THE DERBY LANE GIRL
By Mr. Morgan P. McCarthy
Her name was Miss Jodi La Grandeur, and she was the Derby Lane girl. She lived on Derby Lane, and it was a most ill-designed road anywhere around. To say the least, it was a winding road. To say the most, it was made by a drunkard. And that was true. To walk down or drive down this Derby Lane, it was like walking or driving through a maze. It wound. It bent. It turned. It went up. It went down. The thing that it did not do was to go straight for any great length. This road was positively incongruous to travel. It was what Jodi called “labyrinthine.” It was a crazy residential road. And it was supposed to run east and west, if one could tell by looking at it. Yet it was also picturesque. That was the good thing about Derby Lane. Along its north side were evergreens, their needles and pine cones filling that half of the road. Along its south side were leaf-bearing trees, whose leaves of many colors and sizes filled that half of the road. Its houses to the north had little front yards and big backyards. Its houses to the south had big front yards and little backyards. Jodi’s house was on the
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north side of this Derby Lane. She had a little front yard with three flags on tall flagpoles: the United States flag and the Wisconsin flag and the Christian flag. And in her big backyard was her special little library of high school text books, all in excellent condition, all beloved by her, and all keeping her busy reading and learning high school curriculum. Beyond her large backyard was Lake Superior along Wisconsin’s uppermost northwest corner here. And on this shore of Lake Superior here in early spring were a mound of many ice shoves coming inland and now already within her yard back here. The house across the street from her had a “for sale” sign in its big front yard. It was vacant. And she wondered what kind of neighbors might move in to that house there. She prayed that another Christian like herself move in there. Jodi was a born-again Christian who loved her Saviour. And she desired a born-again lady in this neighborhood with which to share fellowship. That would be a great neighbor to have across the street. Better yet, maybe even a Christian guy, instead! That would be especial. After all, how many Christian women were lucky enough to have a Christian manfriend to date and to fellowship with? Born-again believers out there were rare—both women and men. And Jodi La Grandeur was a little lonely here way up north like this. A Christian really could not fellowship with a non-Christian. And Christ was her Best Friend and Saviour and Confidant. What better thing for her
than to share Christ with a cute Christian guy? Today, Jodi La Grandeur again had on her favorite outfit: a long-sleeved Argyle sweater with alternating blue diamonds and red diamonds and white diamonds, whose cuffs hugged her wrists and whose bottom hem hugged her waist; a black tulle sheer skirt like unto a long tutu; black tights; and black pumps with block heels. And for within, she had on again her American flag two-piece swimsuit full of strings. Her hair was long and brown and with long gentle curves along the sides of her head. And her eyes were brown like her hair. And though she were not slender as pretty girls usually were, she still had a good build that pleased her quite well. And, yes, she was pretty. God told her. And she told herself. And her neighbors told her. So, too, did her family. And she wanted to become one special guy’s “brown-eyed girl.” That could still happen for her. She
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was yet a young woman of twenty-one years old. And she prayed for a cute twenty-one-year-old gentleman to come into her life and become her boyfriend-in-the-Lord. But he had to be a believer living for God like herself. That God told her. And she subjected her will to God’s will in her desires for a boyfriend who might come into her life. Once again Jodi was in her backyard in her special little library. And she was browsing in the math section now. She opened and closed books on Geometry, on Algebra, on Trigonometry, on Analytical Geometry, even on pre-Calculus. And she once again improved her mind with man’s knowledge. And she was there for a couple of hours in contentment of study. Then she was done. And now it was time for her to read her Holy Bible. Every born-again believer like herself must read the Bible daily. She had no Bible in this library out back. Her Bible was back in the house. She had to leave this precious haven of books to go read the Bible. And with reluctance she left her text books and went in search for her Bible. Indeed this believer did not love to read her Bible. And she knew this. And she confessed this to God. But she did not change her mind. The Holy Bible was a boring book for her to read. She only read the Bible, “because it was the right thing to do.” And she knew that this was wrong for an attitude of a daughter of God like herself. Every Christian loved to read the Bible. But not Jodi. And she needed to repent. But how? How could even the Lord change everything about herself and give her a love for the Good Book? She needed not only to learn to love the Word of God, but also to give it a preeminence in her heart over even her cherished text books. And as long as she could only endure God’s Word, she would never enjoy God’s Word. But the same could never be said about her prayer life. Jodi loved to pray. She prayed three times a day—in the morning and at noon and in the evening. And praying to her Heavenly Father thus for some hours by the time the day was done, was her love of her life. And these spring days of recent, she even took her prayers out with her when she went out back to sit upon the cold creaking ice shoves that were coming into her backyard. She could pray anywhere and anytime. Miss La Grandeur was a mighty prayer-warrior all the days of her walk with Christ. Her prayers always reached all the way Up
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to Heaven. No prayers of hers ever went “just to the ceiling and no higher.” All of her prayers were living and dynamic and fervid. And she never left a prayer disappointed from its joy of the Lord. She truly lived for prayer. And even her high school textbooks did not satisfy her as her prayers satisfied her. She was most happy in her Christian life when alone with Christ in quiet times of prayer. But it was time now to read her Bible. And the Derby Lane girl went into the house, came up to her bedroom, and stood before her desk, looking down upon the King James Bible resting there upon the desktop.
Alas, this time she would not open it up. She had not yet sat down at this desk. She was still standing before this desk when she made up her mind. “Uh oh, Lord,” she prayed. This time she would not read it. For the first day in her walk with Christ she would not read the Bible. Oo, positively sinful! This was truly an unsettling first for the Derby Lane girl. But she did not fight herself in this. Nay. She did not even debate with herself. She simply said to God in prayer, “Not today, Lord.” And Jodi La Grandeur did not read her Bible this whole day. And she felt guilty about it. But she felt good about it, too.
Then she went out back to pray about this on the peaks of the ice shoves. The prayer felt great. The Bible reading, however, was all done for good.
Meanwhile, this very same day, a man was moving into the house across the street. And he was a born-again Christian. He was coming from a far-away place where there was no ice and no snow and no cold. He had heard about Lake Superior’s ice shoves, and he moved here just to take a look at them.
His yard, being on the south side of this Derby Lane, did not have the ice shoves. But he had seen them at the park down the road a little way, and upon seeing ice shoves for his first time, he quoted Scripture to himself in awe of the God of creation: “’Out of whose womb came the ice?…And the face of the deep is frozen.’ Job 38:29-30.” His name was Flanders Nickels, and as a believer his first love was the King James Bible. He “ate” the Bible more hungrily than he ate his meals. And he “drank” the Bible with more thirst than he drank his tea. As his Bible verse went in Job 23:12, “…; I have
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esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.” As the prophet Jeremiah said, so, too, could Flanders say: “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. Not one day went by where this Flanders Nickels did not read his Holy Bible for at least two hours collectively. Some days his Bible time took him three hours. And all of these hours were quiet times of bliss for him alone with his Heavenly Father. And his Bible studies were alone and not with groups. Indeed few among Christendom knew the Holy Bible better than did Flanders Nickels. And he considered himself blessed by God to have a King James Version Bible just for himself. However, despite this, this man Flanders did not have the same love for praying as he did for Bible-reading. He tried to pray lots. But nothing ever came out of his heart to speak to his Heavenly Father. He got so bored when he always tried to talk to God. But Flanders always talked to his German Shepherd pet. His special dog was called, “Blitzen,” or “Blitz” for short. And talking to him was the delight of his daily life. Every time they went walking together, he always had so much to say to him, and he always was so excited to say things to him, and he loved to see him perk up his ears to listen to him every time he spoke. Blitz was a great listener, and it always seemed to Flanders that the dog could understand everything his master said to him. And Flanders even fancied teaching his German Shepherd other names for his breed—words like “Alsatian,” in British English, like “Berger Allemand,” in French, like “police dog,” in informal reference—all words meaning in essence, “German Shepherd.” Blitz knew them all. With Blitz Flanders could see his listener listening to him. He could see it in his eyes, his ears, his muzzle, his cocked head. But with God, Flanders could not see God listening to him. The One to Whom Flanders prayed daily he could not see listening to him. His Listener was invisible. And it was like only pretend when Flanders tried to envision the God to Whom he was praying. And his prayers were thus consequentially hindered. And his prayers never seemed to go “higher than the ceiling of his bedroom.” Surely none of his prayers went all the way Up to Heaven. And the day came wherein
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he prayed his final prayer. Flanders Nickels had quit his attempts at prayer. And he felt sinful.
A week passed by, and Flanders was all settled in his new house on Derby Lane. His stuff was all put where he wanted it to be. Blitz had his own room upstairs. And Flanders’s bedroom was also upstairs, next to Blitz’s room. And across the hall from both rooms was Flanders’s den. And Flanders’s new den became his official Bible-study room. And Flanders went out to his mailbox on the street to pick up his mail. And he saw a young lady across the street also at her mailbox picking up her mail. She was a pretty girl. That was for sure. He was grateful that his new neighbor here way up north like this were an attractive young woman. He looked up to comely women as special and as people to be kind and considerate of. Himself, being a Christian, felt it important to always be a gentleman to all women—pretty or not pretty. He wanted to be good testimony of Christ to the outside world. And this gal was the first pretty gal he found since moving here. They saw each other at their mailboxes, and the girl across the street waved to him and said, “Good morning, new neighbor.”
He waved back and said in like, “Good morning, good neighbor.”
“It’s a nice spring day, sir,” she said.
“Indeed it is,” he said. Then he said, “Crazy road our Derby Lane is, miss.”
“Ah, the inimitable Derby Lane, sir,” she said with a grin.
“It goes everywhere but straight,” he said. He laughed in novelty as this road. She laughed with him in equal levity upon this road that she knew all about. “Why is it like it is, do you think?” he then asked.
“May I join you and tell you all about Derby Lane?” she asked.
And he said, “Allow me to join you on your side of the road.” And he crossed the street to join her at her mailbox. Then he asked, “Who made such a road as this loonie road, Miss?”
And she told him how this road first came about: “It was planned on blue prints by a man who was a drunkard.”
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“A drunkard made this Derby Lane?” he asked.
“Uh huh,” she said.
“Workers should stay away from the beer and the wine and the whiskey,” said Flanders.
“Oh, but it was not beer or wine or whiskey that this man drank,” said the girl.
“What was it that got him drunk?” asked Flanders.
“Extract,” she said.
“Extract?” he asked.
“Yep,” she said.
“You mean ‘extract’ as in ‘for baking things?’” he asked.
“You got it,” she said. “Sometimes vanilla extract. Sometimes almond extract. Sometimes walnut extract. Sometimes peanut extract. Sometimes pecan extract,” she said. “You name the flavor of extract, and he drank it and got drunk every day of his life,” she said.
“That’s so wild that I have to believe it,” said Flanders. “What an odd drunkard at that.”
“They said at work in the field that he could not walk a straight line he was so drunk,” said the girl.
“One who cannot walk a straight line cannot be expected to build a straight road,” said Flanders a clever joke about the drunkard. Both young man and young woman laughed.
“He designed the road, prepared the road, and laid the road,” said the woman.
“Didn’t he have others with him in the work?” asked Flanders.
“Uh huh. And they were all sober,” said the woman. “But when he was drunk, he was a mean drunk. And his temper was so hot and quick that none of his workers dared to question him. He scared the county workers into complete compliance with his every decision. After all, he was his own self-appointed foreman. They did not want to lose their jobs.”
“Why didn’t the county step in and stop this man?” asked Flanders.
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“Because he was the cheapest man to hire when it came to road construction,” said the woman.
“Well, at least our Derby Lane has pretty trees along both sides,” said Flanders. “And also nice leaves and needles and pine cones.” And he said, “I like what it looks like way up north like this along Lake Superior.”
“I am Jodi,” said the woman. “Jodi La Grandeur,”
“And my name is Flanders,” he said. “Flanders Nickels.”
“Glad to meet you, Flanders,” said Jodi, proffering her hand.
“And I am glad to meet you, too, Jodi,” he said, shaking her hand.
“Your name could almost be Irish,” she said.
“I am Irish,” he said, “I was born in Dublin. And I became a United States citizen as a child.”
“Ooo, one hundred percent Irish,” she said in great favor.
“And your name sounds a little French,” he said. “Is there any French in you?”
“Indeed, Flanders,” she said. “I am one hundred percent French, born in Marseilles, and having moved to America with my parents as a little girl.”
“Ah, a French girl,” he said in great approval.
“And I became a born-again believer not too many years later,” said Jodi.
“I got born again as a little child after having been in the United States for a few years, too,” said Flanders. “The whole family all got saved together.”
“I love to pray to my Heavenly Father,” said Jodi in verity.
“And I love to read my Bible,” said Flanders in truth.
“We both love the Lord Jesus,” sang out Miss La Grandeur.
“And we both make Jesus the Lord of our lives,” said Flanders.
“I’m twenty-one years old,” she said.
“And I am twenty-one years old, as well,” he said.
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“Could I show you what I have in my backyard, Flanders?” asked Jodi.
“What do you have in your backyard?” he asked.
“Come and see,” said the brown-eyed girl. And he followed her into her backyard and saw a little red brick building. She eagerly took him by his hand and led him around all four of its walls. “Why, there is a door on every wall,” he said. “And all four walls are so full of big windows that there is hardly any brick holding up the walls. And the roof is made of wooden slats.”
“Uh huh,” she said.
“You don’t drink too much extract. Do you?” he teased in innocent fun.
“Real clever guy I have,” she said with a laugh. He laughed, too.
“Whatever this is, I like it,” he said to her.
“It’s my library, Flanders,” she said.
“You have your own library,” he said in some awe.
“Do you want to come in and see what it looks like inside, Flanders?” asked Miss La Grandeur.
“Oh yes!” he agreed at once. And she let go of his hand, and he followed her in.
Behold, dusty wooden book shelves reaching a good five feet above their heads. Herein were all manner of hardcover books and paperback books and softcover books. And the lanes between the bookshelves were narrow and cramped for even just two people.
He asked her, “Do you have any books of big dog stories or any novels about big dogs?”
She thoughtfully replied, “No. I don’t have any dog books in here, Flanders.”
“I see math books here in front of me,” he said.
“High school mathematics textbooks,” she said.
“And over here I see lots of big science books,” he said.
“Science books on matter and on energy and on biology and on chemistry and on geology and on physics,” she said.
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“They look like they are school textbooks, Jodi,” said Flanders.
“They are, Flanders,” said the Derby Lane girl. “For high school.”
“Just like the math books are all textbooks in this library, Jodi,” he said to her.
“Uh huh, Flanders,” said Miss La Grandeur.
“And over here I see books on social studies, and over here I see reading books, and over here I see grammar books, and over here I see typing books, and over here I see shorthand books,” he said, perusing this little private library with its many books.
“These are my precious books,” she said in brag, but mostly in thanksgiving to God.
“How did you come to fall in love with high school textbooks?” he asked.
“My story will make me sound kind of smart and then again kind of dumb,” she did say.
“Do tell your story, Jodi,” he encouraged her.
And she said, “In high school, I got straight ‘A’s,’ but in college I was only getting straight ‘B’s.’ I was happy doing homework in high school, but I was unhappy doing homework in college. College curriculum was one step beyond my learning. But high school curriculum was within my learning.”
“’B’s’ are good in college,” he said.
“I got lucky ‘B’s’ and that was my freshman year, and college starts to get hard in the sophomore year,” she said. “I did the right thing for God and quit college.”
“Where did you collect these books from?” he asked.
“They all started in the A.A.U.W. book fair that Mom and Dad took me to at the Y.W.C.A. on my fifteenth birthday in my freshman year of high school. We were living in Kunesh, and the book fair was in Green Bay. I had already discovered books as treasures in my life. But when I saw all of those textbooks at this magical book fair, I decided right then that when I grew up, I would have my own library of them,” narrated the Derby Lane girl.
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“Are there any grade school textbooks in here?” he asked.
“Uh uh,” she said with a shake of her head. “Those would be too easy for me.”
“How about college textbooks?” he asked. “Are there any of them in here?”
“Nay,” she said. “Those would be too hard for me.”
“When I went to college recently, my most expensive textbook from the college bookstore was the Calculus book. That was big and thick and heavy. It covered three semesters of college—Calculus I and Calculus II and Calculus III—just that one book alone. I remember how it cost $25. That’s
expensive for books at this time. I got “A’s” in Calculus all three semesters. I know my derivatives and my integrals, but that three-space stuff was a little over my head,” said Flanders.
“I’ve got senior math books that teach on two-space analytical geometry,” she said. “I know all about x-coordinates and y-coordinates.”
“Well, add a z-coordinate to that, and you have three-space analytical geometry,” he said.
“I definitely do not have a textbook about that here in my library,” she said.
“I also studied conic sections,” he said to her. “Do you have books on conic sections in here?”
“Sure,” she said. “I know all about those conic sections and their circles and ellipses and parabolas and hyperbolas.” And she and he began looking through such textbooks in here. “They almost look like hourglasses,” she said about the diagrams of the frames of the conic sections.
“Most of them look like party hats,” he did say.
“I spend more time in here that I do even in my house, Flanders,” she said.
“You do?” he asked.
“Yep!” she said.
“Where do you read your Bible?” he asked, eager to hear of her worship life.
“Oh, my Bible,” she said. “I don’t read the Holy Bible so much.”
The Derby Lane girl did not read her Bible so much?
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At a loss for words upon hearing this confessed, Flanders sought to change the subject, and he said, “The ice shoves are coming into your backyard, Jodi.”
“Yeah, Flanders. That they are,” said Jodi La Grandeur.
And this first meeting ended in a discomfiting excuse to go get alone with God.
The next day, Jodi La Grandeur went to visit Flanders and to try to patch things up. But as soon as he saw her at his door, he greatly bid her a fond welcome, and yesterday was forgotten in his mind. He said, “I’m glad to see you, Jodi!” He was beginning to get a crush on this pretty young brunette. He liked her argyle sweater, and he told her so. And she felt quite comfortable with this man of God once again. And he said, “Would you like to come in and see my dog?”
“You’ve got a dog, Flanders?” she asked.
“Yep! A big dog,” he said. “His name is ‘Blitz.’”
“Is that ‘Blitz’ as in ‘Blitzen’ the reindeer?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said.
“’Blitz’ means ‘lightning,’” she said.
“I never knew that,” he said. “Blitz is my best friend in life.”
He called up to the upstairs, “Come, boy!” And a big German Shepherd came walking down the carpeted stairs down to this first floor and up to the door.
“He’s so handsome,” said Miss La Grandeur. “May I pet him?”
“He likes to be petted,” said Flanders. “Come out and say, ‘Hi,’ boy.” And master and dog came outside to be with the Derby Lane girl. And the pretty young woman began to stroke the big dog across his back.
“He must be a very intelligent dog,” praised Jodi.
And Blitz gave her a brown-eyed look and cocked his canine head to the side at her and perked his ears straight up.
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“Why, he knows that I am talking about him,” said Jodi, impressed.
Then Blitz put his fore paw upon her black pump covering her foot, and he gave forth a short melodic bark, and he took his paw off of her foot.
“Why, I do say that he seems to know what I am saying,” exclaimed the Derby Lane girl.
At this, Blitz went ahead to nod his head with a clever sagacity in his canine features.
“Why, your dog understands perfectly everything I say!” said Jodi La Grandeur.
And she saw the German Shepherd steal a glance at his master, his canine lips subtly curled in a smile.
And to this Flanders said, “Blitzen is the best listener that I ever had in my whole life. I love him, and he loves me.”
“I already love him,” said Jodi in sweet affection.
“Let’s go for a walk in my front yard—the three of us, Jodi,” he said.
“Your front yard is big,” she said with some understatement.
And the three strolled about here on this side of Derby Lane.
He asked her then, “Where did you get your neat Argyle sweater, Jodi?”
“I had it so long now, that I cannot remember,” she said. “Let me think and see.”
“They don’t make Argyle sweaters that way anymore, and that’s a shame,” he said.
“How do they make them now?” she asked.
“They have the diamonds only on the front and not on the back and not down the sleeves.” he said. “I don’t like those kinds of Argyle sweaters.”
“This one I have on has diamonds everywhere—on the front and on the back and down both long sleeves,” she said.
“Pretty diamonds on a pretty girl, Jodi,” he said.
“I bet no girl got a compliment on her looks quite the same one as I got from you just now, O
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Flanders,” she said in affection.
“The rest of your outfit is pretty, too,” he said.
“Why, thank you, Flanders,” she said.
“You’re wearing the same outfit today as you did yesterday,” he told her in sincere praise.
“Now whether that is a compliment to a girl I cannot tell,” she said, her female pride put to the test.
“I like it lots!” he said in self-effacement.
“Oh, I remember now. I got this Argyle sweater at K-Mart,” she said.
“I remember K-Mart,” he said. “That was a great place to go shopping,” he said.
“I got the skirt and the tights and the shoes at that same K-Mart,” she said.
“What great clothes,” said Flanders. “They all look great on you, Jodi.”
“Where did you get your clothes?” she asked. “The blue jeans and the plaid shirt?”
“Long ago back at Shopko,” he said.
“Shopko is gone now, just like K-Mart,” said the Derby Lane girl
In this manner, the two reminisced upon old time department store giants that went out of business some years ago. They talked about Sears and about Montgomery Wards and about Younker’s. And they both agreed that today’s Walmart and Target did not have the great clothes that department stores of the old days had. But in the end, they both agreed that that was only because clothing styles for men and women had changed, and that clothing fashions had left Flanders and Jodi behind.
Then Jodi said, “Flanders, you’re a born-again believer like myself,”
“Jesus is my Best Friend,” he declared, “My Friend of Friends.”
“Let’s sit down in this grass and have a fun little prayer meeting as believers love to do together,” she said, seeking fellowship with this cute new guy who had a crush on her.
He turned away from the girl and looked at his German Shepherd. The German Shepherd
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looked up at the girl, and he closed his eyes and shook his head roughly in a “No.”
“What is Blitz saying, Flanders?” asked Miss La Grandeur. “Did I say something wrong?”
“What you said was definitely something right,” said Flanders. “But Blitz knows something about me that I did not tell you yet.”
“What is it, Flanders?” she asked. “Do tell me, if you would.”
And he told her, “After having wrestled so hard to maintain my prayer life, Jodi, I have given up praying in my walk with Christ.”
“You do not pray?” she asked, shocked.
“Not anymore,” he confessed. “It’s too hard for me to pray.”
“That’s so sad,” she said.
“And I am sad for that,” he confessed. “It never worked out.”
Not giving up on her life with Flanders, she said, “I’m not so great a Christian myself. We can still be with each other.”
“Yes, O Jodi,” he said quickly. “If I am not too bad a Christian for you because you pray, and I do not pray, then truly you are not too bad a Christian for me because I read my Bible, and you do not read the Bible.”
“We can be two born-again misfits who can complement each other just right in Christ, Flanders,” she said.
“You are one fetching daughter of God, Jodi,” he flirted with her.
“And you are one cute son of God, Flanders,” she returned in sincere flirt.
And they went on to play “Keepaway” with Blitzen in this large front yard. And Blitz won every time.
And their lives as boyfriend-and-girlfriend-in-the-Lord began for Flanders Nickels and his Derby Lane girl.
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Their next date took place, at Flanders’s eccentric request, upon the ice shoves of Lake Superior that were now well into the very deep backyard of Jodi’s place. He had his blue denim spring jacket underneath himself where he sat up on the great ice hills. As for Jodi, she sat upon her winter coat upon her ice shoves. But both were comfortable upon the cold ice just as they with each other. And they went ahead to give their personal testimonies of salvation.
The following is the tale of how Flanders had become born again: It all started for him as a little boy when he had a close call with death. He was just fine, but he should have been killed. God had spared his life. He was playing around in Dad’s workroom where Dad had told him, “Don’t goof around in my workroom.” And he climbed up upon the workbench where there were little pieces of boards: two-by-fours, one-by-twos, one-by-ones, among some of them. These were scraps left over from some of Dad’s latest work in this workroom. And Flanders was all by himself. He hoped that Dad didn’t catch him here. He might get a justified spanking from Dad if he did. Well, Flanders began to rub some of these wood scraps against each other. First he ran smooth edges against other smooth edges. Then he ran smooth edges against rough edges. Then he ran rough edges against other rough edges. Lo, he got a sliver in the hand part of his left thumb. He had to get that sliver out. And he looked around Dad’s workroom, opening up drawers and cupboards in a search for a tweezers. He knew that there was a tweezers in the bathroom medicine cabinet. But that was on the first floor. And he was down here in the basement. Were he to go get that bathroom’s tweezers, he might not be able to sneak down here again and continue his fun here in the workroom. And he found a tweezers in a drawer with nails and nuts and bolts. And he took the tweezers and sought long and hard to get the little sliver out of his left hand. And after long endeavor, it finally came out. And he was so glad. The tweezers were in his right hand. And he saw a wall outlet that Dad used to run his power tools. It was to his right where he sat upon the workbench. And it was about a foot above the work bench where he sat. He could easily reach it from here. He looked upon the tweezers for a while. He saw its two
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prongs at its end from which he had extracted the painful sliver. He then saw the wall outlet’s two holes, each side by side. The tweezers had two prongs, also side by side. Nothing was plugged into this wall outlet. Maybe he could plug in this tweezers into this convenient wall outlet. He did not know better, himself being yet a very young child. And with the naiveté of a child, Flanders went ahead and put the tweezers into the electrical outlet. And suddenly where he sat after having done this mischief, the lights in the workroom went out. He did not feel anything hurtful. But the lights going out like that sent him running up to the first floor, crying to Mom and Dad. Lo, the whole rest of the house was also dark. His mischief had caused the power to go out in the whole house. And he confessed all. And Dad went down there, making sure for the power to not yet come back on, and he most carefully pulled the tweezers out of the socket. Then he turned the circuit breaker back on. Then Mom told him, “Flanders, you could have been killed.” And Dad said, “Flanders, you’ve been fooling around in my workroom.” And Dad gave him the spanking of his life. Flanders was duly moved by what Dad said and did. And he never went alone into the workroom again. But what Mom had said to him had an even greater effect upon him. What if he had died? He should be dead. God had mercy on him. If he had died in that accident, where would he be right now? Heaven? Hell? It had to be one or the other. And he found a healthy fear of Hell. And he found a wise hope for Heaven. And not long later, a soul-winner, going door-to-door in the neighborhood, came to Mom and Dad’s house and led the whole family to salvation. This was how Flanders Nickels had found the Saviour.
The following is the true tale of how Jodi La Grandeur had become born again: It was an accident that got her thinking about eternity as a child as well. As a little girl, Jodi liked to play with caps. Caps was an innocent and good toy for those who played with them carefully. Caps were little spools of rolled red strips of paper with tiny pouches of gunpowder spread throughout from beginning to end. Big Brother told Jodi the best way to set them off with the loudest bangs. And that was to spread them out flat on a sidewalk and have at it upon them with a hammer. And that Miss La
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Grandeur did all the time with gusto and frequency. She took a roll of caps, unrolled a span, spread it out upon the city sidewalk, and set two big rocks at the ends to keep it flat down upon the surface. And she took a hammer and began to pound it with a hammer. And every time the hammer head hit one of these little pockets of gunpowder, it make a little explosion. And she had her greatest fun in her days as a little girl doing this. But Mom did give her a warning. She said, “Now, Jodi, don’t get your face too close to the caps. You might put out an eye.” But Jodi, overconfident and somewhat sassy in her youth, went on to tell Mom, “’Everything is real funny, until someone loses an eye.’” Then she laughed and said, “I heard that on TV.” And she laughed again. Mom said to her, “Jodi, that’s not funny.” And to get away from further scolding, Jodi went outside to play with her caps again. And after a while of safe blasting away with the caps, Jodi saw a little iron nail between the cracks of her sidewalk. She put down the hammer. She picked up the nail. And she looked upon her roll of caps all flattened out between the two rocks. Lo, there was still one little cap yet on this span that her hammer missed. She looked at the nail in her hand. And she looked at the cap that she had not yet blown up. And she began to scratch at this little pocket of gunpowder with the sharp point of the nail. She was careful not to set it off too quickly. She wanted to play around with it for a little while first. And she drew her face closer to get a better look at it as she scraped the nail across it. And she brought her face closer as she scraped at it with the nail. Then she brought her face right up to it as she scraped at it with her nail. For sure she had forgotten her Mom’s rule. Suddenly the gunpowder blew up. And it blew up in her face. Her one eye hurt real bad. And she could not see light with it right now. Her other eye felt good. She could see light with this eye. She quickly put her hand to her wounded eye, and she cried out, “Mom!” Quickly Mom came out and ran up to her. “I can’t see! I can’t see!” cried out little Jodi. With a mother’s wisdom, Mom could tell what just happened. Right away Dad came out to see what happened. And Mom and Dad drove her to the emergency room of the hospital, both praying for her. Mom and Dad were already born again. And they had continually sought to win their daughter’s soul
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to Christ by warning her of the fires of Hell. But this had not convicted Jodi of her need for the Saviour. But, as she lay in the hospital bed with Mom and Dad in the room with her, Jodi asked, “Am I ever going to see light out of this eye again?” And Mom said, “Only God knows, Jodi.” And Dad said, “We’re praying for you, O daughter,” And scary thoughts about the darkness of Hell came upon her. If she were to go to Hell, would it be as dark down there as it was in her now bad eye right here? She was always a little girl afraid of the dark. And right now the utter darkness of Hell convicted her of her doom more than the fires of Hell did. And she cried out to Mom and Dad, “I don’t want to go down to Hell and see nothing ever more at all for forever!” And Mom and Dad joyfully went on to lead Jodi La Grandeur to a saving knowledge of Jesus. Her eye quickly went on to get all good as new again. Mom had to ground her for having disobeyed her. And Dad made her rake the whole yard by herself for her disobedience to her mother. And she gave up caps. This was how the Derby Lane girl had become a Christian a long time ago.
After this happy fellowship upon the ice shoves, Flanders and Jodi thanked each other, and went back to their homes—him, to his den to read his King James Bible; and her, to her bedroom to pray to her Heavenly Father.
The next day, Flanders went to church again. But before he left the house for the morning he said to regal Blitzen, “Have a good time, boy. I will be back in a little while. Feel free to wander around the neighborhood. Be good. Do not make piles or puddles on anyone’s property that is not ours. Be nice to the other dogs in this new city of ours. Look out for cars and all, as you already know. And if you are good, I will give you a hamburger with the works. Do you understand, Blitzen?”
The German Shepherd gave forth a hearty bark in reply. He understood.
“Oh, one more thing,” said Flanders Nickels. “Stay off of the ice shoves. I never saw ice shoves before I came here. They’re spooky. And maybe not always safe to be around.”
Again the German Shepherd gave forth a bark of assent. And Flanders left for church. It was
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a Baptist church, and it was new to him in his new life on Derby Lane. And he had a good time of fellowship and of hearing the preached Word of God. He would definitely come back again. Then he came back home to be with Blitz again.
Behold, when he pulled into his driveway, his good canine friend was not there waiting for him.
“That’s odd. Very odd,” Flanders said to himself. And he went out back into his little backyard to look for him. He was not there. He went back to the spacious front yard. Of course he was not here, either.
He went up to Blitz’s room upstairs in the house. He was not there, either. “Bad. This is very bad,” he said. “Maybe he went on a longer walk than usual this time,” Flanders said now. “This Derby Lane is our new neighborhood. Maybe he wanted to find out all about it.” But this aberrance subtly told Flanders not so. He did not think to pray. And he began now to call forth Blitz’s name. And there was no familiar canine response. He sought comfort from the Word of God. And he said to himself, “It is written, ‘There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear:…’ I John 4:18.” He was comforted.
He was at the park now, here where had seen the ice shoves for his first time in his new life by Lake Superior just the other day. And he looked out upon all of those ice bunches. Blitz was not here at the park on the forbidden ice shoves. Then it came to him. What about the ice shoves out back of Jodi’s place? Could it be that Blitz was trapped out in those ice shoves? Calling out “Blitzen!” many times over, he began to run back to Derby Lane to Jodi’s place. And once there, he ran on beyond her house to her big backyard. The ice shoves were now a major part of her way into her backyard from the Great Lake. If Blitz were on an ice shove back here on solid ground he would be okay. But Blitz was not on any ice shove here upon the backyard. Himself standing upon the ice shove that was closest to Lake Superior and that was yet on solid ground, Flanders looked out onto the vast waters northward, and he called out, “Blitz!” And he looked around out there from where he stood, straining his eyes and straining his ears and straining his stiff muscles. Then he heard the distant sounds of a whimpering.
It was Blitz. He was crying. Lo, there he was, standing at the top of an ice shove a hundred yards out
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into the ice cold perilous waters. His best friend was alive. But he was not well. And he was in danger for his life. Where Blitz was now was a solitary big piece of ice shove floating upon freezing waters. His was the only ice shove out this far. Between him and the next closest ice shove to Flanders was frigid Lake Superior for a good hundred feet. After this one hundred feet, a dog could, with God’s providence hop from ice shove to ice shove and safely get back to land. Flanders made up his mind. He would run out and jump into Lake Superior and swim to where his best friend was and rescue him. “I’ll save you, Blitz!” he called forth.
“Don’t be crazy, Flanders!” cried out a familiar feminine voice behind him.
He turned, and there stood his fair Jodi La Grandeur.
“Let God help, Flanders,” urged the Derby Lane girl.
“What can God do?” asked Flanders in a moment of spiritual weakness.
“He can answer prayer, Flanders,” called forth Miss La Grandeur.
“But God does not answer prayer, Jodi,” he said.
“He does for me, Flanders,” she said.
“He does not for me,” he said.
“That’s not true,” she said.
“A God Whom I see not is also a God that hears not,” he said in the bitterness of his heart.
“There must be a reason why this is so for you, Flanders,” she said.
“I know the reason,” he said. “It is written, ‘But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.’ Isaiah 59:2.”
“What does that Bible verse say?” she asked.
“It says that I have an unconfessed sin so bad, that God refuses to hear me when I pray,” he summed up this Scripture verse.
“Then go and confess that sin right away, Flanders,” she said.
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“Alas, I have no idea what it might be, Jodi,” he said.
They looked out onto the dog out on Lake Superior. Behold, his ice shove was floating farther away now.
“We don’t have much more time,” she said.
“Would you pray for Blitz, O Jodi?” he asked. “God will always hear your prayers. You pray to Him all of the time.”
She prayed that God rescue gallant Blitz. But nothing happened. Blitz was not only not drifting in closer, but was still drifting out farther.
“Flanders, I think that God wants to hear it from you,” said the Derby Lane girl.
“If God takes him from me, I will never be the same,” confessed Flanders.
“Keep your heart on Jesus, boyfriend,” exhorted Miss La Grandeur.
“Blitz hears everything I say,” said Flanders. “If only Jesus did the same.”
“Boyfriend, Jesus is here with you now,” rebuked his girlfriend him his lack of faith.
Just then he saw his beloved German Shepherd slip on the ice and slide down the shove and stop just before the dangerous cold water at its edge!
“Lord Jesus, forgive me my sin and save my Blitz!” cried out Flanders.
Jodi La Grandeur peered out into Lake Superior, and she said, “”It does seem to me that he is no longer going farther away, Flanders.”
“I saw God, Jodi,” he declared in glory to the Lord.
“When did you see God, Flanders?” she asked.
“Just now when I prayed,” he said. “I saw Christ standing upon that ice shove right there with Blitz.”
“I did not see Him,” said Jodi.
“I did. I cannot see Him there now. But I know that He is still there, for Blitz,” said Flanders.
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“You confessed your sin,” she said. “God is good.”
“I know my sin now that kept God from hearing me all these years,” he said. “I was all these years putting Blitz first and God second right from the start. Surely God will not hear one of His own praying to Him when He comes second in a believer’s life.”
“Look, Flanders,” the ice shove is, strangely enough, coming closer,” said the Derby Lane girl.
“Does it look like it’s getting closer to you?”
He did not look out there long, but he quickly said, “Blitz is coming closer, Jodi. Praise God!”
“Then he will be all right, Flanders?” sang out comely Miss La Grandeur in query.
“God is saving my Blitz!” he said in a breaking voice.
“Has the same God saved your prayer life, Flanders?” she asked.
“I felt the Holy Spirit in that prayer that I just prayed. I tell you, Jodi. I felt God there with me for just that moment in that prayer for my first time ever,” he said.
“Maybe your prayers will be better for you for now on,” she said.
“All that I know is that I want to feel that peaceful feeling of prayer all the time now. And I am sure that I can find that for now on,” he said. “My prayer life will soon be just as good as my Bible-reading life.”
“You love the Bible, Flanders,” said the Derby Lane girl, “and now you love to pray.”
“I finally learned what Psalm 16:8 had been trying to teach me all my life about when it comes to daily prayer,” he said.
“What does that verse say?” she asked.
And he recited this Scripture: “I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.”
“How does that help your prayer life for you, Flanders?” she asked.
“It tells me that every time that I pray now I need only in faith to know that He is there with
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me as I talk to Him. That is, I can claim His Presence as there not only before me, but also at my right hand, as that verse promises. For now on I know and will feel that God is listening to me. What prayer cannot be mighty in the Lord that has God listening upon it from Heaven Above, O Jodi?”
“Look, Flanders. Blitz is right there, real close to us now!” said the Derby Lane girl.
Flanders saw Blitz’s ice shove now up against the pile of ice shoves that stretched out from the land unto the lake.
“Don’t mind me, girlfriend,” he said, climbing carefully out onto the slew of ice shoves on the water, “I have a naughty dog to rescue.”
“Be careful, Boyfriend,” she said.
And Flanders quickly and gingerly came out unto his German Shepherd. He hugged him long and hard and told him how much he loved him. Blitzen groaned in the depths of his stomach like the purring of a kitten. Dog was happy; master was happy; woman was happy; God was happy. Then Flanders gently led his German Shepherd back out onto the shoves upon the ground. And then they all three walked back to the part of the backyard that was yet without the shoves. And Flanders requested of his date a prayer meeting. And boyfriend-and-girlfriend-in-Christ prayed in a prayer circle, thanking God for having saved noble Blitzen. All this prayer, Blitz also had his canine head bowed in a manifest reverence toward the prayer of the two people. And the prayer was sweet delights to Flanders.
And the ice shoves were getting ever nearer to the Derby Lane girl’s library building out back.
She prayed morning and noon and night in her safe bedroom for the preservation of her cherished little library. Her King James Bible was on her desk top in this same bedroom. But she did not think to open it up. Every time she did before, it always bored her. What did she know about the Old Testament? She knew that it had two very short books near its end, where the short books were—both starting with an “H.” One was “Haggai” or “Haggia,” she could not remember. And she never finished reading this book. It was “more of that boring Bible stuff.” And the other was “Habakkuk” or
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“Habbakuk.” Again she could not remember. And she never finished this book, either. This book did nothing in her spiritual life, either. In her faithlessness to her Bible-reading, these two books were the very symbol of her forfeited and failed Bible-reading life as a believer in Christ. As for the New Testament, she read the sermon on the mount and the beatitudes and Jesus’s teachings on forgiveness and on adultery in a man’s heart and on turning the other cheek and on loving your enemy and on the mote in the eye and the beam in the eye. Other than that, she could not remember the rest of the New Testament.
In an animated prayer one night a few days later here in this bedroom, thinking upon the invading ice shoves, she suddenly said to God in her wandering heart, “Lord, I have never read my foreign language textbooks. I’ve got to take a look at them before they’re gone!”
And Jodi La Grandeur even left her prayer now behind in the middle to go maybe one last time to her library before the ice shoves could plow into it and knock it over. It was midnight, and the ice shoves were now up against the back wall of her library. It was almost all over now for the textbook scholar. She turned on the lights, and she went to her foreign language section of her high school curriculum library. She regretted having passed by these books for other books in her studies. It was not too late to enjoy foreign language books for maybe this one time. She picked up one book that was entitled, “Ecouter and Parler.” This looked like a textbook for French I, maybe. Studying this wonderful book, she came to believe that the title could be translated, “To listen and to speak.” After a while, she put this book back upon her shelves, and she picked up another foreign language textbook. This one was entitled “Entre Nosotros.” She reveled with this book, and decided that this book must be a textbook for Spanish I probably. And its title most probably could translate to “Among ourselves.”
Then she put this book back on her bookshelves. Now she needed a German textbook to look at. This would cap off for her perhaps her final time in this library for the rest of her life. The library was surely going down. She had prayed for this library to remain standing, but God must have said, “No.”
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And the Derby Lane girl chose to rest in the will of the Lord and to accept this loss in her life. She should never have sacrificed her Bible-reading life. She should never have fallen in love with studies. She should never have preferred this library to her Bible desk. But she accepted this chastening from God as a humble woman of God who had gone wrong, but who loved God still and still wanted to worship him yet in all of her prayers. Just one more book before they were crushed by ice shoves.
She went ahead to look through her German section of her foreign language area in here. Just then a veritable breaking of glass and splintering of wood and cracking of brick came from the back of the library! Ice shoves! It was happening already! “Not yet, Lord!” she cried out in supplication. She held her breath in dismay. No more noise came upon her here right now. “Just one more book, O God!” she prayed in pleading. She turned away from her German language section of this building. And she listened. Nothing more was happening for a while now. “Just let me look at one German book before it all goes away on me, O Father,” she prayed. Again no more creaking of wall came forth upon her ears for a moment. But she feared for her life in here now. And she did not turn back to any of the German textbooks, but instead ran to the back wall to see how bad it really was back there. The back door was off of its hinges; the window was shattered; there were bricks scattered about on the floor. But the books back in this section of the library were still upon their shelves. In good sound fear, she backed up away from this wall a few feet, and she stood transfixed, fearful of more sights and sounds of the imminent destruction. There were no more noises for now from the moving ice shoves. A still small voice told her, “Get out, My daughter.” This was the Holy Spirit of God. And she fled out of her library in obedience to God. And once outside, she lamented, “My last book! My German book! I will never see it!”
Just then Flanders Nickels came up to her. He said, “Jodi, an angel woke me up and told me to come here for you! What’s happening?”
“It’s the ice shoves, Flanders! They’re doing it now!” she told him.
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He looked at the back of this library outside here. “That back wall looks terrible, Jodi,” he said.
“We better back away. It’s not safe being near here.”
“God is rebuking me,” she said in humble confession.
“We do not know that for sure,” he said. “Not every trial that comes into a Christian’s life is due to sin.”
“Where in the Bible does it talk about God’s hand of judgment, Flanders?” she asked.
“I know a verse,” he said, “if you want to hear it at a time like this,”
“Tell it to me, Flanders. I need to hear it,” she said.
“It is Jeremiah 5:25,” he said. “And it goes like this: ‘Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you.’”
“Good things from me,” she declared to Flanders.
“These wonderful books,” he said in commiseration.
“Nay,” she said. “Good things like a daily Bible-reading life.”
“You are a very discerning Christian lady saying something like that in such a time as this, O Jodi,” he said to her, enlightened.
In prayer, the Derby Lane girl said up to God, “Almighty Father, I give up my library for my Bible-reading desk if I can learn to enjoy the Bible as I ought to.”
“He has not taken away your library yet,” said Flanders in both encouragement and warning.
“I have not heard any further creaking since the first one, Flanders,” said Miss La Grandeur.
“What do you wish now?” asked Flanders, testing her sincerity for himself about her promise to God.
“Lord, go ahead and knock it down!” she said.
He listened. He heard no more breaking of boards. She, in her zeal for the Lord, ran up to the library, climbed the ice shoves, and began to kick at the bricks to help the ice shoves tear down her
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old beloved library.
He ran up to her and forced her back away from the dangerous spot. “Jodi, Jodi, what are you doing?” he asked.
“I’m helping God to take this bad library out of my walk with Christ,” she said.
“You are acting wild,” he said.
“Doesn’t the Bible say, ‘God helps those who help themselves?’” asked the Derby Lane girl.
“That is not in the Bible,” he said. “Believe me. I’ve been reading the Bible all of my life. That is a saying of man, not a saying of God.”
“This is the least that I can do for God,” she said.
“Jodi, what you’re doing is running ahead of God,” he said. “What the Bible says is to wait upon God and do what God wills you to do according the Scriptures.”
She stopped her impetuous attack on the library. And she pondered his words. Then she said, “How come I don’t hear any more creaking of ice shoves?”
“The Lord’s way is best, Jodi,” he gently told her as her boyfriend-in-the-Lord. But he said, “I would bet, though, that God sees your great repentance.”
“This library may not be the sin, then?” she asked.
“I think that it may be simply a matter that we need to let God make right,” he said to her.
“My terrible Bible-reading,” she said. “That’s the problem.”
“Well, this day, God will make the Bible your favorite Book,” said Flanders. “And I think that He can use me, with my love for the Bible, to teach you to love the Bible, too.”
“If you could do that for me, then I can be happy, library or no library,” said the Derby Lane girl.
“Now tell me what you used to do when you sat down to read the Good Book, that is before you gave it all up.” he asked.
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“Oh, that’s easy to answer, Flanders,” said Miss La Grandeur. “What I did was to sit down and open the Bible at my bedroom desk, go and pick out a chapter or two here and there, read the chapter or two, then I was done.”
“So you’re telling me that you read the Bible as a person would read a novel.” said Flanders.
“Isn’t that how most Christians read the Holy Bible?” she asked.
“It may or may not be how most Christians read the Bible,” he said. “But that’s not how I read the Bible.”
“No other Christian that I ever met loves to read the Bible as much as you do, Flanders.” said Jodi.
“That’s because I don’t just read the Good Book, but I study the Good Book,” he said.
“I never really sat down and studied the Good Book before,” said Jodi La Grandeur.
“Do you read your high school textbooks like a novel?” he asked.
“Why, no. Of course not,” she said. “I study my textbooks.”
“What makes your textbook studies not like reading a novel?” he asked.
“I use a pencil,” she said.
“What do you do with your pencil with your textbooks that make it so enjoyable for you?” he asked.
She thought for a while, then said, “I underline things on the pages. I write notes on the margins along the text. I fill up little index card notebooks with things I learn from my textbooks. And also I memorize things from my index card notebooks. And I take my time, savoring the experience for a long time, sometimes even for over an hour or two at one sitting.”
“There, girl. Go and do likewise with your King James Bible.” he said.
“Is that it?” she asked. “Is that all that I have to do different? That sounds like the best new idea that I ever heard in my walk with Christ, Flanders.”
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“It is written, ‘Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth,’ II Timothy 2:15,” proclaimed Flanders Nickels.
“I understand now,” said the Derby Lane girlfriend. “God says in that verse, ‘Study the Scriptures.’ He does not say in that verse, ‘Just read the Scriptures.’”
“You’ve got it, girl,” he said, triumphant in the Lord.
“But how will I come up with the ideas that God is saying in the Holy Bible?” she asked.
“When you sit down to read the Bible, first pray, ‘Lord, teach me what You’re trying to tell me.’ Then hold the pencil. And begin to read. The Holy Spirit will open Your eyes to the secrets in the Bible as you read. And with the pencil, your Bible-reading will come alive into a Bible-studying.” he taught the Derby Lane girl.
“Why that will make for me the Good Book to become the Great Book, O Flanders,” sang out Jodi La Grandeur.
“Jodi, I do believe that the ice shoves are no longer advancing,” he said.
“Why this one that was breaking down my wall is now farther back,” she said.
“By the mercy of God, the ice shoves are receding back into Lake Superior,” he said.
“I can still have my library then,” she said.
“Your books will not be taken away from you,” he said.
“I tell you this,” she promised. “For now on the one Book on my desk will be more important to me in my daily life than my hundreds of books in the library.”
“Could I come over tomorrow morning and fix up your wall?” he asked.
“It’s already after midnight,” she said. “And the hour is late.” They both needed a rest.
“How about tomorrow afternoon, then, Jodi?” he asked.
“I’ll be here,” she said. “Thanks for all of your help, Flanders.” And she prayed, “And thank You, too Good Lord.”
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And they went to their homes and turned in for the night.
It was the next evening, and Flanders and Jodi and Blitz were standing on the shores of Lake Superior way back at the far end of her big backyard. “Thank you for fixing up my library this afternoon, Flanders,” she said.
“It’s a beautiful little library, Jodi,” he said.
“The ice shoves are way out there now,” said the Derby Lane girl, gazing far out into Lake Superior. “I can hardly see them now.”
“Things are quite mangled back here that were in their path,” said Flanders.
“Trees, bushes, even my grass,” she said.
“The very ground is all broken open,” he said.
“But that’s all right,” she said. “Blitz is safe, My library is safe. We are safe.”
“How did it go for you for your Bible study today?” he asked with all due anticipation.
“Oh, it was great,” she said. “I started I Chronicles.”
“I Chronicles, woman,” he said. “Uh oh.”
“I saw lots and lots of names, one after another,” she said.
“Yikes, the genealogies,” he said.
“Right away I found gold,” she confessed.
“’Adam, Sheth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalaleel, Jered. Henoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.’ I Chronicles 1:1-4,” he recited by memory.
“Uh huh. The first four verses,” she said. She continued, “I heard of Adam, Earth’s first man. And I heard of Methuselah, Earth’s oldest man. And I heard of Noah, the man who survived Earth’s great flood,”
“I bet that the Holy Spirit taught you something big when you studied these four verses, Jodi,” he said to her.
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“Yeah, Flanders,” she said. “I came to understand that this list was a list of the descendants of Adam since the creation of man. It gave the names of men and their sons and their sons’ sons and their sons’ sons’ sons. And so on. And I knew that these men were the men who lived in Earth’s earliest days. I read it over again. And I underlined it with my pencil. And I prayed about it. And God told me that this list here was a family tree of the days when men’s lives were much longer than they are now. It was like I was reading something from the origins of history. And I wrote next to these verses in my Bible with my pencil, ‘When men lived several centuries.’ Such wisdom there is in the Bible, O Flanders.”
“Ah, girl. That antediluvian genealogy,” said Flanders Nickels in his great Bible wisdom. “Truly Genesis chapter five in short.”
“What’s the ‘antediluvian genealogy’ mean?” she asked.
“That’s the world’s family tree before the great flood came upon it,” he said to her.
“Did you hear that, Blitz?” asked the Derby Lane girl.
“Whoof! Whoof!” barked Blitzen.
And Miss La Grandeur leaned down and kissed the German Shepherd on his head. And the German Shepherd raised his head and kissed Miss La Grandeur on her face.
“Real neat Blitz,” said the Derby Lane girl in admiration for his dog.
“Real neat girlfriend,” said Flanders in praise for Jodi.
“Real neat boyfriend,” said Jodi in praise for Flanders.
“Woof! Woof!” barked Blitzen again.
Then Jodi asked, “Was your prayer good to you now today, Flanders?”
“I did pray at that, Jodi,” he said. “Thank you for asking. I tell you, it was like Jesus was there with me in my every word.”
“Do tell me all about it,” she said.
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“I was at the park. The wind was blowing very hard. And I was on the edge of the shore. I
could almost reach out my foot and put it into the lake I was so close. But I dared not do that. I heard how Lake Superior gets—very, very cold all the seasons of the year. So I sat down on the beach. I was alone with God. And the wind was making so much noise that it ended up enhancing my prayer all the more. The longer the great wind blew in my ears, the ‘louder’ my thoughts of prayer became. I even started praying out loud spontaneously, girl. It was great. Jesus ‘was sitting with me.’”
“What did you pray about?” she asked.
“I was thinking about how peaceful that Heaven will be for me when I come Home to be with the Prince of Peace,” he said.
“Ah, a prayer about Heaven,” she said. “I know about those kinds of prayers.”
“The Bible calls that our ‘blessed hope,’” he said to her.
“The blessed hope?” she asked.
“The rapture of the believers,” he said.
“Oh, what peace there is in Heaven,” she said in reverie.
“There our Bible-study will be instead listening to and seeing our Good Lord talk to us in His regal glory,” said Flanders. “And There our prayers will be instead talking to and seeing our Good Lord in His regal glory.”
“Bible study is real. Prayer is real. This fellowship with our Saviour in our Heaven to come will really be real,” exclaimed the Derby Lane girl.
“I wonder if there will be dogs in Heaven,” he said.
“I wonder if there will be ice shoves in Heaven,” she said.
“Christ will be in Heaven,” he said. “That’s good enough for me.
“Me, too, Boyfriend,” said the Derby Lane girlfriend.
“And I will have you, Jodi,” he said.
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“And I will have you, Flanders,” she said.
“And Jesus will have us,” he said.
“As we will have Him,” said Jodi La Grandeur.
“For ever, O Jodi,” said Flanders.
“For ever!” declared the Derby Lane girl.
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