by Amy Wallace
His turn for a ragged breath.
Gracie leaned back and reached her hands around his neck, running her fingers through his hair. Her eyes drew him in and held him still at the same time.
Their lips met softly at first, then deepened into a kiss full of passion and promise. He closed his eyes and pulled back, keeping her pressed against him. Then with only a thin hold on his self-control, he stood them both up beside the couch.
“I think we’d better head over to my parents’ house.”
“You’re a smart man, Steven Kessler. But I hope you won’t wait forever to try your little surprise jewelry gift again. For real, next time.”
Jake barked his agreement.
Steven laughed and smoothed the dog’s fur. When he looked up, a stunning smile filled Gracie’s beautiful face. He would see that smile again. Over and over in his dreams.
“So you want another locket for Christmas next year?”
She threw crumpled wrapping paper at him.
“Okay. Maybe not. How about I try for a bracelet on Saint Patrick’s Day?”
“Oh, you.”
He pulled her against his chest and kissed the top of her head. He would wait for the right moment. But it wouldn’t be next Christmas. Valentine’s Day might work. After all, didn’t diamonds and chocolate go together well?
They put out the fire in the fireplace and then headed to the front door. It’d be a fun night recounting this afternoon to his parents and James.
Watching Gracie blush all over again.
Teasing her about what the future held.
As he helped her into her long coat, he noticed the pocket watch James had given him earlier this morning poking up from his jeans. A soaring eagle decorated the pewter cover. What a perfect picture for Christmas day. A day for dreaming dreams, enjoying family, and soaring high above the clouds.
The infant in the cradle, resting in the shadow of the cross, reminded him to dream big. Soar high. Believe the truth.
Listen.
Steven walked out into the late afternoon’s winter chill with Gracie on his arm. Listen he would. Just like Clint and Gracie had been encouraging him to do all along. Listen and trust the one voice that brought every good dream to life. The Voice of truth.
Dear Reader:
Thank you for taking this journey with me through Gracie and Steven’s eyes. As I typed the beginning of this story—that of Gracie losing the family she loved so much—I worked through seeing my worst nightmare appear on the page. I saw in my mind’s eye what Gracie saw. Only it felt like it was my blue minivan tumbling off the road, my children on stretchers. Some nights it was hard to remember I was writing fiction. Especially when I’d look at the photos on my desk of my precious children and strain to hear the sound of them returning from errands. On the many evenings they returned late, the sound of the garage door and their giggles were some of the most precious sounds I’ve known.
Another way I experienced Gracie and Steven’s story is that they struggled with believing some of the same lies I’ve believed. Those awful words in my head that say I’m not good enough. I’m helpless. I’m unlovable. But one thing I’ve learned about God after many years of living from a heart filled with lies is that His truth truly does trump those lies. It took some tears and time with God to get to that place where His Word didn’t just bounce off my hurting heart. That hard work was time well spent.
Like I’ve shared with my daughters and my high school seniors at church, getting with God and letting out the pain we too often try to ignore is the first step to healing. Real healing. Not the religious Band-Aids we like to think will work eventually, but healing that allows God to remove the rocky lies in our hearts and replace them with His truth—His Word, whispered into our inmost being. It’s when we hear those words and believe those words that we are changed. Made more and more like our loving heavenly Daddy More like Christ.
As I’ve allowed God to heal my heart, I’ve become more open to a very painful and often misunderstood part of the Christian walk—forgiveness. In allowing the Lord to speak His truth to me, my eyes and heart have been opened to the things I’ve buried, to the people who continued to hurt me. But that pain only compounded when I held on to them with a death grip, trying to get them to make up for the heartache. Together with the Lord I’ve learned how to let that grip loosen. I’ve learned to forgive. From the heart. Like Jesus calls us to do.
My prayer for you is that the Lord will continue to speak His words of truth into your heart and that you will join Him on the path of heart healing, continue into forgiveness, and then rest in the abundant life that He is. He is amazing at taking shattered dreams and making all things new.
Because of His grace,
Amy Wallace
If you’d like to know more about heart healing, please come hang out with me at my website—Heart Chocolate (www.amywallace.com)—and check out the Bible studies on the topic of heart healing. Another place to find me on the web is the Defenders of Hope website (www.defendersofhope.com), where you can go behind the scenes and learn the stories behind the novels. Don’t forget to drop me an e-mail; I’d love to hear from you!
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Gracie struggled with feeling helpless and allowed that to drive her life in many areas, trying to prove she wasn’t powerless. What lies do you struggle with? How do they keep you from living? Or drive you so hard you don’t enjoy the life you have?
Another common lie we believe is “I’m not good enough.” How did Steven handle this lie and find freedom? What helped him decide others’ opinions don’t define him? If what other people think about us doesn’t define us, then what does?
When you read Jeremiah 31:3 about God’s everlasting love, what does that stir up in you? If we lived like we believed this verse, how would our actions show it?
What do Isaiah 43:1; Zephaniah 3:17; John 13:34; and Ephesians 5:1 say about how God thinks about you? Is it difficult to believe God really feels this way? Why?
It can be so hard to trust God and believe that He loves us when life screams differently. Read Psalm 91 and John 16:33. How do those Scriptures go together?
How does Philippians 4:6-7 help us to believe that even when life is hard, God is still good?
One huge thing Steven struggled with was the question why? He fumed at Clint about why children die and why marriages fail—even when people pray He turned away from God because of his hurt and unanswered questions. Can you relate to Steven or do you know someone who does? How?
Is it okay to fume at God and ask why? I love the book of Job because Job gets real with God and demands an answer from the Almighty concerning his heartache. What does he receive? Job 38:1 says God answered. What was Job’s response? Read Job 40:3-5.
While there are no easy answers, here are a few verses to ponder and discuss with regard to the deep-seated “why” questions in our lives: Jeremiah 31:18; Romans 5:1-5; 2 Corinthians 1:3-6; 7:10; 1 Peter 2:19-24; 4:12-19. How do these verses impact your “why” questions?
Sometimes we won’t find or understand the answers to our “why” questions. It seems life would be better if we had no trouble (or at least less trouble) and that the Christian life should guarantee fewer problems. Consider Joseph, King David, Job, Daniel, and Paul. More often than not, they didn’t have complete answers to the trials they endured. How did they respond? Read Genesis 50:19-20; 2 Samuel 12; Job 13:15; Daniel 6; and 2 Corinthians 12:9. How did they benefit from their responses? How have we benefited from their examples?
What did you think about Gracie’s picture of forgiveness? How did emotionally keeping her hand around the neck of the one who’d hurt her cause her more pain?
Forgiving those who have hurt us is a painful and difficult choice. But to live in unforgiveness is far worse. Matthew 18:23-33 shows some very painful consequences of unforgiveness and not receiving God’s forgiveness for ourselves. How did Gracie and Steven suffer for choosing not to forgive?
What does it mean
to forgive from your heart? Gracie found she could truly forgive only after she’d taken her lies about herself to God and heard His truth. First Peter 1:22 talks about being cleansed obeying the truth, then loving deeply from the heart. How do you think it would help you to forgive if you took your hurt and lies to God first and allowed Him to cleanse you and speak truth?
Who is harder to forgive—yourself or others? Why?
As Gracie became aware of the need to deal with her lies and forgive, she described what her parents provided as heart-chocolate. My definition of that phrase is: “words that wrap around the heart and bring excitement, comfort, and an expanded perspective of how awesome God is.” Can you think of some heart-chocolate in your own life, a moment when you experienced God and it encouraged you? How can you share that same type of encouragement with others?
This is a work of fiction. The characters incidents, and dialogues are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.
Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
RANSOMED DREAMS
published by Multnomah Books
A division of Random House, Inc.
© 2007 by Amy Nicole Wallace
Scripture quotations are from:
The Holy Bible, New International Version © 1973, 1984 by International
Bible Society, used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House
Also quoted:
Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT) © 1996. Used by permission
of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.
New American Standard Bible® (NASB) © 1960, 1977, 1995
by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Multnomah is a trademark of Multnomah Books,
and is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
The colophon is a trademark of Multnomah Books.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission.
For information:
MULTNOMAH BOOKS
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wallace, Amy, 1970-
Ransomed dreams : a novel / Amy Wallace.
p. cm. -- (Defenders of hope ; bk. 1)
eISBN: 978-0-307-56193-0
1. Forgiveness--Fiction. I. Title.
PS3623.A35974R36 2007
813′.6--dc22 2007000514
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