Short Stories

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Romans 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
[36] As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
[37] Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
[38] For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
[39] Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Desert Sun

She lay in silence when she realized the alarm on the floor beside the makeshift bed had still not gone off. Lori had no idea that her inner clock was catching up with her schedule; it was seconds before time for the alarm to ring. To wake suddenly and fully at any given hour was not uncommon for her. She’d done so even before she took on the graveyard position. On those occasions, she almost always found herself weary after a few hours at work. Just as she began to pray for sleep to come back to her quickly, the alarm rang. To her surprise, she’d slept a full eight hours undisturbed.

Usually groggy upon waking, it was often difficult for her to pull herself from bed, so she would set the alarm thirty minutes early and hit the snooze button several times. But this evening was different somehow. She felt revived, as though she’d already showered and had her two cups of strong black coffee.

She donned a heavy cotton robe and headed out to the balcony. Careful not to put too much weight on the raggedy railing, she grasped for the paint-chipped wood to look out at the desert sunset. She was aware that she had the extra thirty minutes, so she pulled out the single dining chair from the scantily furnished, one-room safe house and quickly returned to the balcony to watch in awe.

Facing due south, she was able to see both the east and west horizons equally. The October sun was going down and a full moon was rising. Highly unusual for the desert, a few gray clouds gathered on the horizon, half-covering what was left of the sun. Bright orange and magenta filtered through them, casting a wide fan of colorful rays across the sky. The dark red edge of the moon sneaked its way over the opposite horizon. Darkened blue was the perfect background for God’s glorified painting.

Lori had long since shed the cotton robe. She was not used to rising before the sun went down and had expected another cool desert night. A warm and gentle breeze seemed to wrap itself around her, pressing her pajamas against her skin in a comforting embrace. A single tear stole down her cheek, as emotions she’d kept in check for months finally escaped her.

“Lord, here, in what seems to be the ugliest time of my life, You have allowed me to witness a small glimpse of Your beauty. And if that had not been enough, the warmth of Your love for me consumes me. Forgive me, Father, for allowing my circumstances to rob me of hope. Thank You for letting me know that You have not left me, that You are with me at all times.”

As the last kiss of sun disappeared and the moon settled into what seemed to be a still, massive orange ball, Lori went inside to prepare for another night at work. There was a familiar, though long since experienced, bounce in her steps. She’d found that the joy of the Lord was truly her strength. A renewed courage to overcome sprang up from inside her. A warm embrace and the October, desert sun will always serve to remind her. And they will carry her, somehow, through any bitter coldness with which reality threatens to surround her. Nothing will separate her from the love of God.

© Joyce Pool

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