“Doing real good. I love this time of the year,” Nina Walker said with joy in her voice.
Diana smiled as she thought of how Nina would decorate the church each year with the biggest Christmas tree she could find and holly, lights, garland and Christmas wreaths all around the church. Christmas was sometimes depressing for her since she didn’t have anyone to share the day with, but Nina made it enjoyable. And anyway, Christmas was about the birth of Christ, not her love life. “So are you needing my help with the tree?”
“Not this year. Although I thoroughly enjoy the look of the Christmas tree and all the decorations, I’m getting too old to be lugging all that stuff around.”
Diana waved a dismissive hand in the air. “Old… please. You don’t look a day over thirty-five.”
“But I feel fifty-seven, which is what I will be in a matter of months. So, I hired a decorator to handle my Christmas beautification project at the church and at my house.”
Diana hated the fact that she was envious of Nina. But she couldn’t help the way she felt at that moment. Pastor Isaac and Nina Walker were truly blessed of God, in spirit and in finances. As much as she prayed, she still couldn’t see a way to change her financial circumstance. Maybe she should ask Nina for advice. But Nina was a writer… it wasn’t like Diana could write a book and become famous.
“But I didn’t call to talk about the Christmas decorations,” Nina said, interrupting Diana’s thoughts. “I haven’t received your RSVP for our Christmas party yet and I need to give the caterer the headcount.”
Diana closed her eyes, hoping to block out the sound of chickens coming home to roost. She’d been dreading this conversation with Nina, because she had sent out the invitations to Nina’s Christmas party herself this year and she knew that Donavan had been invited. She hadn’t seen Donavan in five years and didn’t know if she was prepared to be in the same room with a man that she had loved, deceived and lost. And she still had so many lingering questions that she burned to ask Donavan about, like the words he spoke to her the day their affair had been discovered by his father. But she didn’t dare ask Donavan anything, because she didn’t know if she could deal with the answers.
“I’ve been meaning to speak with you about this. You see… since Amarri came to stay with me, I haven’t done much socializing. I don’t even have a babysitter for nighttime events.”
“Are you kidding?” Nina laughed. “I need Amarri there to keep little Isaac in line. That boy gets into everything.”
“I don’t know, Nina. Christmas should be a time for family. You all don’t need me to help you celebrate.”
“You come to our Christmas party every year. What makes this year any different?”
How could Diana tell Nina that her son was the problem? That she couldn’t face him and relive those days all over again. But Pastor Isaac and Nina had both forgiven her for what she’d done to Donavan, so how could she even bring it up now as the reason she didn’t want to attend the party.
“You’re the one who helped me decorate the house for this Christmas party. Don’t you want to be there when I tell everyone how wonderful you are?”
“You don’t have to tell anyone that I helped you. I did that because I wanted to. It’s not as if I’m trying to become a decorator and need to network for business.” Diana loved the Walker family and would do anything for them, but attending the Christmas party this year…it just didn’t seem right.
“Come on, Diana. It won’t be a party without you.”
For Nina to say something like that, let Diana know just how much she meant to them. They meant the world to her also, so she couldn’t let them down. “I… will… be… there.”
You’ve been reading a Sample of Rain For Christmas
Book 6
Rain Series
Sample Read:
After the Rain
Book 7
Rain Series
Prologue
O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thoughts afar off.
You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold O Lord, You know it altogether.
You have hedged me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high, I cannot attain it.
Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
Psalm 139: 1-8
Isaac made sure to be in the delivery room this time. He had two other children but had witnessed not one birth. When Donavan was born, he had been laid up in a hospital having surgery to remove a bullet a hustler by the name of Ray-Ray put there. And Isaac hadn’t even known that Iona was his daughter until she was nine years old.
But things were different now. Isaac was no longer in the drug life. He’d left all of that behind. He was now a preacher and a family man.
“Aaarrgh!” Nina yelled as she squeezed his arm. The doctor stood at the end of the bed like an umpire at a baseball game. “Push baby… come on, just one more push,” Isaac encouraged. Nina was killing his arm, but he could take the pain. Because any minute now he was about to witness his child come into the world.
Nina gave one more good push and the doctor said, “I’ve got the head, keep pushing.”
“Did you hear that, Nina, our baby is almost here.” Isaac wiped the sweat from his wife’s forehead and kissed her. He loved this woman with every ounce of his heart and was thankful to God every day for allowing this woman to see enough good in him that she decided to give him another chance. Every day of his life, he was striving to prove to her that she’d chosen right this time.
“I’m tired. I don’t know if I can do this, Isaac. Can’t they just cut me open and take the baby.”
A terrified look came over Isaac’s face. He and Nina had been through so much. Isaac had just fully recovered from being shot while trying to save Iona from horrible people who wanted to kill her, simply because of who her father was. Years before that, Nina had been shot while trying to protect Donavan from certain death after he’d gotten himself mixed up with the wrong kind of people. Nina had been told that she couldn’t have any more children after that incident.
They were now well advanced in years and thought of this pregnancy as a miracle. But was this miracle about to kill his wife?
The doctor laughed at the expression on Isaac’s face. “Women often either ask to be knocked out or to have the baby cut out of them when we get to this point in the delivery. So calm down, I got this. One more push… your baby will greet us and then your wife will forget all about the pain she is enduring. She might even ask to have another child when this is over.”
Now Isaac was laughing. “We know we don’t look it, doc. But you might as well call her Sarah,” Isaac pointed at his wife. “And me, Abraham.”
Nina started laughing at that. And then without knowing she had done it, she pushed again and suddenly laughter was not the only sound in the room.
“It’s a boy!” the doctor yelled as the baby started crying.
They cleaned him off, wrapped him in a blanket and then put him in Isaac’s arms. Isaac hadn’t shed many tears in his lifetime. He’d learned from an early age to hold in his tears, because tears were a sign of weakness and there was a whole world full of people just waiting to exploit a man’s weak spot. But he could do nothing to hold back the tears from the overwhelming feeling of love he had at being in this room and witnessing the birth of his son and now being able to finally hold him and welcome him into the world. “Hey son, I’m your daddy.”
“Let me see him, Isaac. Bring him here,” Nina said while pulling on Isaac’s shirt.
“You had nine months with him. Give me a minute.”
Nina yanked her husband’s shirt again. “I’m
not playing with you, Isaac Walker. I want to see my son.”
He looked down at the baby. “Your mother wants to start smothering you with her love already. She worked hard to get you out here, so I’ve got to listen to her.” The nurse raised the upper part of the bed so Nina would be in an upright position. Isaac then put the baby in her lap and asked, “Are you happy now?”
Smiling as she looked at her son, Nina said, “I’m thrilled. God has been so good to us.”
“And we are going to be good to our son. This child will never know anything about the life I have led. He will not have any dealings with drugs or drug lords. We will raise him to know and love the Lord, Jesus Christ,” Isaac declared.
Nina nodded her agreement. “He will have a good life.”
The church was packed. It was the fifth Sunday of the month of November. It was also baby dedication Sunday. Nina sat in the front row of the sanctuary with her new born baby. She smiled down at her precious gift from the Lord and exhaled. It had been a long journey, but she now held the promise of God in her hand. They had named him Isaac. Yes, he was a junior, but the name meant so much more than that. After Isaac made his joke about Sarah and Abraham in the delivery room, it made Nina think about the similarities. Sarah and Abraham had named their long awaited gift from God Isaac, so it seemed fitting that since God had blessed Nina—a barren woman just like Sarah—she should give her baby a name that meant laughter as well. Especially since there had been so much laughter and joy in the delivery room that day.
Their life had lacked laughter and joy for such a long time as they continued to deal with the fallout from Isaac’s past that Nina only wanted to be surrounded by things that brought her joy.
The day Iona had been kidnapped and Isaac had been shot, she had declared all-out war on the devil. She had decided right then and there that the baby growing inside her stomach would never be influenced by his father’s former life. Isaac had denied her nothing in that quest. They put their house up for sale and Isaac moved his family so deep into the suburbs that the people who looked like them in the neighborhood, didn’t act like them. Because their new neighbors were doctors, lawyers and ivy leaguers. Nina and Isaac had enough money to move in those circles. She only wanted Ikee to have the best, because she believed that a good environment was the key that would help Ikee to grow up as a man without any thug-life influences.
Isaac smiled down at Nina from behind the pulpit. He then turned his attention back to the congregation and said, “This is a very special fifth Sunday for me. One of the things I love to do as pastor of this church is dedicate babies back to the Lord. And there have been a lot of babies needing to be dedicated in this church.” He looked at Nina again with pure joy etched on his face. “But today I get to dedicate my own baby to the Lord. At one time, I didn’t think I would live to see this day. But God has been merciful to me.”
He stretched out his hand toward Nina and said, “Can you bring our son to the altar so that we can give him back to the Lord?”
Nina stood at the altar in front of her husband. Isaac Jr. was wearing all white, the traditional color for a christening. That was because a baby dedication was like a christening, except instead of using water, the baby was anointed with a dab of oil on his forehead.
Isaac had the oil in his hands. He opened the bottle and was tempted to pour all of the oil over his son. He was, after all, a Walker child. But he simply dabbed a bit of the oil on his son’s forehead. Nina bowed her head as he petitioned God on behalf of Isaac Walker Junior, or Ikee as they’d started calling him.
“Lord, we thank You for Your mercy and Your grace. Isaac Walker Junior has come into this world as a miracle child and we intend to nurture him and fill him with the knowledge of Your son, Jesus Christ.
“As the years go by, we pray that You would give us wisdom to raise this child so that if he should have a thought of turning away from You, his thoughts will once again be redirected in the way he should go. Teach our son the true joy that comes from serving the only true Lord. Now Father, I ask that You show me the right way to raise this man child. Because I don’t have any experience in raising a child from birth to adulthood. I was in and out of my other two children’s lives when they were small children. So, I need Your guidance.
“In the blessed name of Jesus, we give Isaac Walker Junior back to You and ask that You watch over him all the days of his life.”
And God was listening…
1
Present day
Pastor Isaac Walker smiled as he looked at the wounded and weary man standing before him. He’d been doing his part to set the captives free for more than thirty years now. “Repeat after me, Eric,” Isaac said as the man lifted his arms. “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He died and rose again so that I might be saved.”
The first time Isaac recited the sinner’s prayer in order to help someone with the salvation process, he had not yet been saved, nor had he recited the words for himself. Isaac had been serving out his prison sentence, doing his thing in prison, just as he’d done it on the streets. Then T-Bone wanted to challenge him for his spot. Isaac had been ready and willing to kill T-Bone, but that was the night the Lord visited him for the first time. Isaac received a guided tour of hell and realized that killing was not as cut and dried as it had once seemed.
From that moment on, he’d wanted nothing to do with death, only the abundant life that the Lord brings when He comes into a person’s life and makes them brand new.
“I believe… I believe,” Eric said as tears streamed down his face.
“Then go and sin no more,” Isaac told him as he anointed the man’s head with oil.
Eric’s eyes widened as he looked like he’d just been given a gift that he wasn’t sure he’d be able to keep. “Is it really that simple?”
Eric was one of those executive types. He’d been on the dean’s list all through school, then went to Duke University. He’d majored in engineering and found a great deal of success in the corporate world. He had accomplished everything that Isaac wished for his youngest son, Isaac Walker Jr, or as they called him, Ikee.
The only problem with Eric’s story of success was that he’d never included the Lord, Jesus in any of it. But he married a young lady, who after living with Eric for three years and dealing with his verbal abuse and his adultery, she had turned to the Lord. Eric had started attending church as a last ditch effort to save his marriage. He never thought there was anything more to it than getting up and going to church on Sunday morning. But he was feeling the difference now, way down deep in his soul. And Eric didn’t want this feeling of unconditional love and peace that passes anything he could understand to ever go away.
“Yes Eric, it is that simple.”
Eric wiped the tears from his face. “I’m saved? You mean it?”
“God has saved you, Eric. He’s not likely to change His mind about that,” Isaac assured Eric just before sending him to the prayer room to have an altar worker pray with him again and give him a Bible and information concerning the Bible classes Isaac developed, along with his wife Nina, for new converts.
“Thank you,” Eric said as he headed to the prayer room with the altar worker.
Isaac loved watching a new convert come to the knowledge of the unconditional love of Christ. The altar used to be filled with gang bangers, drug lords and drug addicts giving their lives to the Lord. But in the past few years, not many came down to the altar, Isaac attributed that to progress and growth. His ministry had evolved and he was now serving the masses instead of only the hood.
Life was good because Isaac was bringing souls into the kingdom and after thirty-one years of marriage, his wife was still in love with him. His son, Donavan had come back to the church and was now his co-pastor. Isaac only had one problem, and this time it had nothing to do with his daughter, Iona. She was thriving in her career as a defense attorney and in her marriage to Johnny, a police-detective-turned-FBI-agent who was also t
he head elder at the church.
No, Isaac’s problems were more focused on his namesake. Isaac Walker Jr. was only fifteen years old, but he was just as rebellious as Isaac had been at that age. Which was the reason Isaac was so worried. He knew the things he’d been involved in at Ikee’s age and only prayed that Ikee hadn’t gotten himself caught up.
Shaking his head as he walked toward his office, Isaac remembered the day he’d dedicated Ikee back to the Lord. He sent up a quick prayer on his son’s behalf, reminding God of His promises. He also prayed for his wife. Because if Isaac’s instincts were right, their youngest son wasn’t headed for anything good. Isaac would just have to trust that they had put enough God in him to get him back in line before he went too far.
As he opened the door to his office, an involuntary smile crossed his lips at the sight of Donavan. His son was six feet, the same height as his old man. Donavan had the same chocolate complexion as Isaac. As a matter-of-fact, all three of his children had his chocolate kiss complexion and deep dimples. However, Donavan had his mother’s hazel eyes and small button nose. Donavan was standing near his desk talking with Diana, the church secretary, who was also now his wife.
“Two of my favorite people. Making birthday plans?” Isaac asked as he sat down on the couch that had been placed directly underneath a huge picture window. Isaac still remembered the day that he’d caught Donavan and Diana in a compromising position when he’d gone to his son’s condo unannounced one day. Isaac has not used his key to Donavan’s or Iona’s place since that day. Even though Donavan and Diana’s relationship started the wrong way, Donavan had eventually done right by Diana and married her. There was no denying the love these two had for each other. They brought joy to Isaac’s heart each time he saw them together.
“Diana is being stubborn,” Donavan told his father. “She doesn’t want to do anything for her birthday.”
Through the Storm Page 26
