Flanders Nickels, a man with three prayer requests of the Lord, discovers a windmill and a fair naiad named ‘Melody Discourse’ and her clever Shetland Sheepdog ‘Rutter.’ The winds of the Holy Spirit of God fill the inside of this windmill with the glory of God. And God wills the naiad and her Sheltie dog to help Flanders find God’s answers to his three prayers. And it all happens in her windmill.
THE FAIR NAIAD
By Mr. Morgan P. McCarthy
His name was Flanders Nickels, and he was a faithful born-again believer who loved to have quiet time with the Lord with much Bible-reading and much praying daily. He was thirty-three years old now, just as Jesus was when His time came for Him to die on the cross. And right now, Flanders had just finished reading the book of Revelation in a two-hour Bible study, and was now in the midst of a two-hour prayer. He was worshiping God thus at his picnic table in his front yard in the nice October day of sunny and warm northeast Wisconsin.
He reread Revelation 3:11 that was before him right now. This verse read thus: “Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” In context, this was a commandment from God to his good saints of the church of Philadelphia—the spiritual church of the seven churches of Asia–back in the days of the Apostle John. For Flanders here two thousand years later, this verse told him to keep his heart fixed upon the imminent rapture of the church of which he was blessed to look forward to as a participant. For Flanders, this crown in this verse was the Biblical crown of righteousness, and the crown of righteousness was the crown for those believers who loved
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Lord’s appearing. Those Christians who wanted more than anything else to be with their Saviour Up in Heaven were the ones in Heaven who got this crown. And Flanders loved this crown more so than he did the four other crowns mentioned in the Holy Bible. To him this crown meant that his heart was right with Christ in his life down here. But down here it was for him off and on. Sometimes the crown “was on his head,” that is, that he was ready for the Lord to come. And sometimes the crown “had fallen off of his head,” that is, that he was not ready for the Lord to come. Once again he said in prayer now, “I will have Heaven for forever, but I will have Earth for only a little while. Maybe if you came a little later, I could sacrifice a little of Heaven’s eternity for a little of Earth’s temporariness.” As other Christians whose hearts were not right with the rapture might say, “I just want to be down here a little bit longer. There are things down here that I want to do.” Such were not rewarded with the crown of righteousness when they were to stand before Jesus at His throne in the Bema Seat Judgment of the believers. Flanders Nickels had so often prayed that he get this crown with such fervency that he called such a prayer request “my life dream prayer.” His life dream as a born-again Christian was to earn this crown of righteousness and to give it back to Jesus at His throne in Glory. Surely this crown must be the most beautiful thing in Heaven.
Flanders continued his prayer to his Heavenly Father here at this picnic table. He turned to Ecclesiastes 5:18 and did read it to God: “Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it is his portion.” What was the funnest thing that a guy like Flanders could do that would be simple fun for fun’s sake? What else could it be but for him to take a pretty girlfriend shopping for a one-piece swimsuit for her to put on for him? But this had never happened for him. He had never taken out a girl to the mall for the both of them to go through a store’s women’s swimwear rack and to pick out a nice maillot for the girl. He had so long pined for such a wonder that he not only prayed for this in his Christian life until God had become weary of him,
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but also he had been praying to the Higher Power for this in his life before Christ when God could not hear him for his lost state of the times. This prayer request for a maillot shopping spree with a girl Flanders had come to call “my oldest prayer,” because it stretched back to before his salvation. He then turned to Ecclesiastes 8:15, and he did now read this to God as he prayed at this picnic table:
“Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry; for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun.” He continued on for yet a little while longer in his oldest prayer.
Then Flanders turned to his convicting verse and read this verse to himself before the God Who had written it: “’The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God.’ Deuteronomy 22:5.”
What was his greatest temptation as a believer? Cross dressing indeed! Secretly his favorite word was “drag.” And the phrase “drag queen,” pleased him very most well. But he never gave into this greatest temptation now that he was a child of God. But he wanted to. And he wanted to every day for all of the years of his walk with Christ. But he feared the word “backslider” with the fear of God. Were he to go and do such abomination, as the Bible said it was, would he not indeed backslide on God? For this reason he fled drag every time it called out to him. These prayers to overcome cross dressing he did call “my most common prayer.” Oh, but how he despised it at church in his suit and tie every time Pastor praised him and said, “You look like a congressman.” How good it was that day of Halloween in his lost life when he was a trick-or-treat cheerleader at 29, and a fellow called out to him, “Nice skirt!” Flanders was a wannabe girl all because, if he were a real girl, then he could wear the clothes he so wanted to wear, and he could get away with it. He regretted the Y-Chromosome that God had given him at conception that had made him a male. And here at this picnic table, transgender thoughts of maillots caused him to pray harder now in his most common prayer.
Then the still small voice of the Holy Spirit spoke thoughts into his praying heart, saying to
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him, “My son, go now on a walk down County Trunk XYZ to the place where I would have you to go.”
County Highway XYZ was the road that he lived on. And at once Flanders got up from his picnic table worship site and began his journey with great faith in God.
After having walked some miles down this countryside road, Flanders discovered a real Dutch-style windmill off to the side of the road. Here in America’s Midwest windmills were much different from windmills such as this that were more common in Holland. He stopped to admire this out-of-place windmill and wondered why this kind of windmill were in Wisconsin. Then he knew. This place was the place for him where God had him to go. He then looked out upon the rest of this place as he stood here at the side of the road. The Dutch windmill was on the left side of this property, and a house was on the right side of this property, and everything else that was a part of this property was between the windmill and the house and in front and in back of the windmill and the house. This was what Flanders Nickels discovered: The windmill itself must have stood three stories tall. It had four vanes, long and wide and wooden, spinning around vertically in the gentle west breezes right now. There was a low cement wall at its base and a door that opened outward that was facing him. A patch of nice green lawn lay before this door. Above the base of this windmill and starting at about six feet high were walls of wooden red planks. Little windows here and there were randomly put in among these red planks. Up here was another door that opened outward, and this door opened out onto a parapet all around this windmill with a wooden landing and a wooden railing. And, higher up on this windmill, was the roof, this highest point of the windmill, like unto a little pyramid, full of shingles. Next Flanders saw a big potato garden full of soil and many rows of Wisconsin potatoes ready for harvest, whose rows stretched far from front to back from where he could see. Near to him Flanders could also see a white wooden fence stretching left and right before him, and it had a little white gate in its center.
This gate was the nearest part of this land of the windmill to him where he was now standing. And just on the other side of this fence was a beautiful and tiny little creek of flowing waters, neither wide nor
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deep, flowing from right to left before him. And right in the center of this countryside yard, and crossing the little creek, was a little and steep bridge going over the flowing waters in an arc of span. Flanders also saw sundry little green lawns and little fields of tall grass, and a house. The house lay near the back and off to the side, and it had tall narrow trees next to it. What was this little world of the windmill to which God had sent him? It looked to be a potato farm. This was where Flanders Nickels needed to be right now. God must have big things here that would be for his good. Flanders the born-again Christian waited upon God. And God began His work in answering His son’s three prayer requests of his prayers at the picnic table back home.
Just then a pretty resonant bark of a dog sang forth in this rustic paradise. Turning toward this sound, Flanders saw a beautiful Shetland Sheepdog bounding toward him from this house in friendship and good cheer. This Sheltie came up to the creek and crossed the bridge and opened the gate with a pull of her teeth, and she sat before Flanders and proffered her right paw in a most enthusiastic welcome and gave him a most avid brown-eyed look. Flanders took her right paw in his right hand, and man and dog, strangers, shook hands in greetings. Then she cocked her head endearingly to the side at him and turned her gaze to the windmill that had first caught his eye upon coming here, and she gave forth another song of single bark. He looked there again. This miniature Collie knew something about this windmill. Was this she-dog alone in this land of the windmill?
Just then a beautiful and resonant voice of a young woman called forth from near the house back there. This girl’s voice called forth, “Rutter! O Rutter girl! I’m home!” Flanders looked and saw a female person coming through the tall narrow trees by the house and standing before her home.
This she-Sheltie sang forth another single dog bark, melodic and joyful, and then she bounded up to this gal in adoration. This girl must have been the Shetland Sheepdog’s mistress. But this lass, though a beautiful female, was different from a person. This young lass was prettier than a woman. As Flanders watched, this Rutter and this she-person kissed and hugged and spoke sweet things one to
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another as only a mistress and her dog can do best. Then Rutter pointed back to Flanders with her right fore paw. This Shetland Sheepdog mistress looked and saw Flanders for her first time. And she called forth to him from way back there, “Sir, are you the one sent by the Lord?”
Thinking for a brief moment about why he had come here and how it had happened, he went and nodded his head in assent. And mistress and Sheltie came walking toward him where he stood yet by the road. And he began to walk toward them. He came to the gate, and he stopped and stood there.
And this she-person came up to the gate and said, “Greetings, fine sir, in the name of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” Then she opened the gate and bade him to enter her land. And he stepped through and entered her land of the windmill. Her eyes of brown were as resonant as her voice and had the light of God within them. Her beautiful hair was even more brown than were her eyes, and its strands cascaded down the sides of her head and across her forehead in long and gentle curls. Her teeth were large and few, not small and many, and her mouth was filled with them, not one missing piece anywhere within. Her nose was broad and wide and in perfect alignment with the curve of her jaw and in perfect accompaniment with the whiteness of her cheeks. She stood some inches shorter than himself, himself being a short thin guy. And though she were not thin and slender, her frame and her form struck him nonetheless as sexy. She had on right now an argyle sweater with a thick full collar and with white and gray diamonds front and back and with long sleeves of solid black, and faded blue jeans with a button fly and nothing on her feet. She spoke again to him, saying to him, “Welcome, kind sir, to my land of the windmill.”
“Young miss, you have a beautiful voice,” he said, somewhat overwhelmed by the pretty voice of this female personage. He had never heard so entrancing a voice before anywhere. It was as if she were singing even though she was just speaking.
“Thank you, good sir,” she said.
Then he asked, “Are you a born-again believer, young miss?”
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“Uh huh,” she said, “born again by the blood of the Lamb.”
“I, as well,” he said.
“Praise the Lamb of God for us sinners slain,” she said.
“Praise the Lion of the tribe of Judah for so our so great salvation,” said Flanders.
“I can see you wondering upon me,” she said.
“Are you a fairy, Miss?” he asked.
“I am a naiad,” she said.
“Indeed a fair naiad, pretty miss,” he said. “A most fair naiad at that,”
“Why, thank you, handsome sir,” she said. “Pray tell me your name.”
“I am Flanders,” he said. “Flanders Nickels.”
The fair naiad said, “My name is Melody. I am Melody Discourse.”
Of course, thought Flanders. What better name than this for a girl of whom even in just talking it sounded like singing.
Then Melody asked, “Shall we go to my creek, Flanders—you and I and Rutter?”
“I’d like that, Melody,” he said. “What is there that you might have to show me?”
“Naiad’s magic tricks,” said Melody. “Isn’t that right, Rutter?”
Rutter nodded her Sheltie head in a, “Yes,” to her master.
“You can do magic?” asked Flanders, liking this fair naiad even more so now already.
“I can work naiad magic only with flowing or still waters,” she said. “You probably know how we naiads love our lakes and ponds and rivers and channels.”
“And creeks,” he said, knowing how naiads were fairies of the waters.
“Especially my own creek, Flanders,” said Miss Discourse.
“Naiad magic!” said Flanders. “This is getting exciting, Melody,”
Turning to her Shetland Sheepdog, the fair naiad asked, “Rutter, how many tricks do you think
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that our guest would like to see me do?”
In uncanny canine savvy, the Sheltie proceeded to scratch three little horizontal lines side by side in the green lawn with her right fore paw.
“Is that ‘three?’” asked Flanders in awe.
“Yes, Flanders,” said Miss Discourse. “That is a three.”
“It is a three also in Roman numerals,” said Flanders, seeking a clever quip.
“Do not be too surprised if she already knew that when she wrote it in the ground,” said the naiad mistress.
Flanders Nickels was beginning to see just how wise this miniature Collie was. Then, leading the way, Rutter directed mistress and visitor up to the little bridge that crossed the little creek.
Melody began her magic show for Flanders by saying, “The first magic I will do for you today is the magic trick I call ‘My Debut.’ It is my Debut, because this was the first one that I had done for pretty Rutter some years ago.” The fair naiad then put her open hand down into the creek on the one side of the bridge, held it down there for a moment, then raised her open hand up out of the creek and passed her open hand up and over the bridge, and then set her open hand down into the creek on the other side of the bridge. Lo! This flowing creek on the one side of the bridge, then lifted up out of its flowing waters up and over this bridge in an arch, and then it descended in this same arch down into its flowing waters on the other side of the bridge. And this creek continued flowing unabated, but not underneath the bridge, but rather over the bridge.
“I never saw magic like this before, O Melody!” exclaimed Flanders in awe.
Then the fair naiad reached her open palm downward to the top of the arc of water, and she pushed it right back down. And the arc of flowing water settled back down into the creek bed once again. And the creek resumed now its flow underneath the bridge. “Did you like that, Flanders?” she asked.
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“It’s amazing!” exclaimed Flanders.
“The next naiad magic I will do for you, Flanders, is the one I call, ‘my Popular Demand,” said Miss Discourse. “I call it that, because Rutter here is always asking for me to do this one for her.”
“As they say, ‘Back by popular demand,’” said Flanders.
“Yes!” said the fair naiad, getting caught up in her show for this guy.
And she began this magic trick: She stepped out onto the bridge and stood upon its elevated center of arc. She stood above the creek, and she was facing upstream. And, looking upstream, the naiad of the waters extended her arms outward from herself with her fingers raised upward and her palms raised outward. She then brought her arms in and then brought her arms back out, keeping her palms facing the creek. She did this five times over. Behold, this creek now began to flow backwards!
She had effectively changed the flow of this creek with her naiad magic!
“Melody, you made upstream to become downstream, and you made downstream to become upstream!” exclaimed the man.
After this, Miss Discourse then went on to turn to the other side of this bridge, and she clapped her palms together five times and then motioned her right arm outward in a swing toward the creek before her. Lo, she pushed back this creek into its original downstream as it had been on this side of the bridge originally. This naiad had turned downstream back to upstream; and upstream back to downstream.
“Flanders, did you like my magic this time, too?” asked Melody.
“Neat, my naiad. Real neat,” said Flanders Nickels in astonishment.
“Allow your hostess to perform for you that which she calls ‘My Rendezvous.’” declared the fair naiad.
“In romance talk, a rendezvous is a date after the first date,” he said.
“In my naiad magic, this rendezvous is a magic trick just for you after I had first done it
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for Rutter just yesterday,” said the fair naiad.
“I’m ready for this one, Melody,” said Flanders. “Bring on your Rendezvous.”
And she went on to perform her third magic trick of a naiad for Flanders: She stepped out into the middle of the creek in her blue jeans, stood there in water up to her knees, and she raised her bare right foot, and she began to stomp it down several times into the surface of the creek just barely into the
waters each time. After each shallow stomping down thus, the level of this creek in its flowing dropped abruptly about a whole inch. And very soon, the creek was completely all dried up where she stood. And it was an empty sandy creek bed.
“Where did you make the creek go, Melody?” asked Flanders, not without regret at this magic.
“Oh, but I can just as quickly bring back my creek, Flanders,” promised the fair naiad. “What a naiad can take away, she can always bring it right back.”
“Oh, I’d like that, Melody,” said Flanders. “It was a wonderful creek.”
Then Miss Discourse took her bare left foot where it was standing upon wet sand in the bed of the creek that had held water all the time that Flanders was here, and she began to stamp it down upon the ground repeatedly. After each stamping of that left foot, the water began returning its flow in the creek, increasing most rapidly one inch after each stamp. And, behold, the marvelous creek was back up to her knees again.
“Bravo!” said Flanders.
“Did you like my magic trick, Flanders?” asked Melody Discourse.
“Yes. I did,” he said. “It had a happy ending, my fair naiad.”
“I love happy endings, Flanders,” said the naiad Melody.
“Your magic of waters as a naiad is none other than great!” said Flanders Nickels.
“Oh, but Flanders, just wait and see in this land of the windmill, and find out how much greater is God’s magic with my windmill,” promised the comely naiad girl.
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Christian man and Christian naiad and Shetland Sheepdog all turned now to gaze upon this windmill which was the focal point of her land here.
Flanders spoke now and said, “God’s magic is always called ‘miracles.’”
“Salvation is God’s greatest miracles, Flanders,” said the naiad woman. “Like my own salvation.”
“Do you mean that you yourself got saved in this windmill, O Melody?” asked Flanders.
“Yes, good Flanders,” said Miss Discourse. “A dryad named Proffery Coins led me to Christ right in there.”
“A wood nymph,” said Flanders.
“Yes indeed,” she said.
Taking part of this conversation, Rutter tilted her head to the side at her mistress and turned her half-cocked ears full-cocked, then turned her full-cocked ears back to her natural half-cocked ears.
“What is she saying?” asked Flanders.
“She tells me that you’re just dying to hear my testimony of my salvation,” said the Sheltie mistress. “Is that so, Flanders?”
“It is so. I want to hear very much of how you got born again, Melody,” he said, “especially now that I know that it took place over there in the windmill.”
The three sat down now upon the little bridge and looked upon this edifice a part of her conversion to Christ, and she told her story: “Before I lived here, this land was Proffery’s land.
He was a mighty dryad of God. The day I moved in was the day he was finishing moving out. His work in moving out of the house was already done. And all he had left to do was to take out his last stuff that he had yet in the windmill. He was taking his books out of the windmill just as I was moving into the house.”
“He had books in the windmill way over there, and they were not in his house out in the back?”
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asked Flanders.
“He had sixty-six books in the windmill. He told me that the windmill was right place for him to read his Bible more so than was his house,” said the fair naiad.
“He had sixty-six Bibles in the windmill?” asked Flanders.
“No, in the windmill was only the one King James Bible,” she said. “As you know, the Holy Bible has sixty-six books.”
“Do you mean to tell me that the dryad’s one Bible was bound in sixty-six different volumes?”
asked Flanders. “There was one separate book for each book of the canon of Scripture?”
“Yes. Some books had lots of pages; some books had few pages, and some books had only one page,” said Melody. “And they were all hardcover books at that, Flanders.”
“And you were still unsaved when this was happening,” said Flanders.
“My last unsaved day and my first saved day that day I met Proffery as I was moving in,” said Miss Discourse.
“Did you say anything to him when he was bringing out this set of books of the Word of God?” asked Flanders.
“Yes. I asked him, ‘Why would a dryad like you want to take such good care of an odd Bible like what you have?’”said the fair naiad. “And he answered me right back, ‘”Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart; for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts.” Jeremiah 15:16, O lost naiad girl.’”
“Then what happened?” asked Flanders.
“I went and asked the Christian dryad, ‘Who is this Lord God of hosts, Proffery?’” said Melody.
“I bet he told you, Melody,” said Flanders.
“Ah, that he did, Flanders,” said Miss Discourse. “He right away went on to recite to me all six verses of Psalm 139:7-12 with wisdom and with strength and with love to answer my question as to
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Who God was.” The fair naiad began to recite to Flanders this Scripture passage: “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.”
She then said, “After I heard all of this, I asked Proffery, ‘Is my soul in trouble in not knowing the Lord God at all the way that you know the Lord God?’
And Proffery at once said, ‘Yes, milady.’
‘I’m going to Hell. Aren’t I?’ I asked him.
‘You need to get born again to stay out of Hell, O pretty naiad,’ he said to me.
‘No. I don’t,’ I said in rebellion against the truth.
‘Can you say to God the Father, “Abba, Father,” the way I do, Melody?’ he asked me.
I shook my head, ‘No,’ and did not say anything right then.
And he said, ‘As long as you see God the Father as a Higher Power Whom you do not know, and cannot pray to Him as your Best Friend in the universe, you are still lost in your sins and on your way to Hell.’
I nodded my head and said nothing right then.
Then he asked me, ‘Do you have a relationship in your heart with the personal Saviour Who died for your sins and rose again the third day, O naiad of Wisconsin?’
Again I shook my head and spoke nothing to this question.
And the witness warrior dryad went on to say to me, ‘If you only know in your head of the Lord Jesus Who died on the cross, and you do not know in your heart of the Lord Jesus Who died on the cross, that is a pretty good sign that you are yet unsaved. O naiad girl.’
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To this I again gave a subtle nod of my head.
Then this dryad of Wisconsin asked me, ‘Do you have God’s Holy Spirit dwelling within you all the moments of all of your days, alluring woman naiad?’
I shook my head in another, ‘Nay.’
And he said to me, ‘If you do not have God Himself indwelling you as the Holy Ghost, then
you are not His child. God’s children go to Heaven. Satan’s children go to Hell.’
I nodded my head for a third time.
Then I spoke, and I said, “Mr. Coins, I was wrong. I need to get born again. I do not want to keep walking down the road to Hell. I want to begin walking down the road to Heaven. Could you help me to come to know the Good Lord the way you know the Good Lord?”
Then he smiled at me with the compassion of God, and he said, ‘Shall we go into the windmill and get you saved, O blessed naiad?’
‘Blessed be the name of the Lord,’ I said then for my first time.
And he and I went into the windmill, he for his last time; and I for my first time. And he led me line-by-line through the sinners’ prayer there in the windmill of the Lord. In that prayer, I asked for and received the free gift of eternal life for those who ask God for it. And when my prayer was done, I was now a born-again believer. Then the dryad Proffery Coins picked up his books of the Holy Bible; he bade me, ‘Maranatha, O righteous naiad’; and he left this land of the windmill. I never saw him again. But not a day has gone by since for me here that I have not thanked God for him.”
“Praise Jesus for Proffery Coins, O Melody,” said Flanders Nickels.
A silent while passed; then Miss Discourse said, “Just as God bade me to come into the windmill for my so great salvation, God bids you into the windmill for your so great edification in the faith, I believe.”
“The time is right,” he said. “This day God may answer the three prayers of my walk with
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Christ.”
“And your fond naiad and her Shetland Sheepdog can be used of God in this windmill to help you with those answers to prayers,” said Melody.
Rutter gave forth a single and musical bark.
“Lead the way, O Rutter girl,” sang out the Sheltie mistress in her even more musical naiad voice.
Dog and naiad and man in this order in a single file came up to the windmill. Rutter put her teeth to the doorknob, turned her mouth to turn the knob, and then pulled on the knob with her teeth, and opened the door of this edifice so good and Godly.
The three came into this windmill in this same order that they had marched up to it. And when Flanders came into this windmill of the Lord, he felt all manner of winds blowing around in it, winds of love and winds of joy and winds of peace and winds of longsuffering and winds of gentleness and winds of goodness and winds of faith and winds of meekness and winds of temperance.”
And his naiad guide Melody explained these winds within this windmill to him, “Flanders, these are the winds of the fruit of the Spirit of Galatians 5:22-23.”
“Ah, Holy Ghost winds,” said Flanders. God was in this windmill in a way that He was not in the rest of His creation of Earth.
Flanders looked around in here amid the many winds, and he saw a most simple room with a high ceiling and some windows that let in yellow sunlight and no furniture and a bare hardwood floor and nothing decorating the walls and also steps. In fact the interior of this windmill bore a resemblance to a meager shed if it were to be evaluated by the sight of the eyes. But this interior was indeed more like a grand castle in the evaluation of one who saw with faith. It was self-evident and quite manifest to man and naiad and dog that Almighty God was in this windmill in the form of these winds.
In awe and reverence and honor, Flanders Nickels went on to say from the Bible, “’And he said,
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I beseech thee, shew my thy glory. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.’ Exodus 33:18-23.”
The fair naiad said about this Scripture, “Moses saw the glory of the Lord of the Israelites, and we see the glory of the Lord of the windmill.”
“Do you think that Rutter knows what goes on in here?” asked Flanders.
“She knows, but she does not understand,” replied Melody Discourse.
“What might that mean, Melody?” asked Flanders.
“She is indeed not like other Shetland Sheepdogs,” said Rutter’s mistress. “She, being a dog, does not have an eternal soul that Jesus died for. But yet she, unique among dogs, does know that she is a creature wrought by the Creator.”
“A Shetland Sheepdog indeed who knows God,” exclaimed Flanders Nickels.
“And she is mine, and I am hers,” praised the fair naiad her Sheltie.
“A miniature Collie smarter than the full Collie Lassie,” praised Flanders her Rutter.
“So, Flanders, do you have a prayer for God to answer for you now that we three are in here with Him?” asked the fair naiad.
“A prayer and a life dream both at once,” he told her now. “I pray for a crown of righteousness to give back to Jesus before His throne in Heaven.”
“Ah, the crown of righteousness,” said the Bible-learned naiad. “II Timothy 4:8: ‘Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at
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that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.’”
“As I can say, O Melody, ‘The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!’ Lamentations 5:16. The crown falls from my head, for I have sinned.”
“Your sin must be the sin of asking God to wait and to not come right now. Isn’t it?” asked Miss Discourse in great spiritual understanding.
“Yeah!” said Flanders. “It is written, ‘For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:’ Philippians 1:23.”
With more great insight as a sister-in-the-Lord, the beautiful young naiad girl said, “Is it that when you know that being with Christ Up There is far better, that that is when you have your crown? And is it that when you do not know that being with Christ Up There is far better, that that is when you do not have your crown? Figuratively speaking, that is.”
“Yes, and again, yes, O Melody. I need to know that verse Philippians 1:23 by faith and not by sight,” he confessed.
With more understanding as a fellow believer, Miss Discourse said, “And you need to know by faith that being with Christ in His physical Presence in Heaven is far better than being with Christ down here on Earth in His Spirit.”
“Why, yes, Melody,” he said.
“I believe that I can help you to fall in love with the rapture of the church, Flanders,” said the fair naiad. “I am thinking now about four verses in the book of Hebrews that tells all about Heaven, where the throne of Jesus is.”
“I have hopes now for a crown upon my head that will stay there and not fall off,” he said in great zeal and not without confidence in naiad and God.
“In Hebrews 11:10 God says about Abraham, ‘For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God,’” said Melody the first of the four verses.
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“What a City that Heaven must be where Jesus is,” said Flanders in enlightenment.
“In Hebrews 11:14, God says about all those who died in saving faith, ‘For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country,” said Melody Discourse the second of the four verses.
“What a Countryside that Heaven must be where the Lord is,” said Flanders in revelation.
“And in Hebrews 11:16, God says about these same men and women of saving faith, ‘But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.’” said the wise naiad girl the third of the four verses.
“Heaven where Jesus is has better countrysides than this world has; and There where Jesus is has a better city than any city that this world has,” said Flanders Nickels, most fully discerning now much about how celestial Heaven is than how pretty Earth was. “Indeed the least resplendent corner of Heaven is more beatific than the most Heavenly part of Earth anywhere. That is because Jesus is There in His Person, O Melody.”
“And finally in Hebrews 13:14, Flanders, God tells us about you and me, ‘For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come,’” said the godly naiad the fourth of her four Bible verses to him.
“And that city can be none other than New Jerusalem!” exclaimed Flanders, learned in eschatology.
“It is written, ‘And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband,’ Revelation 21:2,” recited Miss Discourse this Bible verse to which he was alluding.
“You and I and all the rest of the born-again Christians of all of Earth’s history are called ‘the bride of Christ,’” said Flanders in a knowledge that now burgeoned into an awakening. “And Christ will be our bridegroom at the marriage of the Lamb and at the marriage supper of the Lamb,” said Flanders in a great and novel discovery.
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“It does not get any better than that. Does it, Flanders?” asked the naiad who had always loved the Lord’s appearing.
“Oh, but it does, my naiad,” said Flanders, now knowing perfect absolute truth. “Once the rapture takes place, I will see the Good Lord Jesus in His divine and perfect and deified regal glory!”
And he said, “And that is more good than anything that there is in the first heaven and in the second heaven and in the third Heaven!”
“Flanders,” said the fair naiad, “I do believe that God has answered your life dream prayer,” said Miss Discourse.
“I want to give it all up on Earth and to run away with Jesus in Heaven for ever and ever and ever right now!” he vowed to God. “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!”
“The Lord has answered your prayer indeed,” said Melody. “You now have your crown of righteousness on your head, never to fall off of your head in any weaker moment again.”
“God’s windmill in here is a Paradise of Good!” said Flanders.
“Your life dream shall come true,” said the fair naiad.
“Jesus loves me,” he said.
Then Rutter broke in upon the two other rejoicers in the Lord, and she put her white fore paw upon first her mistress’s bare foot and then upon Flanders’s penny loafer. Then she looked up at the top of the little staircase that climbed halfway to the top of the windmill. Then she climbed up to the upper landing of this little set of steps. And she looked upon a door that opened outward here before her. And she gave forth a bark and looked at Melody, then at Flanders.
Flanders said, “Where does that door go to up there?”
And the fair naiad said, “Out to the little parapet outside,”
“Maybe Rutter wants us to go out there with her,” said Flanders.
“Rutter and God,” said the just naiad.
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“Let us follow her and obey God,” said Flanders Nickels.
And the three in Christ went out onto the circular balcony high up on this windmill. And the three in the Lord sat down upon the wooden base of this parapet and looked out onto the naiad’s land from up here.
“Now do you have another prayer that you wish for God to answer here at my windmill?” asked the naiad girl, anticipating more such glory from the Lord of her windmill.
“Yes,” he said, still rejoicing over his first prayer’s resolution. “My second prayer, for this day at the windmill. O Melody.”
“What is your second prayer request, Flanders?” asked Miss Discourse. “Do tell me if you would.”
“I surely shall, my good naiad,” he said. “I call it ‘my oldest prayer.’”
“It must have been a petition that you have been asking of God ever since you became a born-again believer,” said Melody.
“Way back to even before I became a born-again believer at that,” he said.
“The Heavenly Father does not hear any prayers of any unsaved, and He hears the prayers of only the saved,” said Melody.
“So true,” he said. “Before my salvation, he did not hear my prayers to Him for this favor, and after my salvation he heard all of my prayers to Him every time for this favor.”
“What is this favor that you wish to ask God for in your second prayer at this windmill, faithful Flanders?” asked Melody Discourse.
“That I can go shopping with a pretty girl and buy her the perfect one-piece swimsuit,” said Flanders a most unattainable goal, himself never having had a girlfriend in his life.
“Flanders, that wish may be easier to come true for you than you might think,” said the lonely fair naiad subtly.
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“You do tease my heart so, O wily Melody,” he said.
“I never actually went and put on a one-piece swimsuit before,” she said.
“You never wore a maillot before, Melody, yourself being a young woman?” he asked.
“Not yet, Flanders,” said the fair young naiad. “I wonder if a one-piece swimsuit feels comfortable for a girl like me to have on.”
“You excite me with what you have on now,” he said. “But you would excite me to delights of frenzy if you had on a maillot.”
“I would put on a one-piece swimsuit for you, Flanders,” said Miss Discourse.
“You would go shopping with a lonely young Christian man at all of the women’s swimwear racks at the mall and pick one out and let him buy it for you?” asked Flanders Nickels with bated breath.
“Flanders, we gals–whether human or naiad—never get to enjoy such a privilege with men,” said Miss Discourse.
“But how come?” asked Flanders.
“Because shopping for clothes is boring for men, Shopping for clothes is exciting only for women,” said Melody.
“Shopping for clothes for a girl is exciting for me, fair Melody!” exclaimed Flanders, feeling that God was on the verge of answering his oldest prayer with this so-comely naiad here with him now.
“What girl is so blessed as I to have a cute guy who wants to buy her a one-piece swimsuit with his money and who wants to enjoy every moment of such a shopping day with her?” exclaimed the delighted naiad.
“Could we make that a date then, Melody?” he asked.
“Tomorrow, Flanders?” she asked.
“Tomorrow it shall be, my sexy naiad,” he said.
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“Could I put it on then for you and wear it for you?” asked Melody.
“Oh, every day, if you would,” he said right out.
“I want to do that,” she said.
“What a woman to come into my life and be God’s own answer to my oldest prayer of my life,” said Flanders in sweet reverie.
“I could become your one-piece swimsuit girlfriend,” said the fair naiad.
“With you as my new maillot girlfriend, pretty Melody, I will never be lonely again,” said Flanders.
In silence of romance up here on the balcony, man and naiad listened to the turning of the windmill vanes. The sound was a peaceful and benevolent sound. A swooshing of the turning of the vanes was a most comforting sound of steady quiet wind as the vanes passed through the still air up here. And they heard also a steady and rhythmic clicking that such windmills made in their engines.
Rutter groaned in utter and tranquil contentment as he sat up here with them.
“God has now answered your second prayer of this windmill,” said Melody.
“You will look like a very one-piece swimsuit goddess when I finish with you tomorrow on our rendezvous, woman,” he said.
“I wish to please my man,” said the fair naiad. “And it will be a lot of fun for me, too.”
“I will spend a lot of money on my naiad, and it will be even more fun for me than for you,” said Flanders Nickels.
Then the Christian naiad asked him, “Is there yet any unanswered prayers that you think that God would answer for you here at this windmill that I have?”
“I do have a third and final prayer that I have been sharing with God,” he said. “This one worries me for what I might do that is not good.”
“It sounds like a prayer to overcome temptation,” said Melody Discourse in compassion.
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“Hands down the greatest temptation of my walk with Christ,” said the man.
“Is it a bad temptation?” she asked.
“In the Bible, God does call it ‘an abomination,’” he confided to her.
“That’s real bad then,” she said.
“I fear becoming a backslider on God were I to give in and sin as I so want to with it,” he said.
“Well, I am here for you from God,” said the faithful naiad believer in God. “God can use me in this third prayer of yours here in the windmill as He has in the first and second prayers of the windmill.
He said nothing at first.
She then said, “You do believe me. Don’t you, Flanders? Nothing is impossible with our Lord, you know.”
Then he said. “Yes. I believe you, Melody. With God all things are possible. Though this prayer request seems like the hardest one of the three.”
“Can you tell me what this third prayer might be, Flanders?” she asked.
To this he said nothing.
Then the Shetland Sheepdog took her mistress’s hand gently with her canine teeth and pulled, and bade her and her new boyfriend to follow her back into the windmill. Leading the way, Rutter brought them both down back to the floor of the windmill at the bottom of the stairs, and then she stood
upon a trap door on the floor with all four paws resting upon it.
“Are we both to open that little door on the floor?” he asked. “I see a ring of a handle that I could lift up to open it.”
“Ah, Flanders, the time has come for me to go down into the basement of this windmill for my first time,” said the fair naiad.
“You never went down there before?” asked Flanders.
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“No,” she said. “I remember now. Proffery had told me never to go down there until I found my first boyfriend-in-the-Lord.” Indeed had she not gone down there, nor took a peek down there, nor even played with the handle itself in curiosity of what was down there.
“I am indeed your first boyfriend-in-Christ. Aren’t I, Melody?” asked Flanders Nickels.
“Uh huh,” she said in ready assent and with a nod of her head.
“Perhaps down there is meant for us right now so that God can answer my third prayer in this land,” said Flanders Nickels.
“What do you secretly call this prayer?” she asked.
“I can say to you that it is, ‘my most common prayer,’” he said. “Let us go down there.”
Then Rutter grabbed a hold of the metal ring handle hard in her teeth, pulled and backpedaled in her four legs, and lifted the metal door open. Then she stood there. And the three looked down into the cellar of this windmill of God, and they all three saw a series of rungs that led down to a dark and warm domain,
“Should we really go down there?” asked the fair naiad.
“We must go down there,” affirmed Flanders.
“The Lord’s will be done,” said the naiad woman.
And Flanders climbed down first, and Melody climbed down second; yet Rutter stayed up there above.
Flanders spoke up and said, “I know that your Shetland Sheepdog in her uncanny savvy can climb down this ladder of rungs, Melody.”
“I think that she must not be allowed down here as we are,” said Miss Discourse. “She must know that.”
“I thought that she goes everywhere you go,” said Flanders disappointed.
“I cannot tell why, Flanders,” said Melody. “But God must have told her not to go down to
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this basement. And Shetland Sheepdogs have to obey God as you and I have to.”
“God’s will be done, Rutter, Melody,” said Flanders. Then Rutter sat down up there beside the open trap door and patiently awaited the return of her mistress and her boyfriend.
And the two Christians looked around this basement of God’s windmill. To their right before where they stood was a red brick fireplace with a fire of burning logs in it and with a fireplace tool set of cast iron alongside of it. And to their left before where they stood was a brightly lit room with a rack of clothes in it almost all sold out and with a cash register and a conveyor belt for the till, all together like unto a most miniature retail clothing store.
He heard his naiad girlfriend call out, “Ooo, boyfriend, one-piece swimsuits!” And he saw her run right up to this rack in innocent glee. And she began to pick these maillots up in their hangers and to admire them. There were but two such swimsuits that made up this swimwear rack of this sample store down here, and nothing else was on this rack or in any other part of this supernatural store. And he was astonied. He did not know what to think. He did not know what to do. He did not know what to say. All that he knew now was that he wanted to put one on and to never take it off again.
Yet Flanders stayed where he was, himself not yet joining his naiad at this swimsuit rack. He could see the sheen of the two maillots. He could recollect the smell of new spandex that maillots were made of. The pattern of these two maillots aroused him within: they were both identical in their patterns—they were black one-piece swimsuits with a yellow curve bar in the front running down the left side and with a yellow curve bar in the front running down the right side. He most illicitly remembered the feel of the material that he loved so much in his days before Christ. And he envied his fair naiad not so much for her female gender, but now for her freedom with Christ to touch these clothes that were meant only for her female gender.
In her naivete, the fair naiad spoke and said something most provocative to this wannabe maillot girl her boyfriend, “With this on, Flanders, these yellow bars would really accentuate my
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curves of my woman’s sides. Wouldn’t they?”
“Yes.” he said in great personal temptations of drag.
“Come up here and take a look, good boyfriend,” said Miss Discourse, forgetting the mystery that Flanders had not the courage to tell her yet that had brought them both down here for his most common prayer.
And Flanders came up to her at the one-piece swimsuit rack.
She held up the smaller of these two black and yellow maillots, and she said, “This one is size ten, Flanders. That’s my size. It would look great on me. Do you think so, too?”
“You would be irresistible to me in this, O naiad of mine,” said Flanders Nickels, looking kind of at this one-piece swimsuit and turning toward the other one-piece swimsuit more.
The fair naiad then hung up this maillot, and she picked up the larger of these two black and yellow maillots and held it up in front of him, and she said, “But this one is size fourteen. It is too big for me. What can a girl like me do with this one?”
In confession to the naiad, Flanders told all about this third prayer of the windmill that God was to answer this day, saying, “Size fourteen. That is my size, Melody. It would feel great to have on for me. Don’t you know?”
In full understanding, the fair naiad spoke and said, “This is what you call your most common prayer. Isn’t it, Flanders? You are a cross dresser. And you are here in the basement of this windmill for God to give you the strength to quit your drag desires once and for all.”
“I have tasted the joys of drag as the old man of sin, and I have resisted the joys of drag all through my life as the new man in Christ,” said Flanders Nickels. Then he went on to say, “But once a guy like me tastes such drag, he never forgets that taste again. And the longer I go without cross dressing, the more I want to have it all back. And there is for me nothing made by man that is more comfortable to have on than a woman’s maillot—both practically and sensually.”
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“You called me ‘your one-piece swimsuit goddess,’ and you meant it, and at the same time you want yourself to also be a one-piece swimsuit goddess,” said Melody about her man’s quandary.
“I have the heart of a cross dresser, and I have the orientation of a man most straight,” he said in truth and honesty.
“Well, I believe that your time has come to make your final decision right down here in my windmill’s basement alone with your naiad girlfriend and with the Holy Spirit, Flanders.” said Melody Discourse. She held up her maillot on its hanger in her right hand, and she held up “his” maillot on its hanger in her left hand.
“I must choose now for the rest of my life,” he said, understanding the two opposite choices.
Were he to choose her one-piece swimsuit and reject “his” one-piece swimsuit, he could do two things for the cause of God: One, he could go ahead and buy her maillot for her at this cash register; and, two, he could take “his” maillot and go and throw it into the burning fireplace in the next room. Were he instead to choose “his” one-piece swimsuit and also her one-piece swimsuit, he could buy both of these at this register, and she could put hers on for forever, and he could put “his” on for forever.
At once he reached out for the size ten maillot from her right hand, and he came up to the till at the checkout stand, and he rang it up and paid for it, and gave it to her. He had finally bought a beautiful girlfriend a beautiful one-piece swimsuit to dress her up in. He was thrilled with magic of romance in his heart.
But the size fourteen maillot was still in her left hand. Would he buy this one just for himself?
Would he throw it into the fire? He could not leave it there in her left hand and think to overcome his
most innate temptation by doing nothing with it for now. What God needed him to do now in this windmill’s basement had to be done with now, so that later would never come back to tempt him again with his so-beckoning drag queen lifestyles. He then reached out his right hand to her left hand, took a hold of the hanger of the size fourteen one-piece swimsuit, careful not to touch with his fingers the feel
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of the most seductive shoulder strap material, and looked upon it with a most discerning look upon his countenance. Then he came up to the cash register, paused, and passed it by. He then went right to the fireplace, paused, and stayed there in front of the burning fire. He delayed in his obedience to God for a while.
Herself, being used by God for the cause of God, the fair naiad sought to help her boyfriend-in-the-Lord to make his final decision the final will of God thus for this last prayer of the windmill. And she did so by exhortation with a Bible verse, saying to him now in this crisis, “Flanders, it is written, ‘There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.’ I Corinthians 10:13.”
Flanders Nickels, strong and wise and faithful in the Lord, then said, “So is it said, and so is it done.” And he threw the one-piece swimsuit icon and idol and fetish into the fire in the fireplace and did watch it burn up irrevocably and consummately.
The fair naiad was standing at his right hand side when this maillot was burning up. For a long time naiad and fellow said nothing. They watched the dissolution of this one-piece swimming suit happening right now in the fireplace. And after a short while, the maillot was all gone.
“How do you feel, Flanders?” asked his naiad girlfriend.
“I have no regrets for what I just did, Melody,” he said. “I no longer want to be one of those drag queens with their one-piece swimsuits. All one-piece swimsuits are only for women and girls and naiads like you.”
“The Lord has answered your third and final prayer of my windmill,” sang out Miss Discourse.
“He has given me the Holy Ghost wisdom and strength and love to finally say, ‘No!’ for now on to my most common prayer, starting with this most hard, ‘No,’ down here with you, girl,” he said.
“Thank you for helping me to do that.”
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“Your new girlfriend will make sure that she keeps you on the straight and narrow road,” said the fair naiad.
“Let us go up and tell Rutter how great things that God has just done for me,” said Flanders.
And the two climbed back up the ladder to the first floor and told the Shetland Sheepdog, and all three rejoiced in the Lord.
It was the next day, and naiad girlfriend and her boyfriend were on a rendezvous at her place. This second date was in her large potato garden. And for him and for herself, Melody Discourse had on her sexy black and yellow one-piece swimsuit for her first time. She and Flanders and Rutter were all walking side-by-side in three lanes of soil with rows of potatoes between the lanes. Miss Discourse was in the farthest most right of the three lanes; Flanders was in the farthest most left of the three lanes; and Rutter was in the middle lane between them. And the three sauntered and enjoyed each other’s companionship here in the field.
The fair naiad then spoke and said, “I cannot reach your hand with my hand, Flanders.”
“We are two rows apart from each other,” he did say to her.
“I wish that we were only one row apart from each other,” said Miss Discourse.
He reached out his hand toward her, and she reached out her hand to him from where they stood.
The Shetland Sheepdog, with her great understanding, began to run up a little way up ahead to accommodate her mistress’s desires to be closer to this guy. By doing this, Rutter cleared out her middle lane for the two to draw closer. And the naiad stepped out into this free lane that was right next to Flanders’s lane. And he joined her hand with his hand. And the two continued their stroll in her potato field, the two now hand in hand, Rutter leading the way.
After a while of this walk, the fair naiad then said, “I cannot feel your arm in my arm,
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Flanders,”
He said, “We are in different lanes.”
“I wish that we could be in the same lane,” said Melody Discourse.
And Flanders stepped over the row of potatoes and joined his fair naiad in her lane. And the fair naiad put her arm around his arm. And boyfriend and girlfriend now began to walk arm in arm with each other in her potato field. And Rutter began to run up ahead toward the far end of this big field of potatoes, where sat her mistress’s favorite bench.
After a while, the fair naiad spoke and said, “Flanders, I cannot hold you around your waist like I’d like to this way.”
“We need to walk closer to each other in this lane,” he said.
Naiad and man then cuddled next to each other in this lane of soil, and she put her arm around his waist, and he put his arm around her waist. And the two began to walk in her potato garden in this nice and sweet sideways hug between one another. Up ahead Rutter reached the bench and did lie down upon her belly in front of it.
After a while, Miss Discourse said, “Flanders, I wish that I could sit on your lap.”
Flanders said, “A bench is just up ahead.”
And the two ran to get to the bench, and they both got there at the same time. Rutter had to leap out of the way when they came charging in upon this bench. And Flanders sat himself down upon the bench. And the romantic naiad sat herself down upon his lap there on the bench. And the Shetland Sheepdog looked up in query upon man and mistress.
“My precious Rutter,” sang forth Melody Discourse, “would you join me on my lap?”
And Flanders spoke to the so-pretty Sheltie, “Come on up here, girl!”
And with a single bark and a single leap, Rutter landed upon the lap of the fair naiad there up on the bench.
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Rutter was happy. Melody was happy. Flanders was happy.
Flanders began to sing the hymn, “To God Be the Glory”:
“1. To God be the glory—great things He hath done!
So loved He the world that He gave us His Son,
Who yielded His life an atonement for sin
And opened the Lifegate that all may go in.
Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, Let the earth hear His voice!
Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, Let the people rejoice!
O come to the Father thru Jesus the Son,
And give Him the glory—great things He hath done.”
Then the fair Christian naiad began to sing this same hymn of God’s glory, picking up where
Flanders had left off:
“2. O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood!
To ev’ry believer the promise of God;
The vilest offender who truly believes,
That moment from Jesus a pardon receives.
Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, Let the earth hear His voice!
Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, Let the people rejoice!
O come to the Father thru Jesus the Son,
And give Him the glory—great things He hath done.”
Then boyfriend-and-girlfriend-in-Christ went on to sing together the last stanza of this hymn of
praise and testimony:
“3. Great things He hath taught us, great things He hath done,
And great our rejoicing thru Jesus the Son;
But purer and higher and greater will be
Our wonder, our transport, when Jesus we see.
Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, Let the earth hear His voice!
Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, Let the people rejoice!
O come to the Father thru Jesus the Son,
And give Him the glory—great things He hath done.”
Reader, it is written about the God of Heaven and of Earth and of His windmill, “Who hath
measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath taught him? With whom took he
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counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding?” Isaiah 40:12-14.
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