The morning began with a bang – literally!

6:13 am: “What was that”?

“Don’t know…”

“Why are the kids up so early”? I said in sleepy frustration - for we had long ago been resigned to the fact that there probably would never be a quiet morning at the Springfield house, at least not for a few more years. Ironically, not hearing any screaming or crying in the aftermath of that noise was a little unsettling, even in my state of quasi sleep.

Still, I was ready to let it go and if it wasn’t for Steph’s insatiable curiosity coupled with that extra protective instinct that seemingly is built into all mothers, our lives might have gone on just the same as they always had. She got up to investigate.

Some time passed, and no sign of Stephanie. I was just about to get up to go rescue her when she quietly crawled back into bed. Pulling the covers over her head was a sign that it wasn't anything to worry about right now.  Still, I couldn't resist...

"What was it?" I asked.

She was facing away from me and with her voice dampened by the covers I thought I heard her say “It was the fan and… (something I couldn’t quite make out) ...in the closet.”

While I didn’t quite understand the details, I was comforted that she was back by my side and evidence suggested that all was under control. I drifted back off into sleep.

Steph was up early and by the time I dragged myself out of bed she was ready to talk. I had barely taken my first sip of coffee when she sat across the table from me with a look in her eye that said I needed to pay attention.

“Tell me about it”, I invited.

“I want to talk with you about this morning… why I was gone so long…and what I am feeling.”

After a long pause she threw her head back in the chair and looked up at the ceiling and I could tell she was getting emotional.

I’m thinking, at this point, that I wish she had waited until my cobwebs had cleared but there was no going back.

“What’s going on?” I replied.

“Okay, but don’t say a word until I’m done.  Just let me speak, okay? I want you to listen to me and consider what I am saying.”

She spoke with such a sincere tone that while I said “I promise…you have my attention”, on the inside, my stomach started to churn. Instantly, my imagination took flight and my mind was already entertaining multiple dark scenarios when she began to speak.

“I am a mess… If you wondered why it took me so long to get back into the room…”

She hesitated too long for comfort, so I interjected: “I must have fallen back to sleep, what were you doing?” I encouraged.

“First, I checked in on the boys and they were still asleep – although I don’t know how with all that noise. I looked around and didn’t see anything out of place and so I was headed back to bed, ready to chalk it up as a total mystery, when I literally kicked something down the hallway. Did you hear me yell?”

Rhetorical question I surmised, Steph was on a roll. I kept my mouth shut and she continued.

“I assumed it was a toy, but when I turned the light on I saw it was your grandmother’s box – the box that has been up in our closet for 10 years, with its contents strewn all down the hall.”

“I forgot about that box.” “You okay?” I asked.

She shot me her evil eye - I had clearly gone over my word limit.

“There were three Bibles in the box and one of them fell out and it had this book marker in it.”

We had kept the Bibles after my grandma passed away because what else are you supposed to do with old Bibles? We weren’t going to use them but we felt weird about throwing Bibles in the trash. So, we just boxed them up and forgot about them.

She offered me the evidence. The book marker was faded purple with the words “New Life” printed on it in gold lettering.

“Read the verse your grandmother underlined on this page.” She said expectantly.

As I looked down at the well-worn page, the thought occurred to me that my grandmother had probably read this a thousand times over her 84 years. Immediately, I recognized the verse from my Sunday school days - it was John 3:16. 

She continued: “I read the whole chapter, on the hallway floor at 6am. That is the same Bible verse that Karen told me on Friday night when she was telling me about that new church they are going to."

“What church is that” I asked with some hesitation.

“You haven’t seen the signs? They have been going to the new church that meets at the YMCA on Sunday mornings, and, you are not going to believe this… it’s called ‘NEW LIFE FELLOWSHIP’!” She snatched the bookmark out of my hand and waived it around as if I needed help making the connection. 

“Huh, I guess I haven’t paid that much attention...until now.”

“Joel, I’ve got more questions than answers right now, but there is just too much happening here to be coincidence. Last week when you blew up at me, I prayed to God that he would get us through this; that he would help us. Then Karen…then the box this morning! We haven’t been up in that closet in I don’t know how long – what made that box fall? I think God is trying to get our attention."

I was a little bit flabbergasted myself at, not only the story, but how deeply it seemed to have affected my wife. Truth be told I knew we needed something, I just wasn’t sure what. We ended up going to “New Life” that weekend and this week marks our one-year anniversary of our new life in Christ thanks to our good friends who cared enough about us to invite us. Our marriage, now that we have the firm foundation of Christ in our lives, is much richer than it ever was before and we are so grateful for our friends and to God for leading us to Him on the day that the big bang changed our world and our eternity.

To contact or read more poems and articles by Stephen please go to: http://www.faithwriters.com/member-profile.php?id=68560