WEP ENTRY DECEMBER '19 WRITING CHALLENGE

This is a monthly critique blog. I welcome any serious critique using these codes.                           
                                     Full Critique Acceptable: "FCA"

Minor Points Acceptable: "MPA"

 No Critique, Comments Only: "NCCO"

Story Word Count: 560  - Critique codE: FCA

 For more information: https://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/p/the-critique.html

                                 I HEART CHRISTINE

No footprints. How could that be? 

     Earlier, my sister and I had been walking the beach in Malibu. The breaking waves of the Pacific, the cresting sun over the hills, and the architectural array of beachfront homes were a blurred reality compared to our painful conversation. Her breast cancer had returned. “Why does God allow diseases and other bad things to happen to people?”

      I had no answer. Does anyone really? Me? I’ve always accepted that—what is, is, because somehow I came into this world with a “knowing". Oh, I didn’t have everything figured out when I was younger; awareness came to me bit by bit and sometimes through hard life-lessons. That morning though, I wasn't sure my prayers would be heard and I’d be given the answer to my sister’s question.

       We continued walking, discussing her treatment options. I searched for words to give her comfort and hope, and she confessed her doubts about our Christian upbringing. Was it even necessary to believe in Jesus anymore?

       Finally, our walk took us back to our shoes we had left neatly side-by-side. Before we reached down to get them, we were surprised by a big heart etched in the sand next to them. Inside the heart was written: John 3:16. We looked at each smiling as if we expected the other to fess up that they had done it, but that wouldn’t have made sense; we’d been with each other the whole time. We contemplated if someone could have heard our conversations and then sneaked over and made the heart with the bible verse in it while we were gone. Our husbands? A passerby? No. We were the only ones on the beach that early morning except for a few runners. But even if it had happened like that, it didn’t explain that there were no footprints in the sand. We walked around the heart analyzing if someone could have jumped to the spot then jumped back. But there weren’t any footprints for at least fifteen feet in all directions. Had the heart been there when we left our shoes? No. We were both clear on that.

       “Do you remember what John 3:16 says?” my sister asked.

       “I do. ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.’”

       Neither of us knew what to say. This distinct message in the sand was an answer to her questions and an answer to my prayer.

       We returned to her house and our waiting husbands and told them what had happened. After their doubtful and joking comments, my sister and I let the subject drop. We didn’t want to hear anything negative; we needed to ponder more on the message given to us.

         Though there were no human footprints in the sand that day, we both knew someone in the spiritual realm had been there. At least that’s the only explanation we could come up with.

       My sister accepted this mysterious “message in the heart” that day and renewed her acceptance of Jesus. As she traveled the remainder of her destiny, she took comfort that whoever left her that message would be with her to guide her into her next reality. I have no doubt that it did. And I have no doubt I will see Christine again..