Page 69 of Forever After All

“The joke was on you,” Jess said, lifting her hands and shaking them. “Surprise! He owns a multi-thousand acre ranch right beside two huge national parks.”

“I definitely didn’t see that one coming, especially not after I told him about my past.”

“So, he knows?” Jess asked.

Linc nodded. “I thought about lying, but I liked him so much I didn’t want to start things off on the wrong foot.”

“I bet that was a tough conversation,” Jess said, leaning back against the couch.

“It wasn’t easy. And he had one condition.”

“You had to promise not to steal anything?” she asked.

“I didn’t say my sentencing had anything to do with theft.”

“I know. I was guessing.”

Of everyone in his life, Jess deserved to know the most. Hiding it from her was just as bad as lying.

“He said I had to go to church every Sunday.”

“Oh, I should have guessed that,” Jess said. “You know why he did that, don’t you?”

At the time, Linc hadn’t had the slightest clue why the old man wanted him to go to church. He’d stuck out like a sore thumb those first few visits, but he figured it out soon enough.

The people there hadn’t looked at him like he was garbage that belonged in the dumpster. They’d welcomed him in and decided he was one of them. He hadn’t gotten a say-so in the matter.

“He wants me to believe in God,” Linc said.

Jess tilted her head, and that wrinkle between her brows was back. “Are you saying you don’t? I thought you did.” She brushed a hand over her forehead. “I also thought you went to church because you wanted to.”

“I do now. Back then, I had no intention of believing in Christ or acting like a Christian, church or not. But now I get it. Mr. Chambers knew I would see the difference in the way those people treated me. He knew they’d see the potential in me that he saw.”

“Good. I didn’t get into church until after Brett and I left home, but I hate that we spent all those years without hope. I think God was the only thing that could have pulled me out of all the anger. I’m still a little mad about what our family did, but now I know there are good things in life that I couldn’t see before.”

That was one thing he hadn’t figured out about God. The forgiveness. “Have you forgiven your parents?” he asked.

Jess huffed. “Not that they care, but yeah. I think I have. I don’t understand why my dad had so much hate in his heart, and I don’t know why my mom still carries it around, but I needed to separate myself from that, and I couldn’t do it until I forgave them.”

“Doesn’t it bother you that they’d probably treat you the same way again if they got the chance?” Linc asked.

“Yeah, but I can’t spend all my time worrying about that. I’ve made peace with them…mostly. And I know better than to give them another chance to hurt me.”

Linc searched Jess’s eyes for any hesitation, but there wasn’t any. She’d really forgiven them. “I don’t understand the forgiveness.”

“Welcome to my world,” Jess said. “I spent weeks in counseling only talking about forgiveness. I have a hard time understanding why people do the things they do on a good day. Understanding why people do terrible things was beyond me. I had to learn to focus on what I could do instead of what they were doing. I still haven’t mastered it, but I feel better with the progress I’ve made so far.”

Linc nodded. “It seems like such a stretch. You do something wrong and you just have to ask for forgiveness and you get it. It can’t be that simple.”

“But it is,” Jess said. “We all make mistakes. God forgave the Israelites lots of times when they wandered in the wilderness. Every time they turned away from Him, He always welcomed them back when they repented.”

“That was a million years ago,” Linc said. “It doesn’t apply now.”

“Thousands,” she corrected. “And it does apply. We’re still messing up every day, and He still wants to save us. We should let Him. Stella told me it’s as easy as believing, confessing, and repenting. Over and over until you die.”

Linc chuckled. “You really know how to sell it.”

Jess lifted one shoulder. “I believe it. And I believe it for you too. You’re not a lost cause. You might have done some bad things in the past, but that’s not the life you’re living now. That’s one step closer to embracing God’s love.”

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