Page 14 of Through the Dark Night
Maybe that was another reason she’d felt pushed out of church. It hadn’t been anything that was familiar to her, and she’d missed the edifying words and beautiful melodies of the old hymns, knowing that they had withstood generations of testing and encouraged millions everywhere.
Regardless, she pulled her Bible out and opened to the passage. The pastor had them stand while he read.
The passage and message was on the prodigal son, but instead of focusing on the son, the pastor focused on the father. He talked about the father’s love for the son, no matter what the son was doing. And spoke on how God didn’t love us because we were worthy, but it was His love that made us worthy.
It was something that Shannon hadn’t thought about for a really long time. God loved her. He loved her, no matter what happened and no matter whether her husband did or not. Having her husband toss her away like so much trash had made her feel…less than. She hadn’t even realized it until just then, as tears pricked her eyes. She felt like garbage. But it wasn’t James who should or could make her feel worthy. It was God. It was what God thought that mattered. Not James.
A soft hand touched her cheek, startling her out of her thoughts, and she glanced down to see Saylor putting her hand on her cheek.
She smiled softly at the girl, who climbed from where she had been sitting and coloring with her crayons in the pew to Shannon’s lap. Skyler glanced over, apologizing, but Shannon smiled and shook her head, indicating that it was just fine.
By then, Saylor had taken both of Shannon’s cheeks in herchubby little hands and was staring into her eyes, almost as though she had never seen a face before.
The little girl was sweet, and after a few seconds, she turned and snuggled into Shannon’s arms.
The innocent acceptance, along with the timely reminder that God loved her, cracked something in Shannon’s heart. Or maybe it healed a little bit of something.
Whatever it was, Shannon was very glad that she had accepted the invitation to sit with them and that she had gone to church in the first place.
After the service, there was coffee and apple cider donuts being served. Shannon thought she probably knew where the apple cider donuts came from. She limited herself to just one, and it was just as amazing as it had been when she had eaten it in Lauren’s store.
She had a donut in one hand and a coffee in the other when she came face-to-face with Pastor Garnett and his wife.
“Welcome to Raspberry Ridge,” Pastor Garnett said. He laughed at her full hands. “Fellowship is an awkward time for introductions,” he said with a chuckle.
“But we’re happy to meet you anyway,” the woman beside him said. “I’m the pastor’s wife, Mertie, and we’re happy to have you here.”
“It’s good to be here. Even though it was maybe a little bit difficult to come. Your message was exactly what I needed.”
Pastor Garnett nodded his head. “God often meets us where we are. It’s funny how that works.”
“I promise you he doesn’t know any of your story, but it is funny how a lot of times messages just speak into our soul and give us what we need. I certainly needed messages of redemption to remind me that nothing that I did was beyond something God could forgive.”
Shannon blinked. “You used to be a Christian speaker, didn’t you?” Something about what Mertie had said resonated in her soul. She seemed to recall that Mertie had had a child but had given it up for adoption because it didn’t fit in with her Christian speaker lifestyle. But then, she kind of disappeared from public view after saying she was going back to her family and piecing it all together.
From what Shannon could remember, Pastor Garnett was not thefather of the child, but she couldn’t remember for sure. But obviously they were happy together now. And it was good to know that a person’s past didn’t have to define their future, that God could forgive anything, that He could take the broken pieces and build a beautiful family.
“I was. I’m not anymore. I realized that family was far more important and helping just a few people deeply and completely was better for me than being a blessing to millions, especially if that meant my family got the short end of the stick.” She lifted her shoulder. “Maybe that’s not everyone’s best choice, but it was definitely mine.”
“And we’ve all benefited from it,” Pastor Garnett said, putting his arm around his wife and drawing her close.
They shared such a tender and sweet look that Shannon felt the sudden urge to cry. She had wanted a love like that. A love where her husband drew her near and looked down on her like she was the only woman in the world, and wanted her beside him, and gave her the credit that she deserved for keeping the family together and for doing everything in her power to make his life more comfortable and peaceful.
She supposed she would never get any credit for that. But she had to remind herself that life wasn’t about the credit that she got. That God was watching, and that anything she deserved—any kind of reward she deserved—would eventually be given to her by Him. She just had to continue to try to live her life while trying to be more like Jesus.
“You must be Shannon McKay.” A woman’s voice interrupted her thoughts. A tall lady, distinguished looking but with a friendly smile, walked up with her hand out.
“I am,” Shannon said, grasping her hand.
“I’m Vera Miller. Dominic’s wife. He was out to give you an estimate for your inn.”
“He was.” Shannon smiled. “He said that you specialized in healing designs and that I might be interested in some of your services as well.”
“He had mentioned the same to me. I guess one of the things I wanted to say when I saw you was that I am happy to offer my services for free. Anyone who is brave enough to take on the inn needs as much help as she can get.”
Somehow her smile made her feel like a friend immediately, andShannon found herself smiling back. “I’ll definitely take all the help I can get,” she said. “But I can’t let you work for free.”
“I insist. Honestly, Dominic and I have more than what we can use for ourselves and even for our children. It would be really nice to be able to give back something that would benefit the community and anyone who came to our town. Don’t feel like you have to accept my offer, but it’s there.” She smiled, her eyes going to several children who were bouncing around the man Shannon recognized as Dominic. “Before my kids claim me again, I also wanted to extend an invitation to our women’s Bible study. We’re reading about second chances.” Her smile was gentle. “It seems like it might be fitting.”
