Shackles: The truth will set you free

by Dianne J Wilson

  Edward sprung to her defense. “You cannot talk to your mother that way!”

  Before Claude could respond, Maxine stood between them. “It’s okay. He has a right to be angry. Let it go. Edward, come with me.” Brushing a hand through Claude’s hair, she smiled sadly at Kenneth and left the room leaning heavily on Edward’s arm.

  Not trusting himself to stay alone with Claude, Kenneth followed.

  __________________________________________

  In the lounge across from Claude’s room, Edward and Maxine were engaged in hot debate. Kenneth hung back, not wanting to interrupt.

  “Edward, there’s a psychologist here who’s interested in taking Claude on as a patient. He’s seen this sort of behavior before and he believes it’s treatable.”

  “No son of mine is a lunatic. I won’t have him treated as one either.”

  “Damn your pride! Our boy needs help.” Despite her slight frame, Maxine blazed with the fury of conviction. “Why do you refuse to see what is so obvious to all of us? It’s no shame on you or failure on your part. The doctor suspects it’s a chemical imbalance. Edward, if we leave him now, he will do devastating damage. Mark my words; unless we stop this now, our boy is headed for prison. It’s only by some miracle that he hasn’t caused more harm already.”

  Heart in his throat, Kenneth stepped into the lounge, “She’s right Dad. Claude is completely unstable. Quite frankly, if I look at the lengths he went to, to get to Rebecca, he’s actually dangerous. I know I shouldn’t be interrupting, but for what it’s worth, I agree with Mom.”

  Edward Rochester hung his head in defeat. An eternity of silence hung thick between them. Sagging under the weight of truth, he quietly conceded, “I hear you.” His voice was thick with emotion, “It’s hard to admit something that I’ve been running away from for so long.”

  “It doesn’t matter anymore, love. As long as we make a change now.”

  He drew her close and planted a gentle kiss on her forehead. “As always, my precious, you are right.”

  Chapter 32 - Truth

  In daylight, the house looked even older than Jason remembered. Rebecca took in the surroundings, biting her lip.

  “Are you okay?” Jason’s concern for her bordered on over protectiveness.

  “Little bit nervous after your description of Lydia. Or should I call her Grandma?” With an anxious giggle, she nibbled on a thumbnail and stared at the house. “It’s pretty weird to go from being alone in the world, to suddenly having a family. Not just a family, but one with a built-in feud.” Rebecca sighed. “Nothing’s ever simple.”

  Jason took her by the arm, “You don’t have to do this now. We can come back another time. Think about it, you’ve just come out of hospital, haven’t even been to your new home yet.”

  “No. I just want to get this over with.”

  “Okay.” Jason gave her arm a quick squeeze. “Just remember what I said about Lydia. Don’t let her get to you. She’s one seriously disturbed old lady; don’t hang any weight on her words.”

  “Sticks and stones, hey? I’ll try not to pay her any mind.”

  Jason cringed to see the hole he’d made in the paint on the front door during his first visit. He knocked more carefully this time to make sure that no more flaked off. Nobody responded. They waited a few minutes more, and Jason had another go at knocking on the door. Just as they were turning to leave, Jason heard the familiar shuffle and breathed a sigh of relief as Angus opened the door.

  “Jason how good to—” Bemused and astonished, he stared at Rebecca as if seeing a ghost. “Catherine? No, it can’t be. Rebecca?” He turned to Jason, delight sparkling in his eyes. “You found her! I’d almost given up hope.”

  Jason saw Rebecca being drawn in by the love radiating from this old soul. The tears flowed as flesh and blood collided in a messy, glorious family hug.

  Shackle free wrists motioned for them to go into the house.

  “Come, come. You must come inside. I’ve just brewed some homemade ginger beer. Lydia always hated ginger beer.”

  His phrasing struck Jason as odd. Brushing it aside, they followed Angus through to the kitchen.

  The cupboards were made from solid oak, but seemed to have had a very distant relationship with soap and water. There was a crack down the wall behind the oven that looked like a lightning strike on a particularly stormy night. The house and its owner matched each other year for year.

  Not wanting to pry, but needing to know – Jason asked, “Angus, where is Lydia?”

  The old man lowered himself onto a bar stool at the opposite side of the breakfast nook. “She didn’t make it.”

  “What do you mean? Why?”

  Looking haggard, Angus replied, “Do you remember how angry she was the night you came to see us? When I came back here from meeting you around the corner, I went upstairs to check on her and she wasn’t breathing. She’d had a stroke and had already passed on. There was nothing anyone could do.” He smiled sadly.

  “I am so sorry to hear that. I feel awful. Maybe if I hadn’t upset her so badly or if you’d been home instead of out talking to me?”

  Angus waved away his concerns, “Don’t waste energy beating yourself up. If she hadn’t been angry and lost her temper at you, it would have been the dog next door that never shuts up, or the bugs that keep eating her roses. Do you understand what I’m saying? She’s in a better place now.” Looking a little forlorn he continued, “I do miss her. Sometimes I’d give anything to hear her shouting at me again. But in general, I’m doing okay. I’ve got myself involved with the church down the road. They’ve been a wonderful source of comfort to me. I’ve always wanted to go, but Lydia wasn’t interested.” He reached out and took Rebecca’s hands in his, across the table. “And now I have you! My life feels brighter all ready!”

  She beamed at him. “You are going to see so much of me that you’re going to beg me to stay away!”

  “Entirely impossible, my dear! Now, how would you like to see photos of your Mother?”

  Rebecca gasped as if someone had presented her with a precious jewel, before planting a noisy kiss on his cheek, “Yes, please!

  The hour they spent with Angus flew by swiftly as they pored over old photo albums. Rebecca seemed intent on absorbing as much as she could of her family history, and Angus was more than happy to share all his memories with her.

  Loathe as he was to bring the visit to an end, Jason knew they still needed to get Rebecca settled in at Stanton’s. Rebecca and Angus hugged as if they’d never spent a day apart, so close was the bond that had already started forming between them.

  __________________________________________

  Jason stretched out on the rug in front of the ornate fireplace in Stanton’s lounge. Rubbing his hands over his full belly, he sighed in satisfaction. “That was the best meal I’ve ever eaten.”

  Rebecca smiled at him from the chair she sat curled up in. “I feel guilty for not doing dishes. It doesn’t seem right.”

  “Don’t feel guilty. Stanton and Lisa were just looking for an excuse to be alone together.”

  Rebecca chuckled. “You’re probably right!” As she brushed her hair back from her face, her shirt sleeve slipped down her arm, exposing her wrist to Jason. Seeing the dark cuff, he knew it was time to talk to her about his dream.

  Lazily pulling himself to sitting, he felt warmth from the fire spread across his back. “I need your brain. Look at this.” He spread out the dream diagram on the carpet. It was looking tattered and old from being hauled out and studied. Sometimes he was convinced that it meant nothing, and other times it seemed overwhelming in its importance. Despite this, he was still completely clueless as to what it meant.

  Rebecca joined him on the carpet, keeping a careful distance from the fireplace. “What is this?”

  “It’s from a dream I had a while back. I don’t know what it means.”

  “Those bottom things look like Bible verses.” She stretched behind her and picked
up her Bible from the coffee table. She’d taken to carrying it with her wherever she went.

  Looking through the index, she said, “That first one could either be Joshua, Job or John. What do you think?”

  Jason shrugged, “What I remember about the Bible could fit up a fly’s nostril. You’ll have to read them all.”

  Flipping pages, she found Joshua and read, “There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua copied on stones the law of Moses, which he had written.”

  She threw a questioning glance at Jason.

  He shook his head. The memory of the dream was as fresh in his mind as the moment he’d dreamt it. “The people in my dream were all chained, heading for destruction. Some of them actually held the keys to their freedom in their hands and they wouldn’t use them to get free and escape certain death. Then this thing appeared in the sky.” He jabbed a finger toward the page, “It doesn’t fit. Try the next one.”

  Rebecca flipped forwards and found Job. She paged to chapter 8. “Nope, not this one. There are only 22 verses. I don’t know if we’re on the right track Jason.”

  “Keep going. We might be onto something.”

  Looking doubtful, Rebecca turned to the New Testament and found John 8. “Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”

  “Rebecca – that’s it!” All the hairs down his arms stood on end as he broke out in gooseflesh. “Look, even the letters make sense.” Taking a pencil, he wrote above the equation on the left:

  KNOW TRUTH = FREEDOM

  Rubbing his hands in delight, he said, “Okay, we’re definitely onto something. What about the other one?”

  Checking through the index, Rebecca said, “This one is easy. It can only be James. The numbers are confusing, but if you separate them with commas like this—” she took the pencil from Jason and put in commas between 22,23,24,25, “they could be verses.” Turning to the back of the Bible she read; “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it – he will be blessed in what he does.”

  Jason frowned, “I’m assuming the ‘F’ is for freedom. ‘H’ and ‘D’?”

  “That’s easy. Hear and Do.”

  Jason wrote above the right-hand equation:

  HEAR + DO = FREEDOM

  “How does that relate to your dream?”

  Jason spoke slowly, understanding dawning as the words left his lips, “The people with keys in my dream had HEARD the truth, but weren’t willing to DO anything with it. That’s why they weren’t getting free. The one’s with their hands over their ears hadn’t HEARD and didn’t KNOW. The last group had their hands over their eyes. I think they’d been deceived, someone had lied to them and they’d swallowed it and believed it, instead of believing the truth.”

  “That’s amazing.”

  He took her hand in his and gently traced his finger over the dark patch around her wrist. He felt nothing strange, just the softness of her skin. “Can you feel anything?”

  She looked at him as if he’d left his mind back in the hospital. “You’re tickling my wrist, and you’re asking me if I feel anything. Of course I do. What are you on about?”

  “The weird part in all this is that since the dream I can see shackles on some people’s wrist and ankles.”

  Shock crept into her voice, “Are you saying that you can see them on me?”

  Jason hesitated, “Yes. I take it you don’t.”

  He had offended her, he could tell. Pulling her hand away from him, she examined her wrists. “Let’s pretend for a moment that you are sane, and what you are seeing is real. What does it mean?”

  Jason chose his words carefully, “There’s a verse in the Bible that says something like ‘He whom the Son sets free shall be free indeed.’ Maybe you need to consider giving your life to Jesus. He died so that you can have eternal life.”

  Rebecca was shaking her head and wagging her finger in his face at the same time. “No-no-no. I’ve done that. I belong to Him inside and out. It was all part of our deal, and He’s kept His end of the bargain most wonderfully and I fully intend to keep my mine. So that’s not it. I think you need your eyes tested.” She pulled away from him and studied her wrists furiously, turning them this way and that. “Or your head read. Maybe both.”

  In a flash Jason understood, “Hear me out. There are many different areas of freedom. Giving your life to Him, accepting the price He paid on the cross and believing is the biggie. That’s freedom from death. You and I have both experienced that.”

  Rebecca nodded, but her arms were now folded tightly across her chest, wrists tucked self-consciously in her armpits.

  “But any area or situation for that matter, which you are struggling to overcome, is simply because you do not know the Truth about that situation. Or to put it differently, what does God say about it?”

  Her head was still shaking, “Great, I agree with you. The only problem is there’s nothing that I’m really struggling with.” She shrugged, “Seriously.”

  Wondering how far he should push, Jason said, “Okay. Let’s go down to the beach for a walk.”

  Immediately Rebecca’s breathing quickened. Jason could see the pulse in her neck fluttering and a thin sheen of perspiration broke out on her forehead.

  “Why are you doing this to me?”

  Given unction by the Almighty, words flowed out of him, “Being scared of the sea, given your history, is not the problem in itself. But, it’s a symptom of something deeper that you can be free from. The lie that you have believed, has to be replaced by real truth. Only then will you experience true freedom and life.”

  “You’re making my head spin. Spit it out. What are you trying to say?”

  “Deep inside, you don’t believe that you are worth God’s attention. You think you don’t deserve His love, His presence or His protection. That’s where the fear comes from. If you’re not sure that you’re worth all that much to Him, how can you trust that He’ll be there to save you the next time you’re in trouble?”

  Swiped sideways by his statement, Rebecca was stunned to hear what was brewing in the pit of her being. Something so deep, she hadn’t even known it was there.

  Her lips were trembling as she asked, “So what now?”

  “Now we’re going to find out the Truth about your trouble and allow the Holy Spirit to perform spiritual surgery to remove the cancerous lies that are eating away at your freedom.”

  Chapter 33 – An Old Song

  For the first time in many, many years, Jason spoke to his Father in front of someone else. “Father, would You come and replace the lies that are ruling Rebecca’s life with Your Truth. Thank You Lord!”

  It felt strange praying in front of Rebecca, but it also felt right. Not looking at her, he picked up the Bible and started paging. “I only remember about three verses from Sunday school and this is one of them.” Opening to 1 John chapter 4 verse 9, he read, “This is how God showed His love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.” Even if you were the only person on earth, God would still have done it – that’s how much he loves you. Give me some paper.”

  With a grin, Rebecca handed over her notebook. Jason flipped to an open page and wrote across the top in bold letters:

  LIE NUMBER ONE – God doesn’t love Rebecca.

  Taking a red pen, he drew two lines threw the statement, and wrote 1 John 4:9 on top of it, then continued underneath.

  LIE NUMBER TWO – God won’t protect Rebecca.

  Rebecca looked skeptical.

  Jason shrugged as if it were obvious. “If you’re scared of the sea, it means that deep down you don’t feel that God is big enough to keep you safe from it. He’s saved
you miraculously twice, but I can see in your eyes that you’re not entirely sure He would do it again. Like you’ve pushed your luck and now He’s going to ignore you.”

  Rebecca’s sigh was the only acknowledgement Jason got that he was spot on.

  He turned to Romans 8 and read from verse 38, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,” Jason couldn’t help grinning at her, “will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

  Again, he drew two lines and wrote the scripture across the lie.

  Rebecca sat silent in amazement, astounded by Truth she’d never heard before.

  Looking her in the eye, he continued, “According to the dream and what God says, you’ve heard the stuff. Now we need to go do the stuff.”

  Less than convinced, Rebecca asked, “What are you saying?”

  “Take off your shoes and grab your coat. We’re going for a walk.”

  “Jason, I really don’t think that’s necessary. I’ll be fine really.”

  As he spoke, he knew that he was hearing the Spirit nudging his insides. “God wants you to do this Rebecca. Do you want to be free or not?”

  Without another word, she stepped out of her shoes and got her coat.

  __________________________________________

  It took a while for their eyes to adjust to the thick blackness under the moon shade of the tall trees outside. Following the twisting path through the bushes at the bottom end of Stanton’s garden, they made their way slowly down to the beach. The roar of the sea grew louder with each step.

  Fighting the old rising panic, Rebecca clung to Jason’s hand. “I don’t think I can do this.”

  He faced her tenderly. “Nothing can separate you from His love. Sing with me.” Leading her on by the hand, he started singing. The tune was wobbly and the key a little off, but the words were Truth, “Jesus loves me, this I know. For the Bible tells me so.” Here he changed the words to fit the occasion, “All of us to Him belong, we are weak but He is strong.”