Page 66 of Sing with Me

It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.

What did Luke 15:32 mean?

Did it apply to Diehl himself?

Once upon a time in college, he had believed in Jesus. However, he hadn’t done much about it. Twenty-some years later, here he was, at forty years old, wondering whether he was lost or found.

His daughter had all but tuned out since the first congregational hymn. Diehl wondered if it would be a waste of money to pay for her camps. She might skip some—or all—of them. Perhaps it would be better to pay for her music lessons because she seemed to have shown some sort of interest in music.

“If you’re new to Seaside Chapel, know that this is a safe place for your family,” Pastor Gonzalez said. “Safety is paramount at our church. However, there is another kind of safety we need to talk about today.”

He walked around the pulpit, Bible in hand. “Let me ask you a question, congregation. Are you only physically safe but not spiritually saved?”

Safe versus saved.

“Did you know that you can have everything you need in this world and be totallysafe, yet at the same time you can be spiritually notsavedand thus be separated from God forever?” Pastor Gonzalez asked.

Diehl was thinking about that question when he found his daughter fast asleep in her seat.

He suspected then that she might have stayed up all night for some reason and then became cranky at church all morning. No wonder she’d rather stay at Grandma’s house. Diehl knew that his mom wouldn’t care what Elisa did in her bedroom all night.

Time to enforce an internet curfew?

Diehl didn’t want to be rash about it. The poor child had lost her mother. If he was too strict on her, he might lose her too. At the same time, he didn’t want to be permissive of everything Elisa wanted, regardless of whether it was good or bad for her.

This was not a child-centered household anymore.

Isobel had run their home that way. Whatever the children wanted, they got. It was the only way to keep them happy and occupied so that Isobel could go get her nails done or meet her friends for lunch or fly to Italy to be with her secret boyfriend.

About that, Diehl realized he had to take it with a grain of salt. Whatever Mom and Zeta thought happened with Zeta’s daughter in Italy might be simply speculation. Until the Italian police completed their investigation, nobody knew what happened.

Then again, it had been one year. Wasn’t it a terribly long time to investigate a cliff-top death?

When everyone stood up, Diehl realized that his mind had wandered.

Forgive me, Lord.

And now he couldn’t cast the first stone at his daughter. There would be no difference between Elisa sleeping through the sermon and Diehl’s mind wandering to another place and time. Both had not been paying attention.

The last thing he had heard Pastor Gonzalez said still rang in his head.

Are you safe and are you saved?

Diehl knew he had to think about that for a while.

When church dismissed, Ethan started to talk to Skye. “Would you like to have lunch with us?”

Diehl almost reminded Ethan that they were heading over to Grandma’s house. Mom had asked her cook to make some roast beef for lunch. There would be apple pies.

However, Diehl had not talked to Mom about inviting anyone else. Certainly, he did not want Mom to get the idea that he and Skye were an item. It was still too early.

In fact, they hadn’t officially dated.

However, Skye’s presence could prevent Mom from matchmaking him with those suddenly-single heiresses he’d rather avoid. Most of them had not been his type. And many of them wouldn’t want to go on a date in his pickup truck.

Ironically, he hadn’t used his pickup truck much for hauling or construction work because Brinley was on bedrest, and thus had cut back on taking new projects. Her general contractor handled most of their renovation jobs right now, and Diehl was not needed.

“I’m sorry,” Skye said. “I’m having lunch with my chefs. How about next week then? Are you planning on coming back to church?”

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