It was CrossPoint Baptist Church’s spring revival, and she guessed there’d be no harm in going with him to one service. Besides, she liked the name—CrossPoint. She wondered if its members were all at a cross point in their lives, too?
She heard a knock on the door then Jesse’s familiar voice. “Hey, sweetcakes, you ready?”
She took one last look at the mirror, took a deep breath then joined him in the living room. He was wearing faded jeans and a long sleeve t-shirt with a CrossPoint emblem on the chest. Ellie liked the logo, a compass with a cross in the center, indicating a new direction. A new direction suited her just fine.
“Wow,” he said, smiling softly. “You look great.”
“And you’re sure about the jeans?”
“Have I ever led you astray? OK, don’t answer that.” He laughed as he closed the door behind them.
Ellie buckled her seat belt then asked, “Who’s preaching tonight?” Like she would really recognize the name of any preacher!
“Just a visiting preacher. I hear he’s pretty good. Brittany’s going to be there. She’s really looking forward to meeting you.”
“When does she leave for her mission trip?”
“Three weeks. She’s two-hundred dollars short, so hopefully she’ll get it in the love offering.”
Love offerings, mission trips, spring revivals…it was all so foreign to her, yet so familiar. Even despite a bad case of nerves, she was comfortable with it.
“You ready to come back to work Monday?”
She chuckled. “Are you kidding? I’m so bored I thought about taking up knitting.”
“Hey, my mother’s a knitter. Don’t knock it,” he said and laughed.
“Has she ever knitted you anything?”
“Best pair of socks I’ve ever had. They don’t fit at all, but they make wonderful pot holders.”
Ellie laughed. “Does she know you use them for pot holders?”
Jesse shook his head. “And she’ll never find out, will she?”
“Your secret’s safe.” She grinned. She wondered if she’d ever meet Jesse’s mother? She wondered about this whole relationship…what made him appear that day at Caper’s? Why’d he take such an interest in the case she was working?
They’d been almost inseparable since that day he’d eaten all her chips, but the only time they had spoken about their one night together, Jesse had said he wished it had never happened. For someone who wished it had never happened, Jesse Alvarez had integrated himself so deeply in her life, she couldn’t imagine life without him now.
“Jesse,” she said in a quiet voice, deciding now was as good of a time as any to confront the subject.
“Yeah?”
“About…us. You said the night Dad and Aunt Sissy came over that you wished it had never happened. Why?”
He didn’t say anything for a long moment, then finally smiled softly. “It was almost perfect.”
Ellie raised her brows. “Almost?”
“Take away the fact we weren’t married and it would have been perfect.” He glanced over at her and grinned.
“But you never called back.”
He sighed. “I was ashamed. Ashamed I’d let myself down, ashamed I’d let God down, and ashamed I’d dragged you down with me.”
“If I remember correctly, I went pretty willingly.”
He smiled at her then reached over and gently stroked her cheek. “I want a relationship with you, Ellie Saunders, more than anything else. A real relationship. But not on my terms, or your terms…I want it to be on God’s terms.”
****
The parking lot of the church was packed and Jesse circled a time or two to find a parking space. Ellie did a double take at a blue Buick parked near the front. “That’s my daddy’s car,” she said, her voice rising slightly.
“Oh, yeah. I invited him and Aunt Sissy.”
“Jesse, why didn’t you tell me they were going to be here?” Her heartbeat rose a notch.
“What difference does it make if they’re here or not?” He glanced at her then parked beside a Toyota compact. “You don’t want them here?”
Ellie wasn’t sure she was ready for all this. She didn’t know what she wanted. “No, I just…I’m just surprised, that’s all.”
“Surprised to see your aunt and your father at church? He’s a preacher, Ellie.”
Ellie shook her head, hoping to clear some of the confusion she was feeling. “He’s a former preacher. He hasn’t preached in…I don’t even know how many years.”
“That doesn’t mean he gave up on God. God certainly doesn’t give up on us, does He?”
“I suppose not,” she said in a small voice, not really wanting to admit Jesse was right again. Just because her father wasn’t standing in a pulpit every Sunday didn’t mean he had turned his back on God. She knew that for a fact. He had never really stopped preaching at all. He seized every opportunity he had to share God’s grace with someone, anyone. “Do they know I’m coming?” she asked as they walked up the front steps.
“I told them to save us a seat.”
Great. She swallowed hard, trying to force the knot in her throat down into her stomach where it could play with the butterflies. Jesse held the front door open then stepped up behind Ellie as she entered. “Wow. Get a load of that,” he whispered in her ear. “Ellie Saunders’s just walked into a church, and it didn’t crumble beneath her.”
Ellie glowered at him, a smirk crossing her lips. Although, truth be told, she was a little surprised the building was still standing. Aunt Sissy spotted them and waved them over.
The church sure wasn’t anything like Ellie remembered churches being. There were no rows of cloth-covered pews. Instead, roll out stadium seats were pulled out from the walls in an octagon shape. The pulpit was down front, slightly elevated with three rows of risers behind it. Choir members dressed in jeans and white shirts filled the risers.
“No robes?” Ellie whispered to Jesse
“We’re not a robe kind of church.” He smiled then offered her his hand as she climbed the bleachers to where Sissy was seated.
Ellie sat down beside Sissy and immediately looked around for her father. “Where’s Daddy?” she asked Sissy.
“He’ll be out in a minute. I’m so glad you came,” Sissy said as she wrapped an arm around Ellie’s shoulder. “I know he’s going to be tickled to death you’re here.”
Jesse sat on the other side of Ellie and chatted loudly with everyone around. After a minute or two of greeting everyone within shouting distance, he leaned across Ellie toward Aunt Sissy. “I think she was a little surprised the building didn’t fall when she walked in.”
“We’re not out of here yet,” Ellie said and grinned.
Ellie searched the crowd for her father but didn’t see him anywhere. A young man in a CrossPoint t-shirt and jeans stood at the pulpit reading announcements into a microphone. He made the announcement about Brittany’s mission trip and a special offering and about an upcoming bowling outing. Suddenly Ellie spotted her father and her heart raced. What was he doing down there? What was he doing at the pulpit? The young man making the announcements introduced the church pastor and then turned to Ellie’s father and welcomed Reverend Ferrin Saunders as their guest speaker.
“Keeping with our revival theme,” the young man said, “Reverend Saunders will be speaking on new beginnings and God’s power of redemption.”
Ellie couldn’t take her eyes off the pulpit and met her father’s gaze when he glanced up at Sissy. He smiled the kindest, proudest smile Ellie had ever seen. She felt the forgiveness start at the top of her head and like a gentle, steady rain, felt it spread from the top of her head to the bottoms of her feet, washing her clean of the past. She sucked in the comfort, relishing in the joy it brought and knew she had found her way back home.
Jesse gently took her hand as her father began to speak again, “Jesus said to her: I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in Me, although he be dead, shall l
ive…”
Ellie bowed her head, and she prayed for a fresh start, a new life. A new life like Landon’s. She felt God’s loving arms wrap around her, felt His miraculous hands breathe new life into her heart and soul. And finally, she believed.
The Lazarus Syndrome was real. It had brought her back from the dead, too.
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May God’s glory shine through
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AMDG
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