yours! Purify my heart, and take away my greed. Make me worthy to help quench the thirst!”
Keith wanted to know more about that outburst, that quest of Naddy’s to stop playing with defilement, and what in the world he had mean by saying, “help quench the thirst.” But it was already late. The Doctors Ramin apologized and got ready to depart. Joshua made them promise to return with Talia for breakfast.
“You
are a rich man, Joshua Bradley,” Naddy murmured as they stood by the front door. “Rich in faith, and in family.”
“I am.” Joshua put his arms around his children.
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He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” (Jn 8:10-11 NKJ)
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The Great Thirst Part One: Prepared Page 22
