LXVI

AS YOU KNOW NOT WHAT IS THE WAY OF THE SPIRIT, OR HOW THE BONES DO GROW IN THE WOMB OF HER THAT IS WITH CHILD: EVEN SO YOU KNOW NOT THE WORKS OF GOD WHO MAKES IT ALL

ECCLESIASTES 11:5

SEVEN SALLIE (FATHER OF SEVENIA, GIRL PROPHTESS)

“How are you, Honey?” I quietly asked my daughter in the foyer of Cotton Creek Cove fellowship.

Sevenia shrugged, tried unsuccessfully to smile, and shrugged again. I put my arm around her and she leaned her head against my shoulder. We had just attended the funeral of a 22 year old young lady. She had been attending my daughter’s lecture/studies on Bible prophecy with Destiny Knight-Storm and her friend Heather.

Chloe had seemed to be making great spiritual progress, both she and Heather. Heather ended up getting baptized a week earlier. But recently, Chloe had backslid into her former life. She had been clean from drugs for almost a year. But she relapsed and supposedly made a mistake common among addicts. She gave herself a heroin dose in proportion to when she had formerly been using. It was too much for her cleaned up body.

“Are you Sevenia?” asked a young woman that looked eerily like Chloe. She had the same long, braided, black hair. She also had the same large close set dark eyes, heart shaped face, ebony skin, and petite build. “I’m Chloe’s little sister.”

I almost blurted wow. She looked rough. If I guessed her age, I would have to put her around thirty. Yet she was apparently younger than Chloe’s 22.

“You must be Brianna,” Sevenia said warmly as she took her hand.

Brianna nodded and began to whimper. Sevenia began to gently weep as well. I turned my head from the scene before I started to cry.

“Chloe speak favorably about you,” Brianna said. “She been sharin’ stuff about the Bible with me the last month. She help me get off smack a few week ago. That why it odd she die of it last week.”

“Yeah, that is ironic,” Sevenia said with frown. “Suddenly she takes up with that guy and starts using again.”

“The guy is not why,” Brianna replied, shaking her head. “Yeah, he an old boyfriend, but it because her baby died.”

“Her baby?” Sevenia scowled. “I didn’t know Chloe had a baby.”

Brianna nodded. “He lived in Chicago with our Aunt.”

“How’d he die?”

“SIDS.”

“I wish she would have told me or Destiny. I’m so very sorry.”

Brianna nodded and looked on the verge of losing it. My smart girl seemed to perceive this. “Let’s go somewhere private and talk.”

“Thank you,” Brianna whimpered.

I watched Brianna and my daughter slowly walk to Pastor Samson’s office. I was numb thinking about the fragility of life. A hand on my back gave me a little jolt. I turned and looked into the pretty face of Zella LaStella. She smiled at giving me a start, but I could see sadness in her large, dark eyes.

“Hey,” she said softly.

“Hey,” I mimicked.

“What a sad situation,” Zella said.

“Yeah,” I sighed.

“I can’t believe she returned to drugs,” she said quietly. “She seemed more grounded spiritually than me. I guess you can’t underestimate the power of addiction.”

“Yeah,” I sighed again. “But there was more to it than that.”

Zella frowned and tilted her pretty face as if to ask what I meant.

“That young lady Sevenia is with,” I told her. “She’s Chloe’s sister. She just told Sevenia that Chloe’s infant son died from SIDS a couple weeks ago.”

Zella’s eyes got wide, her hand flew to her mouth, and she sucked in a breath. “Oh No!”

“Yeah, so she must have been overwhelmed with grief and desperate. Even ashamed since her best friend Heather didn’t know he died.”

“I didn’t even know she had a child,” Zella said, a hand reflexively, protectively going to her pregnant midsection where our tiny baby abided. “Even Heather didn’t know?”

“Heather knew she had a child, but not that he had died. As far as I know, though, nobody else knew about her baby. He was being cared for by Chloe’s aunt in Chicago.”

We had a long moment of somber silence.

“Well,” Zella sighed. “There was something I wanted to talk to you about, but now I think I’ll wait. I’ll talk to you later.”

“No, wait,” I replied as I grabbed her hand, stopping her retreat. “Now I’m curious.”

“It’s no big deal,” she said gazing at her feet before looking me in the eyes. “It’s just that the last couple time I saw you, you wouldn’t even look at me. I’m used to you practically staring at me. I just wanted to know if it had something to do with the racist things your dad said about me. Sevenia told me about it.”

I had to look away from her. “I guess I felt ashamed and hurt.”

“Don’t,” she said squeezing my hand. “I know you’re not racist. You wouldn’t have proposed marriage to a black woman if you were. But does your father not accepting me change your offer of marriage?”

“Not at all!” I declared, looking her right in her lovely, sad eyes. Now she looked away from my gaze. “Are you considering it?”

“No, Seven, I’m not,” she replied, returning a decided gaze to me. Now I looked away, disappointed. “I do want us to be friends though. And I do want you to be part of our child’s life if you so choose.”

“I definitely so choose,” I answered. “As a matter of fact, I have a little request regarding our little gift from God.”

Zella pursed her lips and looked away.

“I take it that’s a no?”

“Oh, no,” she replied, touching my arm. “I mean I want to hear what your request is before I agree to it. It just makes me feel like a hypocrite hearing you call him our gift from God when he was conceived in sin and deceit.”

“You know it’s a boy?”

“Not really. I just have a feeling.”

“Don’t feel like a hypocrite Zella. What happened was before your conversion. I’m the one that played a hypocrite.”

“I’m the one that deceived and seduced you, though, regardless of my spiritual state at the time.”

“I promise you, the Twisted Tea had absolutely nothing to do with me giving into your enticements.”

Zella smiled shyly and looked away for a few seconds, and then asked. “So what’s your request?”

“When I was back home in Minnesota over the holidays, I found an old set of Bible stories. You know, those blue ones that used to be in doctor’s office lobbies and such when we were kids.”

“Oh yeah, I remember those.”

“Anyway, when my ex-wife was pregnant with Sevenia, I used to read them to her belly. I mean when she was a child, too, of course. But I started in utero.”

Zella raised her eyebrows, puckered her lips, and looked up, rotating her eyes as she thought. I badly wanted to kiss those puckered lips. The she shrugged and sighed. “Sure, I see no harm in that. Come to think of it, after observing how Sevenia the girl prophetess turned out, absolutely you can read to my belly! When?”

“How about this evening?”

“This evening? Seven, I’m barely showing.”

“Neither was Brit. Plus there are ten volumes.”

“Oh, alright. I don’t have any plans anyway. How about my place around seven then?”

“Seven will be there at seven,” I grinned.

“Look at you, going third person.”

At 7 o’clock sharp, I rang Zella’s doorbell. As she promptly opened the door, I stepped in with the first volume tucked under my arm. I stopped short and metaphorically stuffed my tongue back into my mouth. I had gotten used to Zella wearing conservative skirts and dresses. In the privacy of her own home, she was back in black leggings and a form fitting hot pink spandex top.

She wasn’t necessarily showing, but she had that healthy glow that pregnant women often exhibited. She had also filled out slightly and never looked more alluring; other than the one time I saw her in her birthday suit.

“Something wrong?” Zella asked.

“No, no,” I said, trying not to stammer and forcing a smile. “The last time I was in here, you know…”

“Oh, yeah,” she responded with an embarrassed expression.

“Well, you ready to get started?”

“Sure,” she shrugged. “How do we go about this?”

“How about you sit with your back in the corner of the sofa and stretch out your legs? I’ll sit on the floor.”

I read for fifteen or twenty minutes. I placed a book marker in the appropriate place and closed the book. I gently kissed Zella’s belly. “Good night, little one. God loves you.”

I smiled happily and looked at Zella’s face. She gazed at me as if in awe. Then she spoke quietly. “Yes.”

“Yes what?” I frowned.

Before I could comprehend that her face was coming toward me, her lips were on mine. They definitely lingered longer than a friendly kiss.

“Yes, you’ll kiss me?” I grinned, dumbfounded.

She laughed uneasily, bit her lower lip, and a tear rolled down her cheek. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”

“Huh?” was all I could manage.

“I mean if you still want to.”

“Yes, yes I do,” I said quickly, dropping on my knees and taking her hands in mine. “What changed your mind?”

“Oh, Seven,” she said, getting to her knees in front of me and hugging me.

Her embrace felt sooooo good! Too good. Inappropriately good. I couldn’t let what got her pregnant happen again, no matter how gorgeous she was. I separated and my knees helped me scoot away from her, as I chucked nervously. “That’s great Zella, but what changed your mind?”

We were still close enough that she took both of my hands in hers. “I can’t stop loving you, Seven. As I watched you read, it occurred to me that YOU ARE going to be a big part of our child’s life. I think my love for you is only going to grow. And I was already thinking how nice it would be if you read to our child in bed. And how nice it would be to snuggle afterward.”

“And also, uh, um, nevermind.”

She laughed, smiled seductively, and took hold of my chin with her fingers. “That too, big fella.”

Something occurred to me. “Wait a minute. If you’re talking about me reading in bed, when exactly were you thinking we’d get married?”

“You know my friend Willa.”

“Of course I do. I’ve been attending church with her for two years now.”

“Well, she got baptized and married the same day. I’d kind of like to do the same.”

I felt my toes curl. Sevenia said Zella wanted to be baptized soon. Real soon. “When were you planning to get baptized?”

“This sabbath.”

Married in five days! How can this be? I had practically begged Zella to marry me. She emphatically said no. Now that she said yes, she seemingly wants to get married instantly! This now made me hesitant. Like the old saying goes, be careful what you wish for.

DESTINY KNIGHT-STORM’S NOTES FROM SEVENIA’S 10^th LESSON

REASONS TO FOLLOW JESUS

Jesus loves you dearly and deeply and will transform you into the best possible version of yourself.

Jesus said unto them, come after me and I will make you to BECOME fishers of men. (Mark 1:17)

Become= A process, a journey.

Jesus wants to take what you already are and make you the best you can be. He values you!

Jesus said unto him. If you will be perfect, go sell what you have and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven: And come and follow me. (Matthew 19:21)

Perfect means complete, not that you need to be flawless.

Jesus says COME with urgency and love, but he does not insist.

And He ordained twelve that they should be WITH Him, and that He might send them forth to preach. (Mark 3:14)

Jesus wants to be WITH you, He really does. His name is Immanuel, which means God with us.

The thread of the Bible is God WITH fallen humankind, redeeming them. (See Revelation 21:1-5)

Jesus wants to make you new today, not just at some point in the future.

FORGIVNESS

When Jesus had lifted Himself up, and saw no one but the woman, he said to her. “Woman, where are your accusers? Has no man condemned you?” She said “No man Lord.” Jesus said to her, “neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.” (John 8:10, 11)

(See Romans 8:1—4) What we couldn’t do, GOD DID!

Jesus takes your condemnation and offers you forgiveness and righteousness instead.

And He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying. “Drink you all of it; for this is My blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” (Matthew 26:27, 28)

Keep in mind Judas was present.

“Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34) These were Jesus’ last thoughts as He is being crucified. It is not just true then. It is true every time a person sins. We don’t know what we are doing. (Proverbs 8:36 says He that sins wrongs his own soul).

Jesus is the promised messiah the old testament prophets looked and longed for.

ELEMENT                                          PROPHECY                                        FULFILLMENT

Birthplace                                          Micah 5:2                                          Matthew 2:1

Mother                                              Isaiah 7:14                                        Matthew 1:18-21

Tribe                                                   Genesis 49:10                                  Hebrews 7:14

Family                                                Isaiah 11:1                                        Revelation 22:16

Time                                                   Daniel 9:25                                       Mark 1:14, 15

His message                                     Isaiah 61:1-3                                     Luke 4:16-21

His entry                                            Zechariah 9:9                                   Matthew 21:1-11

Betrayal                                             Psalm 41:9                                        John 13

Betrayal price                                   Zechariah 11:12                               Matthew 26:14-16

Spat upon                                         Isaiah 50:6                                        Matthew 27:30

No broken bones                            Psalm 34:20                                      John 19:36

With criminals                                  Isaiah 53:12                                      Mark 15:27, 28

Mocked                                             Psalm 22:7, 8                                   Matthew 27:41-45

Resurrection                                     Psalm 16:10                                      Acts 2:30-32

Timing                                                Daniel 9:26                                       Matthew 27:45-50

For all the promises of God in Him are YES and in Him Amen. (2 Corinthians 1:20)

Old testament promises in Jesus fulfil or fulfilled. Matthew 1:22; 2:15,17, 23; 3:15; 4:14; 8:17; 12:17; 13:14, 35; 21:4; 26:54-56; 27:9, 35.

“Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but fulfil. (Matthew 5:17)

The earliest gospel anticipates a wounded deliverer. (See Genesis 3:15 and Isaiah chapter 53.)

The prophecy says that He bore the sins of many. Will you let Him bear your sins?

Jesus rose from the dead and thus permanently defeated sin, death, and fear.

There are only two essential questions: One, has anyone ever cheated death, and two, is it available to me? Let us survey the historical record: Buddha’s tomb, occupied. Mohammed’s tomb, occupied. Confucius’ tomb, occupied. Jesus’ tomb, empty. (G.B. Hardy)

“I am He that lives, and was dead; and behold, I am alive evermore, Amen, and have the keys of hades and death.” (Revelation 1:18)

Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same, that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. (Hebrews 2:14, 15)

The resurrection of Jesus acquires such decisive meaning, not merely because someone or anyone has been raised from the dead, but because it is Jesus of Nazareth. If this man was raised from the dead, then that plainly means that the God whom He had supposedly blasphemed had committed Himself to Him. (Wolfhart Pannenberg)

Jesus is the Creator and Redeemer of the world, so there is no better person to follow.

This overwhelming display of love and mercy is not merely the greatest story ever told; it is the greatest story that ever could be told. The reason this story is the greatest story ever told; is because Jesus is the greatest person to ever live!