Redeeming Waters

by Vanessa Davis Griggs

  “Yeah,” Vincent said, sounding empathetic but not convinced. “Well, if you need anything, you know how to reach me.” Vincent left, closing the bedroom door behind him.

  King d.Avid got back on his face and began praying again. He prayed for another two hours, then called Brianna and explained his need to fast and pray during this crucial and critical time. If God didn’t hear their cry, all was, essentially, lost.

  Chapter 40

  Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

  —Psalm 51:4

  Seven days had passed since Jason had been admitted to the hospital. King d.Avid wasn’t at the hospital but at home in his bedroom—on his knees, at times lying face down on the floor—sending up fervent prayers to the Lord. He hadn’t eaten in all those seven days, drinking only water to remain hydrated.

  King d.Avid heard them when they came into his bedroom as he lay face down. He heard the whispering. Unsure of his mental state and how he might react at this point, no one in the house wanted to be the one to tell him. He heard them. “Brianna needs him at the hospital.” He could tell Chad and Vincent were in there, along with two of his housekeepers. He even heard Chef’s voice. “Someone has to tell him.”

  “Is he dead?” King d.Avid asked without looking up or getting up.

  Vincent cleared his throat. King d.Avid heard one housekeeper begin to whimper.

  “Is the baby dead?” King d.Avid asked again, still on his face.

  Vincent walked closer to him. “Yes,” he said. “The baby died a few minutes ago. But King, you have to be strong. You’re going to get through this. I know you are. And we’re all here for you, every one of us.”

  King d.Avid got up without saying another word. He picked up an apple from the fruit bowl on the coffee table and bit it. Finishing it, he went into the master bathroom, showered, shaved, rubbed oil on his hair, dressed, then got in one of his cars and left.

  It was midday when he pulled up to the church and went inside, thankful that it was open that time of the day. The church he attended was always open during midday for the convenience of those who wanted to come by and pray in the middle of the day. King d.Avid walked in, headed straight to the altar, kneeled down, and began to worship the Lord, all by himself.

  When he finished, he got up and headed back out. Minister Nate came up behind him just as he was about to push open the sanctuary’s tall wooden door.

  “The baby died, didn’t he?” Minister Nate said.

  King d.Avid stopped without turning around. “Yes, a little while ago.” He then turned and faced Minister Nate. “Just as you implied might happen.”

  “That wasn’t my doing,” Minister Nate said. “I was only repeating what I heard from the Lord in the office of a prophet when I spoke that Word from God to you.”

  “I prayed . . . I asked God to save the baby, to heal him. But he died just the same.”

  “Just like it happened with King David in the Bible, recorded in Second Samuel, chapter twelve.”

  King d.Avid pressed his index finger against his lips and nose as though he were gesturing for someone to be quiet, then took it down. “King David in the Bible,” he said.

  “I’m sure you’ve heard the story of David and Bathsheba,” Minister Nate said. “David had done something awful that he thought he’d covered up pretty well. Of course now, in the biblical account, David was actually responsible for a man, Uriah the Hittite, being killed just so he could cover up the truth of his wrongdoings.” Minister Nate wriggled his nose a couple of times.

  “The truth that he’d slept with Uriah’s wife and gotten her pregnant while the man was away fighting gallantly on the battlefield in David’s army,” Minister Nate continued. “At first, good old King David sent for Uriah, made it where he was able to come home early just so he could send him to be with his wife. A noble gesture, huh? Not really. He wanted Uriah to think—without question—that the baby was his when he would learn that his wife was pregnant. King David was attempting to pull one over on Uriah. You’ll find the entire account in Second Samuel, the eleventh and twelfth chapters. You should read it, if you haven’t already. It’s fascinating reading,” Minister Nate said.

  King d.Avid looked at him with a blank stare. “Yeah. I’ll be sure and do that.”

  “To make a long story short: Uriah wouldn’t betray his fellow troops who were still sleeping outside in tents and having to be away from their families. Even when David got Uriah drunk, he held true. David’s plan failed. So he wrote a note to Joab, the person over the troops, and got Uriah to personally deliver it. Now, had Uriah been like some of us, he just might have read the note before handing it over. And had he read it, he would have found that it was instructing Joab to put him on the front line to be killed.” Minister Nate shook his head. “That’s some rough stuff, huh?”

  “So Uriah was killed?” King d.Avid said, not really posing it as a question.

  “Yes. Uriah was killed. And surprise, surprise: King David ups and marries Uriah’s poor, unsuspecting widow who—as you’ll recall—was pregnant with his child.”

  “And soon after the baby is born he dies,” King d.Avid said, somberly . . . defeated.

  “Yes,” Minister Nate said. “He became deathly ill and died seven days later.”

  “And of course, King David couldn’t be upset with God because he’d been the one to sin and to essentially open the door for Satan to come in and do what he does best: steal, kill, and destroy. And even though it looks like the baby seemingly was the one to pay the price for a sin he didn’t commit, the baby was actually in the bosom of Abraham, later with the Lord—a place many of us pray we’ll be one of these days . . . with the Lord.”

  Minister Nate placed his hand on King d.Avid’s shoulder. “You got it. The Bible says, ‘Man that is born of a woman is but a few days and those days are full of trouble.’ ”

  King d.Avid nodded. “Well, I don’t profess to know what all God is doing, nor do I know His ultimate plans. But I’ll tell you what I do know. After all of this, I do know that God is God and that God is sovereign. God reigns.”

  “Yes. God reigns. We may not understand everything that happens or is happening, but God is a forgiving God. And in spite of us and all of the things we do to mess up, God loves us with an everlasting love. So much so, He sent us His Son Jesus.”

  “So where did King David go after all of that happened to him . . . to them?”

  Minister Nate smiled. “He pulled himself together. And even though his life was full of trouble following that, God also blessed him tremendously. You see, even though David messed up, he was still a man after God’s own heart. And that’s what you’re going to have to do, King d.Avid. Despite what has happened, you and Brianna must seek the Lord, find out what His will is for you from this point on, then boldly walk in that will. It’s not about us; it’s still about the Kingdom of God. There’s too much work to be done. And God is ultimately left to use imperfect people who sometimes mess up. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But that’s no reason to stop going or doing.”

  “And all of this was the reason David wrote Psalm 51,” King d.Avid said.

  “Yes,” Minister Nate said. “It was after a prophet, ironically named Nathan, similar to my own name, had gone to David and confronted him about what he’d done wrong. In Psalm 51, David was praying for cleansing. He acknowledged that he’d sinned against God and God only. He confessed his sin nature, that he was shapened or brought forth in iniquity. That in sin his mother had conceived him. This was merely referring to the sin nature of humanity and not anything his mother had necessarily personally done.”

  “Psalm 51 is also where David wrote, ‘Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.’ ” King d.Avid nodded as he reflected.

  “Yes, that’s the seventh verse. But it’s the tenth verse that so
many of us know and love to quote. In fact, people have used it in their songs,” Minister Nate said.

  “ ‘Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.’ Yes. I love those words. And I better understand and appreciate them so much more today than I ever have in my entire time of existence on this earth,” King d.Avid said.

  “But David didn’t stop at that verse. He went on to say, ‘Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.’ ” Minister Nate beamed. “Oh, yes.”

  “This is some good teaching right here,” King d.Avid said. “A powerful Word. I can feel the presence of the Lord, right here where we stand. God is ministering to my spirit right now, Minister Nate. ‘Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit,’ ” King d.Avid said, quoting verse twelve. “Man! God is good! He’s so good! Yes! Yes, Lord! Restore unto me the joy of Your salvation! And renew a right spirit within me! Thank You, Lord. I thank You. Thank You. Oh, Lord, I love You!”

  “Thank You, Lord,” Minister Nate said as he placed his hand on King d.Avid’s heart. “Thank You, Lord.” He then began to pray, as King d.Avid continued to praise.

  Chapter 41

  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

  —Psalm 51:17

  Two weeks had passed since the baby’s funeral. Brianna and King d.Avid were alone. People were really gossiping. Mostly because King d.Avid was famous, and that gave people permission, in their opinion, to talk about what they felt was the truth. Folks were being speculative, claiming that the baby that had died couldn’t possibly have been King d.Avid’s because the woman he’d recently married had been married to someone else a mere month before marrying him. They concluded she had to have been pregnant by the husband killed in that tragic accident, and that King d.Avid had married her merely to keep her from suing him for every penny she could because of the death.

  The debate was further fueled by the fact that some said he had rarely been seen visiting the hospital when the baby was so deathly ill. So that proved the baby wasn’t really his own. Had the baby been his, he would have been there around the clock just like the mother had been or at least visited every day. Some were so cruel as to contend that he’d secretly wanted . . . prayed for the baby to die so he wouldn’t have to raise another man’s child. Pure cruelness.

  It was crazy, and King d.Avid had to teach Brianna to do as he’d learned to do a long time ago: to either not read or listen to stuff written and reported, or to simply ignore it. “People are going to talk, and people are going to lie,” he said to her. “People love to build you up just so they can tear you down. It’s part of the world we live in.”

  Minister Nate had come by the house to check on them. He prayed with them and spoke with them about keeping their eyes on the ultimate goal. There were still people out there who needed to hear about Jesus. There were people who—somehow, some way—still needed to be touched. In many cases, their very souls depended on King d.Avid and Brianna doing what God had called them to do so that they might hear the Gospel.

  After King d.Avid excused himself from the room for a few minutes, Minister Nate quickly turned to Brianna.

  “Daughter,” he said, even though he was only thirty-one; not old enough to be her father, but he considered her a daughter in the Lord. “I have a Word for you from the Lord.”

  Brianna looked at him. She neither smiled nor frowned. She didn’t do anything. Her heart was hurting so, she almost didn’t feel much of any real emotion anymore.

  Minister Nate took her hand and patted it. “God knows you’re hurting. He knows you’re broken right now. God knows everything, Brianna. But you must keep going.”

  “Why? Why, Minister Nate. Why should I? Why?”

  “Because this is not about us,” Minister Nate said. “It’s not about you. It’s not about King d.Avid. It’s not about me. It’s about the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven. It’s about Jesus.”

  Brianna shrugged. “Jason was just an innocent baby. He hadn’t done anything to anybody. He was a good baby. He rarely ever even cried, unless he was hungry or wet. Our baby didn’t get a chance. We didn’t get a chance to—” She stopped and waved it off. “Oh, well, it’s over now. And there’s nothing we can do to change anything or to bring him back. I prayed, David prayed, our family and friends prayed, people we didn’t even know were praying. And still . . . my baby is missing from these arms that ache to hold him more than I can ever express to you.”

  “Brianna, right now you have a broken spirit. I understand that. But think back over everything that you know, being completely honest with all that you know, then tell me: do you think God is unfair? Do you really believe He is unjust?”

  “No, of course not. I don’t mean to say or imply anything like that. God is God . . . period. I merely wanted our baby to live, and I didn’t happen to get what I . . . what we prayed for . . . what we believed God for. Not that I’m saying God is there to do our bidding. I’m not saying that at all, because He’s not. And honestly, as much as I’m hurting right now, I know God loves me. I know our son is with the Lord, and that he’s in a better place than even we are. We’re down here with sometimes mean and cruel people who have nothing better to do than to heap lies and hate on us during our time of hurt and grief. This is the world our son would have grown up in. Still . . .” She shook her head. “So, even though I would have preferred our son be here with us now, I know in my heart that it doesn’t get any better than to get to spend eternity with our Lord.”

  “I can see that you do get it,” Minister Nate said. “You’re a strong woman. I can sense your heart. And God said for me to tell you that what He spoke to you some years ago, He means for that to come to pass. He said for you to stop beating yourself up about your past transgressions, and to get yourself back on the field to accomplish the will and the path He has set before you. God is saying right now that there is a greatness to come from you and King d.Avid, but you must get back on the battlefield. And God is saying to me that you know exactly what I’m talking about. You know. You know.”

  Brianna started crying. Then she laughed. “I hate when God does that!” she said.

  “Does what?”

  She laughed again. “Tells my business.”

  “Oh, now, I don’t have a clue what all I just told you actually means. It’s just what God was telling me to relay to you.”

  “Well, I know exactly what He’s talking about. God does not desire sacrifice in the way we think of sacrifices. Right now, I have a broken spirit. Right now, I have a broken and repentant heart,” Brianna said.

  “And God will not despise,” Minister Nate said, completing the scripture she was referring to. “Whatever it takes, you need to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and be about our Father’s business.”

  “I know,” Brianna said.

  “You know what?” King d.Avid said as he casually strolled back into the living room. “What have you two been talking about while I was gone?”

  Brianna wiped her eyes. “We were just about to discuss when Minister Nate might be available for a wedding-type ceremony, a renewal of our vows, if you will, ceremony.” Brianna looked at King d.Avid as he slowly eased down next to her. “Me and you, where, this time around, we invite some of our family and friends.”

  “Are you sure?” King d.Avid said, knowing full well what she was saying now.

  “Yes,” she said, nodding and gazing lovingly into his warm, brown eyes. She took his hand. “David, I want you to take me to that special place.”

  King d.Avid dropped his head slightly, practically blushing now. “Are you sure about this? Are you sure?”

  She squeezed his hand, made him look deep into her eyes, and nodded as she also smiled. “I’m sure. God needs us on the battlefield together . . . as one. Whatever has happened in the past is the past now. Nothing we do in the way of sacrifice will change what has been. But
we can affect our now. We can make a difference now. I know God has something more for us to do for His kingdom. No more sacrifices of tears and pain. I merely want to be in a place to bring God a sacrifice of praise. So we need to put aside what has been and embrace what is and is before us now. I want to do the will of Him who sent me. And I can’t do that living in a past that’s in my rearview mirror now.”

  “If you’re sure,” King d.Avid said with a grin so wide, you could see most of his teeth. He turned to Minister Nate. “If you’ll check your schedule and agree, we’d love for you to perform another ceremony for us.”

  “Oh, I’m sure that can be arranged,” Minister Nate said. “I don’t understand why another ceremony is necessary. But that’s between you two and God.”

  “And Minister Nate, block out about two to three days. The ceremony won’t be here in the city.”

  “Of course not.” Minister Nate stood up to leave. “That would be too easy. Well, call my office, and we’ll work out all the details. Somehow, I have a feeling this is going to be a blessing for me as well as the two of you.” He pointed his index finger at them.

  King d.Avid nodded. “Trust me: it’s going to be good. But it’s what God placed on my heart, so that makes it Godly, which is better than good.” King d.Avid accompanied Minister Nate to the door.

  When he returned, Brianna smiled. “Okay, so we’re not having the ceremony here or at the church?”

  “No. I told you that I have a special place I want to take you. So, we’re going to go there for this ceremony. In fact, we can have a total of twenty-eight people to stay overnight. Wait a minute: make that twenty-six since you and I must be included in the count. And I plan to take care of all the expenses for everybody, so all that is needed from the attendees will be for them to have about two days available to be there. Oh! And to pack a bathing suit, just in case.”