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.htmlI 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..
