This is Redemption

Psalm 111:9 "He provided redemption for his people; he ordained his covenant forever� holy and awesome is his name."

Knock, knock, knock!

He was here. He was at the door.

“I-- haven’t seen you in forever, you know!“ Maura called out from inside the house as she walked to the door. She had been waiting so long, and yet she had been dreading this. “Please don’t make this hard. Please dear god, don’t make this hard.”

She placed her hand on the doorknob, not bothering to look through the small peephole before her. It was tempting, but she just couldn’t do it. She would have to see him face to face, or not at all.

Before she could turn the doorknob though, her heart started pounding heavily. She grew short of breath. Her lungs felt tight. She couldn’t do it. How could she face him again? She had no idea how. Not after what he had done. She started weeping. “ I’m sorry-- I--can‘t---”

The doorknob started turning. She tried to stop it, but it was too late. He was coming forward. She would have to see him again. She didn’t know if she wanted to.

Screech! The door opened, and before her he stood, forty eight years old, wearing a faded flannel shirt, and carrying a bouquet of daisies. Maura gasped as she saw him standing there. Tears were streaming from his eyes, and he bit his lip. It had been five long years. Five long years with no peace. No contact between the two of them.

“Maura I--” He handed her the flowers. She took the flowers and then fell apart, sobbing. Her hands trembled. She dropped the flowers. “ I don’t know what I could say that would make this any easier--- I, I’m sorry Maura. I am really sorry.”

“ I thought I would never see you again! We were never supposed to part and then you disappeared! And…I don’t know how to look past what you have done. I keep trying, I want to so badly!”

“ What I did to you was devastating.”

“---You threw me under the bus, Evan! You threw me away!”

“---You’re right--- I have no excuses left. But can you please---”

“---How can I forgive you Evan? How?”

“ ---Can you please hear me out?!? I need to tell you something!”

Maura folded her arms and looked at him fiercely. The flowers on the floor were long forgotten.

“I don’t know how to tell you this but I saw Them!”

“Saw WHAT?” Maura asked. She shook her fists in the air. “Saw WHO?”

“ I know you’ll think this is crazy but there’s really no other way to explain it. I saw Them, Maura! And they wore white. They didn’t have no fancy halos but the terror I felt when I saw them--- it was… Awe.”

Maura gasped. “…What did you just say?”

“ They were there with me in the room. When I had stumbled into my motel room in Chicago, they were there.”

“ You must have been drinking!--”

“---I hadn’t had a drop. I was all out of money. I had one night’s stay left in that motel, and that was the night they chose to visit me.”

“When was this?”

“ Four years ago.”

“Oh--”

“They were terrifying Maura! No…wait. Words won’t describe it right. They were beautiful! Godlike! When they first came, I saw things in myself I had never seen before. It was like a bright light showing all my imperfections… it was like honesty crying out for me to hear truth.”

Maura slowly unfolded her arms. “ What did they tell you? Did they say anything?”

“Not a word. Their lips never moved. But they were looking heavenward. Their palms were raised. Something was emanating from them that I can’t describe. I felt ashamed for everything I had done. Devastated. It was like I didn’t want to exist anymore but they were crying out for me to accept rescue. They wanted to give me hope.”

“Then what happened?”

“I couldn’t control my body. I felt numb, emotional. Overwhelmed. I fell on my face and I cried. I couldn’t stop thinking about the last time I had seen you, and how hurt you looked. I wanted so bad to go back in time and change what I had done. But I could only lay there sobbing. I didn’t even know how to form proper sentences, but in my heart I was crying out to God. ‘Help, save me. Help! Help!’ was all I could utter, but in my mind I was reliving what I had done, seeing that hurt look on your face, seeing all that I run after that had quickly unraveled. I had lost everything, Maura. It was all because of what I had done.”

“But that woman!--” Maura interrupted.

“--She left almost immediately.”

“--and that money!”

“Nothing I tried on my own lasted.” He said. “It was what was Given to me that changed who I am.”

He said nothing more. Maura hugged him tightly and whispered: “I forgive you.”



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re·demp·tion [ri démpsh'n]
n
1. improving of something: the act of saving something or somebody from a declined, dilapidated, or corrupted state and restoring it, him, or her to a better condition

2. redeemed state: the improved state of somebody or something saved from apparently irreversible decline
Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Ecclesiastes 1:14
14 I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

Psalm 130:7
7 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love
and with him is full redemption.