A Time to Surrender
Page 31
Honestly, she was married to a Marine.
But try as she might, she could not talk around the lump in her throat.
Kevin smiled down at her, his eyes laughing beneath the bill of a Padres cap. They sat on bleachers in the Shamu stadium at Sea World on a hot summer day with thousands of other people. Far below, in the clear pools, enormous orcas swam gracefully.
He said, “You’ll be fine.”
“I’ll cry. I am crying.”
“That’s okay.” He waggled his brows. “You’re not worried I’ll fall flat on my face?”
She shook her head. Kevin moved with amazing agility with his prostheses. Artificial limbs. Plural. He needed three of them to make a thigh, a knee, a calf, an ankle, a foot.
“You’re not embarrassed about the way I look, I know that.”
People stared at his prosthetic leg whenever he wore shorts. They stared at his left arm’s odd color and texture whenever he wore short sleeves. Jenna had learned to receive their pity and horror with poise. She smiled and said he had been in the war. She explained to anyone still looking how his new leg worked. Wasn’t it fascinating?
No, she didn’t feel embarrassed. To have Kevin home alive and living with her was all that mattered.
He was still in the service, working on the base. They had moved near it. She was teaching summer school there. Their new circle of friends included some of the men he’d served with and their wives. Every day was a gift that she received with gratitude.
Kevin kissed her cheek. “Then what is it, pretty lady?”
“I-I’m just so happy,” she whispered. “I finally get to do this because I want to.”
He smiled. “I love you.”
A loud voice resonated from the sound system, and a hush fell over the crowd. Jenna and Kevin knew what was coming. Friends had told them to expect it.
As “America the Beautiful” played and scenic nature slides filtered across enormous screens behind the pool, the announcer asked all the servicemen and their families in the audience to stand.
Jenna practically flew to her feet. Kevin rose beside her, along with hundreds of others across the stadium. The crowd applauded loudly and long.
She tugged on his sleeve. He leaned near to catch her words.
“I am so proud to be your wife, Kevin Mason.”
He grinned and touched the small bump protruding at her waistline. “And I am so proud to be standing here with both of you.”
Acknowledgments
My heart overflows with gratitude for all who came alongside during the writing of this novel.
Thank you to my coauthor, Gary Smalley, for the definitive work on relationship and the willingness to explore it through fictional characters.
Thank you to so many who filled needs for words, technical information, insight, and prayers: my “John girls”—Elizabeth, Tracy, Kaiya, and Aliah; son Christopher John; brother Tom Carlson; Troy Johnson; Carrie Younce; Peggy Hadacek; Dr. Scott Hicks; Carla Genack; Kelly Farmer; Todd Kahley; Kim Moore; Susan Meissner; Peggy Wright; Patti Hayes; Pam Farrel; all the folks at Church of the Advent; and Adam Kokontis.
Thank you to my professional partners: Lee Hough, Ami McConnell, Leslie Peterson, Jennifer Stair, and everyone at Alive Communications and Thomas Nelson Publishers.
Thank you to my mom, Mary Carlson, for making it all possible in the first place.
And as always, thank you to my most wonderful husband, Tim.
Reading Group Guide
In keeping with the other titles in the Safe Harbor series, A Time to Surrender references concepts found in Ecclesiastes 3. There is a time to uproot, to throw away, to lose, to give up. These all speak of surrendering.
1. Discuss what the characters give up in this story. It may be material things, attitudes, strongholds, or something else.
• What does Claire as a mother surrender?
• Jenna as a young wife?
• Danny as a confident-in-his-viewpoint believer?
• Skylar as a keeper of secrets?
• Ben as the father of an MIA son whose fate has been learned?
2. In all their surrendering, in putting off their old selves, the characters move into the reality of the theme verse taken from Ephesians 4:22–24: “You were taught . . . to put off your old self . . . to be made new . . . to put on the new self.”
• By the end of the book, what is the new Jenna like?
• Danny?
• Skylar?
3. What sorts of things have you surrendered, given up, or thrown away in your own life?
4. How were you changed by that action?
5. Is there something you sense you need to surrender, to hand over to God in order for Him to clothe you in something new?
6. What do you think about Claire’s statement that a “safe harbor” is not a landlocked body of water but an open area where people are free to come and go? How might that describe the “safe harbor” God is always offering to us in His presence?
Reader comments are always welcome.
Please write to us in care of Thomas Nelson publishers,
by e-mail to sallyjohnbook@aol.com,
or visit www.sally-john.com.
About the Authors
Sally John is the author of more than ten books, including the popular Other Way Home series and In a Heartbeat series. Illinois natives, Sally and her husband, Tim, live in Southern California. The Johns have two grown children, a daughter-in-law, and two granddaughters.
Dr. Gary Smalley, one of the foremost experts on family relationships, has written or cowritten more than fifty books, based on more than thirty-five years of experience as a teacher and counselor. A best-selling and award-winning author, Smalley has appeared on hundreds of local radio and television shows, including Oprah, Larry King Live, Fox & Friends, and NBC’s Today. He and his wife, Norma, have been married forty-two years.