To all those who are interested in a Christian novel that speaks about everyday trials and triumphs and wants to know how God is mixed into them then please read and enjoy this second sample of my book. God bless Margaret.
Afternoon Prayer
One o’clock and with the morning over I head back home. I love the walk
back as I listen to the sound of nature talking to the world around it. Trees
rustling, birds singing, a dog barking in the distance, clouds moving gently in
the sky over head, shadowing the sun one moment then allowing it to erupt into
a glorious spray of light the next. I realize how hungry I am having not eaten
any breakfast. A growl rises in my stomach competing with a wood pecker close
by. Then I slip on something not very nice. A present left by an animal whose
owner hasn't cleaned it up. Great! A sudden call back down to earth and it smells. I cuss under my breath and then try to clean it off on the grassy area
that surrounds the estate I am walking through. Most of the muck is scraped
away but I realize that the rest will have to be sorted out when I get home.
Oh Lord, why are some people
thoughtless and too busy to clean up after their animals?
It doesn't take long to get home and I find a parcel awaiting me behind
the flower pot. This I pick up and put under the arm that is holding my bag and
attempt to unlock my front door. It appears to be open. I kick off my poo shoe
and leave it outside, stride indoors and promptly fall over a bag, hit my head
on the vacuum cleaner that has been left out in the hallway, and activate the
‘on’ switch. As I vent my anger in various colours of blue the noise of the
vacuum drowns out the contents of my mouth and a head pops around the corner.
It yells at me and asks if I am alright.
In my head I respond, ‘do I look alright?’ and heave myself up off the
floor. The parcel is bent and my head hurts. There is an indentation of the on
button protruding from a bump left on my forehead.
Oh Lord of today, thank you for
the challenges you have sent me so far. Do you think you could rewire my
husband’s brain to remember not to leave his bag in the middle of the floor? Oh
and forgive my swearing but I was in a lot of pain. I am sorry.
I look at my husband in a quizzical way. ‘What are you doing home?’ I
ask.
He responds by saying that he has taken a half day off to spend some
time with me. I feel very dizzy and lean up against the wall my hand on my
forehead. I ask for a wet towel which Bob attempts to get. He asks should he
use a clean or dirty one! Preferably clean I say as I don’t want to get germs
mixed in if there is a cut. He stands in the middle of the kitchen and asks for
a clue as to where they might be. I am beginning to feel that it would be
easier if I just found one, but my legs are feeling funny, my head starting to
throb and I need to sit down.
Oh Lord, sometimes I do not see
what is in front of me. I look in the wrong direction and stand unsure of what
to do, awaiting instructions from another source. Help me Lord to lean on YOU.
The world is beginning to go round in circles and I feel sick. Bob tries
to lift me up as he thinks that I need to go to the Accident and Emergency
Clinic on the other side of town. He realizes that perhaps I am a little too
heavy for him so he rings up the hospital instead. They advise him on concussion and what best
to do. I figure the best place for me is bed, so I crawl up the stairs and get
under the duvet. Bob appears asking where the towels are and I point to the
airing cupboard just outside our bedroom. He comes in a few moments later with
a dripping towel. I suggest that it might be better if it is a little less wet.
Bob returns and places the cool cloth onto my head and I begin to relax. Bang
goes our afternoon together doing something without the kids.
Oh Lord, how glorious it is to
rest in your presence even though this moment was not planned. You know how
painful a head injury is, having worn a crown of thorns. My pain is nothing
compared to yours, thank you for bearing Your pain for me.
Bob is still concerned about the bump on my head and after I have had a
sleep he encourages me to go to the hospital. I manage to get down stairs and
into the car, still holding my towel which has been rewetted. It doesn't take
long to get to the A & E department and with it being a small cottage
hospital we don’t have too long to wait for a nurse to assess me. She just
confirms what the person had told Bob earlier on in the afternoon about
concussion and gives me two tablets for the headache. However, she emphasizes that I ought to rest and take it easy the rest of the day. Chance would be a
fine thing. Reassured Bob thanks the nurse and we leave the hospital. Back in
the car Bob comments that at least we have got out for a little bit!
Oh Lord, you said that when we are
old we would be taken to places that we would rather not go, well the hospital
was one of them for me. Bless Bob for his concern for me, but perhaps next time
you could arrange a trip to, oh gosh where is that place again with lots of
water?
My memory is troubling me, I am feeling really tired again and I want to
burst in to tears. It must be the concussion. Sitting next to me Bob is getting
frustrated because someone has parked right across the back of our car, leaving
us stuck in the hospital car park. He gets out and walks around the car to see
if there is any way he can manoeuvre around it, but there is simply no way he
can do so. He looks around trying to conjure up the driver of the car, but no
one is around. The front windscreen has a disability label on it, which annoys
Bob as the parking space for the disabled drivers is across the way unoccupied.
Bob sighs and decides to go for a walk to see if he can find someone to help
sort the situation out.
Oh Lord, my head is throbbing, I
feel confused and unwell, please fix this situation for me soon. I would like
nothing better than to be at home in bed. Thank you for hearing my prayer.
Bob returns fairly quickly with a gentleman who is apologizing profusely
about having parked in such an awkward manner for us. His mother has been
rushed to hospital and he was so worried about her that he wasn't thinking
straight when he parked. He gets into his car and reverses slowly, turns left
narrowly missing the end car and then moves forward. His battery decides to die
at precisely this moment. He raises his hands to heaven and bangs them on the
steering wheel.
‘She’s died, I know she has’. The gentleman gets out of the car and
murmurs.
Bob thinks he means the car, so he suggests that he help push it into
the spot for the disabled. The man walks off leaving Bob to finish the job of
parking it, which he does by pushing and steering at the same time. He has to
jump in quickly to grab the hand brake in order to stop the car in its tracks.
This done Bob takes out the car keys, shuts and locks the door then follows
where the gentleman has gone. He returns a little later with the news that the
mother has indeed died. He had also kindly given the man our phone number in
case he needs a lift later as his car is incapacitated.
Oh Lord, am I ready for a shocking
moment? How will I receive it when it comes? Will there be a friendly person to
help me through it? Please Father, when this happens to me grant me the ability
to cope and the sense to call on YOU.
As Bob turns into our drive way, Lily Pink is waiting for us at the
front door. She doesn't have a key as I am usually at home when she arrives in
the afternoon. She looks quizzically at me wondering what is going on. I show
her my forehead with the bump on it and she commiserates with me, taking my
hand and leading me carefully inside the house as she walks backwards. She
falls over the same bag I did but misses the hoover. I tell her that that is
what I did. She picks herself up and throws her dads bag to one side and tells
him off for leaving it in the middle of the floor. I look at Bob and he mouths
‘sorry’. Lily Pink then piles her school bag on top of her father’s. She leads me upstairs and tells me to get
changed and to go to bed. I am then told not to worry as she will take care of
things for me.
Oh Lord, thank you for the kind nature that
you have bestowed upon my youngest child. I am not sure if I can settle without
worrying, as leaving everything to a 10 year old is a big commitment of trust.
Help me with this choice Father.
Everything appears to be quiet downstairs, and I gently drift off in a
shallow sleep. It feels like only a moment ago that I closed my eyes when the
front door opens and there is a lot of banging and crashing. I can hear
Johnny’s voice stressing over where the school bags should be put, Gabby asking
who left their coat on the hall floor, and whose shoe is discarded on the stair
and Henry yelling in an annoyed way over who had had the last Snickers bar.
There is stomping up the stairs, a ‘hi mum, heard you hit your head or
something, it’s alright you don’t have to get up, we will be fine’ through the
door and then music, loud music, in fact not just loud music but deafening
music. The bass sound of the music is competing with the thudding of my
headache. Lily Pink opens my door and lets in the full force of the pulsating
noise. I look at her in agony and she closes the door. The music stops just
like that and voices are raised.
‘You can’t just pull out the plug you little monster.’
‘But mum has a headache.’
Henry loves his music, and Lily Pink was fortunate not to be hung, drawn
and quartered for messing with his sound system. There is a sigh.
‘Okay, I’ll put my earphones on’, Henry states.
The door closes and Lily Pink puts her head around my door. ‘I told you
I would take care of things!’
Oh Lord, if only things were as
easy as that normally. How good it would be to be able to just switch things
off that I don’t like about myself. My jealousy, my impatience, my anger all
gone at a flip of a switch. But You know that each of these impurities is a
chance for growth, for my growth. Help me Father, to grasp these opportunities
when they arise.
A raised voice echoes through the house.
‘Oh I don’t believe it, you silly animal. I know you are hungry, just
hang on a moment I can’t do everything.’
I am not sure if Bob is talking to the cat or to one of the children.
Gabby joins the conversation trying to be heard as things clatter on the
kitchen floor. She doesn't like chips, doesn't want pie, won’t eat fish, is fed up of mince and why can’t she just go and get something from the Chinese? She
storms off in a rage and heads for her bedroom. She tries to slam the door but
Bob has put a stopper on the top of it to prevent such a happening. This makes
Gabby even more cross. I hear something about ‘hate house, people in it and
jerks.’
Oh Lord, thank God we are not
jerks in Your eyes. We may be a mystery to one another but comprehending our
nature is a life long journey. I am so grateful that you are the Map I can
refer to when my view is hindered by my emotions.
I expect Bob is on the computer letting Johnny and Lily Pink deal with
the tea having fed the cat. The smoke alarm goes of.
A little smile appears and says, ‘don’t worry mum, it is only Johnny
burning the beef burgers, we won’t waste anything as he will scrape off the
burnt bits!’
The alarm shuts off after someone starts waving a towel at it; how do I
figure this from my bedroom? Well, the light is already broken so another swipe
to it does little damage, which means some form of floppy material is used to
quieten the smoke alarm and has also hit the hall light shade, making it swing
and hit the ceiling after the alarm has been silenced. It must be Lily Pink as
she is short and needs a longer thing to sweep through the air to dispel the
invisible smoke. So I was right about Johnny and L P doing the tea.
Oh Lord, you never waste anything,
knowing that everything is part of the bigger picture. With You all things can
be used to a greater benefit and even when I ruin the plan You are able to turn
it around for Your honour and glory. Praise God.
No sooner has the alarm stopped than a new chapter starts, and it sounds
like someone is in trouble downstairs. A little head pops round my door again.
‘Johnny has burnt himself mum’ Lily Pink yells.
I tell her that I will be down in a moment. She argues and says that I
must stay in bed, but I know Johnny, he will be panicking and in pain unable to
help himself with his injury. I slowly arise, I feel unsteady but an internal
power takes over and I move knowing that I need to get downstairs. The kitchen
is full of smoke.
‘Don’t open the door’ Bob calls out. Silly really as I can’t get in
unless I open the door. Naturally the alarm is triggered. Johnny is holding his
hand and trying to be brave, hopping around in a limited space where the cooker
door is flat open as the grill is an internal one. I have always hated that
style, thinking it a fatal flaw offering a trip trap. Not good, someone else
could get hurt. Bob has taken over the cooking. I have no choice but to try and
cram Johnny and myself over the sink to run cold water over his left hand. His
wails are understandable as it hurts.
Oh Lord, calmer of commotions,
bring peace to this storm in my kitchen. Heal my son’s hand and let there be no
scar from the burn he has suffered. Thank you that he wanted to help me, please
now help him.
Henry appears at the kitchen door.
‘Don’t open the door’ shouts Bob.
‘What’s for tea’ his son asks.
Bob glares at him and he shuts the door. Henry does what is the most
sensible thing so far; he finds a stepping stool and takes out the battery of
the fire alarm. The piercing wail has stopped and Henry re-enters the kitchen.
We all chorus ‘thank you’, and Bob reminds his son to put the battery back in
later. Now there are five of us in the room. Bob shoos Lily Pink and Henry into
the dining room and asks them to lay the table. Of course that means that they
have to come back into the kitchen to get the knives, forks, and glasses. There
is a lot of movement and side stepping. Bob dishes up, the burgers in a bap
with chips and a salad. Meanwhile I
continue to keep Johnny’s hand under the tap until I am satisfied that it has
had enough cold water on it. I tell him that if it starts to throb to run it
under the cold tap, emphasizing the cold as he might use the hot one instead.
Oh Lord, how grateful I am that
You are not battery operated. What would I do if I called on You and you were
disconnected or being recharged and out of commission? It is so comforting that
You are always close.
Food usually takes Johnny’s mind of most things, and I am heartened to
see him woofing down his tea. Gabby had joined us and eaten her fill. She takes
off again as quickly as possible because she is waiting for a reply from a
friend on her mobile phone. I try my best to eat the generous portion Bob has
given me but my stomach doesn't seem to be in much of a mood for what is on my
plate. It doesn't take a lot of coaxing from the family for me to return to my
bed. Suddenly Bob is left on his own with all the washing up. It is amazing how
four children can become invisible so quickly.
Oh Lord, how often do I do things so quickly
that I don’t appreciate the effort others have taken to create something.
Sometimes I forget even to say thank you and rush off to my chosen activity
forgetting that a simple thank you can be so uplifting to the person receiving
it. Help me be mindful of this Father.
I hear Bob calling all four of our children; he is not going to let them
get away with not helping with the washing up.
Oh Lord, how often do I try and
get away with not doing a chore? Help me not to forget that You are in the
chores as well as in the important tasks of life.
And as I lay in bed God speaks to me:
My
dear Vicki, just as I created everything on this earth for a purpose, I have
given you this family for a reason. Step back with me and look at the fruits of
your efforts this afternoon. Although you fell under your cross, you stood up.
That takes courage, my daughter, you are very courageous.
