“Then how about simply the word ‘trust’? We’ll both know what it means.”
“Okay. That’s where we started, isn’t it? Is there anything you’d like me to add to my vow?”
Maggie thought a moment. “Yes, I would like you to add ‘cherish’ and ‘nurture’ to your vow. That’s what fathers are supposed to do. I know the time for my physical nurturing is passed, but your spiritual nurturing has been so wonderful. And add Jenny, too.”
“Yes, of course Jenny. Your becoming my daughter will make Jenny my granddaughter, but there is more to it. Being your father brings me a lot of responsibility, but there is one privilege I look forward to very greatly.”
“I give up. What is it?”
“I claim the right to walk you down the aisle one day, when God has brought the right one into your life.”
Maggie giggled with delight. The sound of it woke Jenny, who giggled with her and fell back asleep.
“I said that, to say this: until that day, I will be Jenny’s father also. That spiritual authority will act as a covering for her, until I transfer it to your new husband.”
The negotiations finished, they made the vows before each other and their Lord. Matt went first, standing and raising his right hand as he spoke. Then he took Jenny while Maggie followed his lead and made her vows.
“This has been quite a day for you, Maggie. You died and were born again as God’s daughter and Jesus’s sister, then as my daughter. We could call today your rebirthday.”
“Yes, and we had both put in a full day’s work before that.”
“I now welcome you as a full-fledged member of the Carven family!”
“Thank you. I’m sorry I never had a chance to meet my new brother and sister.”
“I never told you what happened to your brother Todd.”
They were both silent for a few minutes. Maggie could tell it was going to be painful for him. “I’d like to hear it if you can tell it.”
“They were on a trip to Arizona in their small family car. They had just come over a small hill and were stopped at a light at a T intersection, waiting to turn left. Ahead of them was a guardrail and a ravine on the other side of it. Traffic was moving pretty fast in both directions in front of them. All of a sudden, a drunk driver in a Cadillac came over the hill. It didn’t even slow down, but crashed into Todd’s car.
“The impact ruptured their gas tank and slammed them into the middle of the intersection, where they were smashed into by a truck. The car immediately burst into flames and went through the guardrail into the ravine. None of them survived.
“The airbag in the Cadillac deployed, and the driver was not even hurt. We found out later he was the son of a diplomat, driving drunk and without a license. He was flown back to his country before charges could be pressed. They would never even tell us what country he was from.”
After he finished the story, Matt wept for a long time. He was still holding Jenny, so Maggie reached up to the pile of coffin-liner nappies and ripped one in two. Half for him and half for her.
She could tell he was grieving, but could not sense any bitterness. In a way she could not quite understand, Jenny was being a comfort to him. “I’m so sorry.”
Matt heard her, but he was busy saying good-bye, one at a time, to his grandchildren, his children, their spouses, and finally his wife. I’ll see you again, he said to each one. He felt God’s love enveloping him, comforting him, receiving his family members as he offered them up to the one who had given them to him for a time. The sovereign one, the one who brought him to this time and place to give him a new daughter. And granddaughter.
“Thank you,” he finally said. “You were kind to let me grieve. I needed that. And now we still have a job to do.”
“Thanks for holding Jenny. My arms were starting to go to sleep. The little boy?”
“Exactly!”
57
It was beginning to get dark as Dusty Mae Watt passed the hallway for the fifth time, seeing JC at the window at the end, overlooking the city. She understood what he was going through; she herself had lost a long-time friend and colleague when she was a field agent. However, now she had some business with JC Smalley, and it was getting late.
“JC, I didn’t know Joel Barth, your friend. I hurt for you, though. I know what it’s like. I understand you’ll be leaving us soon, and I need to talk to you about it. Please come with me.”
She led him back to her office and stopped by a bank of small lockers outside her door. “May I have your cell?”
She locked it in one of the lockers, and motioned him into an office adjoining hers. When they were both inside, she dead-bolted the door from the inside. Alarm bells started going off in JC’s head.
She grinned. “Don’t be concerned. Your phone on the outside and the deadbolt on the inside are what turns this office into a Top Secret space. I’m told you’re fixing to go to Brazil. Congratulations, I think! Phil told me. He said to help you get ready any way we can.
“I’d like to send one of our agents-in-training with you, either Luke or Harper. Have you met Harper? He comes from an Army background, so he may be the better choice. It will be great experience for him. He could learn a lot from y’all. Penny would be appropriate for that environment, too, but I’ll find something important for her to do here.”
“Thanks. I think I have a very narrow lane, and most of what will happen will be outside that lane. I haven’t met Harper yet, but he’ll be okay. What did he do in the Army?”
Dusty Mae opened a file on the desk and pulled out a photo. “Harper Avalon was an infantry platoon sergeant and boot camp drill instructor. He got out after twelve years, graduated from the University of Delaware with a criminal justice degree, then came to work for us.”
“He will probably already be more prepared for this than I will,” JC said. “I assume all the combat will be over when we get called forward, so the biggest issue will be the heat and bugs. How is Harper at recognizing booby traps? Do you have standard training for that?”
They briefly discussed the intelligence and other training the FBI gave their recruits. Their meeting over, Dusty Mae opened the office, gave JC back his phone, and summoned Harper.
58
Matt gave Jenny back and stood up to look around. There was nothing to see except the moonlight glittering on the water. It felt good to stretch. He and Maggie switched places to give them both new positions.
“Maggie, when the Lord let me know I would be calling an island into existence, I thought it would be cool. However, I know God doesn’t do things randomly or without a good reason, just to amuse us. This island is going to be very important for a reason I don’t know yet. Maybe lots of reasons. I have no idea how deep the water is here, or how long it might take the bottom of the ocean to come up this high.
“In the dream, I was very specific in the things I called out. I don’t remember what they all were, and maybe that part of the dream was just to show I need to be very specific right now. That’s why I’m asking you to help me. While Jesus was on the earth, he said he did only what he saw his father do, so we need to ask the spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, to show us what our father is doing. We are not going to make stuff up and trust God to do it. Rather, we are going to let him speak through us to bring into being what he wants.”
“Wow! This is going to be incredible! What do you want me to do?”
“First, we ask for wisdom and instruction, you and I. Then we wait to hear and see what God shows us. I’m counting on you to see and hear too. Then we act.”
“How long will we wait? I know we’ll wait as long as we need to. I’m just wondering how long that might be.”
“God’s timing is always perfect. Part of what we ask for will be the wisdom to know when and how to do the acting. Are you ready, my daughter?”
Maggie was already filled to overflowing with the joy and the presence of God that Jesus brought her, and the thrill that went through her whole being when Matt c
alled her “daughter” was almost too much. All she could do was nod.
Matt caught the nod in the moonlight. “Okay. I’ll start, and if you feel there’s anything important to add, then by all means do so.”
It was a short prayer. They acknowledged God’s sovereignty and his wisdom, thanked him for keeping them safe during all they had been through, recognized that this was his plan and work, and asked for specifics and details so the finished product would meet his desires. Maggie added a heartfelt thanks for bringing Jenny back to her.
While they waited, Matt volunteered to hold Jenny again, and had Maggie stand up and look around.
“How does that vast ocean make you feel?”
“Incredibly small. Matt, if I were that bottle we talked about earlier, I’d feel even smaller.”
“If you were that bottle, you would also be incredibly safe out there in the midst of it. But you are that bottle in the care of the spirit of God who will bring you places he wants to bring you, some of which you might balk at. But always trust him. Keep your eyes on him. Feeling small is a very good thing. It makes us realize that we are nothing without him who is everything. For me, it evokes a deep and godly longing to know him better. When we are small, then he is great in us and on our behalf. It is when we know our weakness and smallness that true worship just bubbles up from the most central core of our being.”
“The most central core of my being is starting to do that right now.”
Matt began to sing. It was a different song this time; it was a love song he had prepared for his wedding with Helene. “Long before the world started, God gave me to you … ”
He had sung it as he held his children for the first time after they were born; when they got married, he sang it for their spouses as he welcomed them into the family, and he sang it when he held his grandchildren for the first time. It was a song about them to God, a song of commitment, of protection, of support, of love.
Now he sang it as Maggie and Jenny, whom he was still holding, became part of his family. Then, as before, he started singing the words known only to God, sweet words, gentle words. Before long, he heard another voice join him. Higher in pitch, a little hesitant at first. Matt kept the tempo and melody the same, and soon the other voice gained more confidence. He felt Maggie relax, and in a moment, she was singing in perfect harmony with him. After several more minutes, he slowed down and stopped, and she with him.
Maggie was breathless and excited. “Wow, I did it!”
“It was great, wasn’t it? Did you understand any of it? And did you feel any special kind of way?”
“Not a word. I’m not an expert, but it sounded like a real language. I didn’t feel anything, except that it was okay to sound strange and foreign.”
Matt laughed. “You mean because it sounded like gibberish?”
“Yeah. I would have said that, but it sounds somewhat, um, irreverent.”
“What I heard while you sang, and what you told me about it, tells me your experience just now is what is normal. Occasionally the Holy Spirit will let you perceive some of the things he is saying through you, like when I mentioned the sword fight earlier.”
“Your singing earlier had a distinctive effect on me. It seemed like you were somehow pulling on me.”
“That was one of those times I thought I felt what the Holy Spirit was doing. He was actually the one doing it, calling to your spirit. Many times, I can set my own tempo and rhythm, but that time I was just following his leading.”
“Well, it was brilliant!”
“The song I started with, I didn’t think I would ever sing it again.”
“It was beautiful. It made me cry. I’ve never heard it before.”
“It made me cry, too, as I was writing it. You should hear it with a mandolin and a fiddle.” He told her the history of his singing it. “I give Helene the credit for wanting me to sing it for my children. That song was a surprise to her when we got married. She cried at her own wedding!”
“I’m so glad Jenny and I are your children.”
“Me too! But now we have work to do.”
59
At NOAA observatory K103, Jacob Strauss slept peacefully through the night. There was no alarm signaling any seismic activity anywhere in the world. The vibrating pens made barely a ripple on their slowly advancing rolls of logarithmic graph paper.
60
After they rested a few minutes, Matt explained again what he remembered regarding the island dream. Maggie listened carefully, curious about what would happen next. “In my mind,” he told her, “I’m seeing and hearing what the Lord is showing me, and I believe he is showing you, too.” Matt went on to describe what he saw. “Tell me what you’re seeing. Is there anything you think we should add to our list? Anything, no matter how impossible or frivolous it seems?”
Maggie adjusted Jenny in her lap, then put her hands on her temples and closed her eyes. “I’m not sure how to do this. I’m not seeing anything more than what you told me.”
“That’s okay. There’s no secret method or posture. When God communicates with you, it will seem like the most natural thing in the world. Like when he spoke to you earlier.”
She relaxed. “Let me think … What about your two dreams? Could there be anything you left out? How about the petunias? Could they have been real petunias, or just representing flowers in general, or maybe plants in general?”
“I don’t know. Let’s just ask God to interpret that as he brings forth the island. It will be his island, after all.”
“Let’s ask for some kind of natural bridge over the waterway.”
“Okay,” Matt said. “That makes sense. And in the hilly corner, a very tall mountain or hill so you can see the whole island.”
“Yes, a spot you can see from anywhere on the island. A guidepost, so you always know where you are.”
“Maggie, I think we’re ready. I want you to do some of the calling up. You’re a teammate on God’s team, and therefore, you already have what it takes.”
“Do you think so, Matt? I wouldn’t know what to say or how to say it. I’d rather just watch this time.”
“No, absolutely not! I believe it’s vitally important you participate in a substantial way. I’ll tell you the part I’d like you to play. Okay?”
“Will I feel the electricity too?”
“That was part of the dream, wasn’t it, Maggie? There may not be any electricity at all, or any other supernatural thing. There might not even be any evidence that anything is happening. No lightning. No feelings. No awesome displays. It will be enough that we know God wants this island, and he has called on us to call it forth.”
“Us? I thought he was just asking you to do it.”
“You’re my helper, and the part I want you to do, if it doesn’t happen, then the whole island will wash away. I’m giving you a very important part. You’ll see, your words will have the same force as mine, since it’s God’s power, not ours.”
“Okay, let me know what you want me to do.”
He told her, and she responded, “Oh, that seems simple enough.”
Matt started. “Father, you have shown us what you are doing in heaven, so we might do that on earth. Let your power come now, to cause the words you have given us to come to pass, for your glory and the glory of your kingdom. In Jesus’s name.
“Let now an island appear here in the middle of the sea, twenty-five miles long and five miles wide, coming up smoothly and gently, without causing a tsunami anywhere.”
Maggie said, “Let it be high enough out of the water that the high tide will not overflow its boundary, with one side of it perfectly flat for half its distance.”
“The other side will have texture, hills and valleys, at one end, with one of the hills tall enough to overlook the whole island. Let a stream of fresh pure water come from the hills, flowing to the other end of the island.”
“Let there be a flat ridge extending the length of the island, with a natural bridge over the stream
in the middle of the island.”
Matt added, “Dirt from the lands will cover the hilly areas, and much of the flat areas.”
“The dirt will be full of life. And Father, we don’t know what to ask about the petunias. Please do what you have purposed about that.”
“Let there be large domed caverns under the water, at least four, at thirty feet, sixty-five feet, one hundred feet, and one that is the appropriate depth. And let there be a natural harbor, a rounded opening in the side of the island, a half mile across to a mile inland.”
They finished, and Maggie had some questions. “What’s the flat ridge for?”
“It will become a road from one end to the other.”
“How about the caverns? You were pretty specific about them.”
“There is getting to be more and more evidence that this earth had its environment drastically changed in its past, that the atmosphere was much denser then. Have you heard of hyperbaric chambers?”
“Yes,” she said. “I’ve heard that some hospitals do medical procedures in them because the patients bleed less and heal faster. Near my flat, there’s a therapy center, the Brightwell, a charity that treats multiple sclerosis in a barochamber, as they call it.”
“The domed caverns would become giant hyperbaric chambers, once they pump the domes full of air from above. They would be used for medicine and all kinds of research. At least, I believe that’s what they will be used for.”
“What did you mean by ‘the appropriate depth’?”
“Only God knows what the original atmospheric pressure was. Nature would be perfectly tuned to that pressure. I suppose he could have told me an exact number, but he didn’t. I’m wondering if the ‘appropriate depth’ is where the medical procedures will be done, with the other depths used for things like post-op recovery or prep. He may want it all for an entirely different purpose, though. Do you know what the long flat part would be for?”
“While I was saying it, I thought of an airfield. That’s my guess, Matt. How long do you think it will take before we see what God will do? An island this size will be hard to miss, especially when they come to investigate what happened to our plane. I hope we’re close enough to it, that they see us!”
The Wreck Emerged Page 17