Page 95 of One Last Promise

“Maybe he’s left town, put this all behind him.”

“Maybe tomorrow there will be world peace.”

He smiled. “Right.”

She leaned forward, clasped her hands together. “Listen, Moose. Let’s say I get the money and the phone, and it has what I hope on it. . . . I still can’t risk going to Flynn. She’ll arrest me and ask questions later, and that means Hazel stays in foster care. I can’t do that to her.”

Oh, Tillie. “You need to start thinking beyond this moment. You need to start believing that there is a way out that doesn’t involve you running.”

She blinked at him. “That’s what I’ve done my entire life.”

He raised an eyebrow.

“What do you suggest?”

“Trust.”

“I’m here, aren’t I? Trusting you.”

“Not me. I want you to trustGod.”

She narrowed her eyes.

“What if you started to look for God, his provision, his rescue, his love?”

She swallowed.

“You said you believe in God. Is it so difficult, then, to believe that he might care about you?”

“How?”

“Not to be arrogant, but I believe there’s a reason I kept coming into the Skyport during your shift for a year. Maybe we were supposed to meet. Supposed to end up right here. Because God cares very much about our lives.”

“If God cared, then my mother wouldn’t have died, my father would have come home, and Pearl wouldn’t have gotten cancer.”

Okay. He got that. Still, “Or that was the naturalconsequences of a fallen world and man’s sinful choices. What if there is a different perspective?”

“What kind of perspective?”

“Faith. Faith that God knows what he’s doing. That he loves you, even in the pain. Faith that everything, for someone who trusts God, works together for good.”

“Is that like hoping that things will work out? Feels like a platitude.”

“Or the only real answer. You can believe, or you can go it alone. I choose to believe.”

She swallowed. “It doesn’t feel good.”

“No, sometimes it doesn’t. But that’s where the faith comes in. And ultimately, we have to believe that God is for us, in all of it.”

She sighed. “Faith. I’m going to need it for your epic plan, aren’t I?”

“Might help.”

“Fine. For you, I’ll try and trust God.”

“And not panic.”

“And not panic.”

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