Page 143 of Sing with Me

“All my sins.” Amazing.

“Yes, all of them. Even sins you haven’t committed yet.”

“Wow.”

“Of course, it’s not a license to sin,” Ivan reminded him. “Jesus told the woman in the New Testament to ‘go and sin no more.’ That is to say, we’re to study the Bible, learn more about God, and sin less and less as we mature more and more in Christ.”

“I guess I’ll need to find Grandpa Brooks’s Bible,” Diehl said.

Ivan handed him his Bible. “Here. You can read mine in the meantime.”

“You don’t need it?”

“I do, but I only have dozens of Bibles at home.”

“One is not enough?” Diehl laughed.

“Aren’t we blessed to have as many Bibles as we want?” Ivan patted Diehl’s shoulder. “Now we need to go to our search meeting. You have a lot to update the group. Everyone’s been handing out flyers and posting on social media, but if the bus clue pans out, we’re talking multi-state or maybe international.”

“God knows where Elisa is,” Diehl echoed what Skye had told him.

Now it was real. He could feel it in his heart.

He had taken a step of faith to trust God with his salvation, and now he felt the reality of salvation in his heart and soul.

The burden that had once weighed heavy on his shoulders lifted. The memories of Isobel were still there, but the anguish that had come with them was dissipating. It was as though the door had closed on that chapter of his life, and he stood at the cusp of a new beginning.

Did that mean he was now free to love Skye?

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Skye was late to evening church and caught the tail end of the offertory prayer before sitting down in the balcony upstairs with Avery and her cousin Gillian.

She wasn’t sure if Diehl made it tonight, but there was no time to check. She was leaving right after the closing prayer to catch a flight out of Brunswick on the mainland. There wasn’t a lot of time in between arriving in Atlanta and taking off again for Miami Beach, and she wished she had found a later flight.

Or flown this afternoon instead.

On the other hand, she was glad she hadn’t flown out after morning church because she had a good lunch with the Brooks family and even heard something useful that the police might be able to use in their search for Elisa.

When she got off the plane in Atlanta, her phone made so much noise she wondered if STL had exploded while she had been gone for only one hour.

Chef Joseph had questions about the menu for Mrs. Morton. Chef Pamela had problems with her sous chef. Two other chefs had vacation questions. Already? And Marlo decided to apply for a scholarship to chef school.

And what is this text from Brinley?

She nearly fell out of her seat at the gate.

Diehl got saved. Ivan led him to Christ after church.

After fumbling around for words, Skye texted Diehl with just one word.

Wow.

He did not reply. He was probably still at the search party meeting with Ivan.

Someone waved to Skye in the distance. Her brother, Sebastian. She waved back excitedly.

“You seem glad to see me.” Sebastian put down his backpack in the seat next to Skye.

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