His name was Flanders Nickels of 118 ½ North Broadway, Apartment Two, De Pere, Wisconsin, and he was at his desk in his bedroom reading his King James Bible and praying to God. He was a born-again believer now for one year, and this year was 1989. His thoughts of prayer waxed reminiscent, and he remembered an extra special girl who had stolen his heart head-over-heels over a year ago now. She was Lisa Highness. They had worked together for five months at the grocery store—he, as bag boy; she, as cashier. And in those five months she became to him “the most beautiful check-out clerk in the whole world.” At that time, she was twenty-six years old, and he was twenty-six years old; she was five feet eight inches, and he was five feet eight inches; she was nice and thin, and he was nice and thin. That was the year 1988, and Flanders knew that nothing was any different with his and her slimness here in 1989. In prayer of nostalgia, Flanders remembered with God that first day for her as a fellow employee of his: He first saw her in the back; he saw a most beautiful back of a head full of dark brown straight wispy hair going down below the back of her neck; she was dressed in
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a long-sleeved smock with very thin alternating green and white stripes running vertically and black denim pants; and he wondered whether she were as beautiful in her front as she was in her back. Then she turned around; and, behold, she was even more beautiful now that he saw her front: her eyes were as dark brown as her hair, and she had most full bangs across her forehead, and those delightful wisps of hair descended down the sides of her head in their fullness down to her shoulders and below. Were this new worker a blue-eyed brunette, she would never have seized his heart as she did quite as the brown-eyed brunette. He remembered what he secretly thought that moment her eyes and his eyes saw each other: He thought in daydream that it were as if this woman had stolen beauty away from all other women just to keep for herself. Such a thing was not; but it sure gave due glory in the soul of Flanders to the new girl working here now. What a fox! And thus began his five months with Lisa as the cashier for whom he bagged the groceries of all the customers. And though he and Lisa were not dating each other as boyfriend-and-girlfriend, for him his days at work were like a sweet romance. He remembered now in prayer that one most idyllic thrill which he had come to call “the memory which I will take with me to Heaven.” That was when the whole bunch of hair along the left side of her head happened to pass across his whole right hand accidentally when he was bagging. Nothing as beautiful before or after ever touched his right hand. He remembered now also in prayer his little handwritten stories that he wrote for the break room for other workers and herself to read. In those one-page stories, Lisa,
called therein “Gravel,” would follow the frozen manager around and say things like, “Why ever do you think so, fairest John?” or “How ever is it so, finest John?” For a little while, Lisa also had her sister Laurie working here as well for three months. Then the magical five months drew to a close.
Lisa Highness put in her two-week notice. And Flanders had his last day at work with her. Fair Lisa that day saw how Flanders was admiring a most cute little vase of toothpicks for sale on the shelf.
And in bountiful kindness she bought it for him and gave it to him. It was a gift from a dream girl.
In prayer now at his desk, sorrow came upon him as he remembered seeing her as she left the store
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on that final day one year ago: She had on her black and red winter coat that reached down to her waist; she approached the double-sliding doors of the exit; they opened straight out, sliding left and right; and she walked through them; and they closed back up again. And he never saw her again since.
But something happened to him not long later that was more happy than this farewell was unhappy. He shared his blessed fortune with God in further prayer at this desk now. What happened for him was that he became a born-again Christian since those days with Lisa at the grocery store. He had come to Christ and gotten saved from his sins. Now he was on the road to Heaven and no longer on the road to Hell. In those five months of magic, both he and Lisa were lost in their sins, and neither of them knew that. And in this year since, he had become a most diligent and desperate prayer-warrior for the soul of this extra special woman. To get to Heaven, Lisa also had to become a born-again believer as he did. He interceded for his dear “Gravel” with so fervent and effectual prayer, it was as if he were “romancing her soul.” She had to end up in Heaven! She was too beautiful not to go There!
Heaven would be less celestial if she were not There with him! And once again he cried up to God, “Lord, please send a witness-warrior her way who is as dogged for her soul as I am her prayer-warrior for her soul.” Where she now lived, this man had no clue. All he knew that stirred his heart was that she was still lost in her sins and going to Hell. This must not be for her!
And his prayer now at his desk was finished. He resumed reading the book of Isaiah in his Holy Bible. And he came to Isaiah 6:8, where God called the prophet Isaiah into the ministry. This verse said this: “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.” Truly the Word of God convicts with great Holy Ghost power!
God was now calling Flanders into a ministry to win fair Gravel’s soul! In obedience, Flanders Nickels stood up at his desk, and he promised God now, “Here am I! Send me!” Submitting now to the will of the Lord, Flanders finally went to look up Lisa Highness in the phone book. And, behold, there she
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was–”Lisa Highness, 555-5555, 001 ½ Central Drive, De Pere, WI, 54115.” Should he call her up first? Should he write to her first? Should he go right over and visit her first? Quickly the Holy Spirit told him what to do right now.
At home in her second-story apartment, Lisa Highness was alone at her dining room table and reading her King James Bible. She had indeed herself found Christ the personal Saviour some many months ago. Flanders, saved longer than she, did not know this about her. But God did bid him tonight to come back into her life for a reason that only God knew. And all things work together for good when God wroughts His will into deeds. And Lisa did not know about Flanders’s discovery of that verse in Isaiah tonight. Here once again at her Bible-reading table in this dining room, Lisa was in the midst of another joyful and satisfying one-and-one-quarter hour or one-and-one-half hour Bible study.
Her simple and basic chandelier lamp of five lights gave light upon her from above. It operated on a rheostat switch, and she liked to tinker with the brightness of these lamps. Her table was of solid oak and had four solid oak chairs around it, and her Mom had given this to her when she had first moved out some years ago. Along the near wall to where she sat was her roommate’s unused box spring mattress leaning against the wall and with three ladies’ blue jeans hanging down the sides and drying from having been put into the washing machine. Lisa’s roommate was an unsaved woman named Liza.
And right now Liza was out for the night with the guys and the gals. Liza preferred to sleep upon just the top mattress resting upon the floor of her bedroom and nothing else. Upon Lisa Highness’s table here was her Holy Bible and her loose pile of twelve sharp number two lead pencils and her unmounted pencil sharpener. To sharpen one of these “underlining pencils,” as she called them, Miss Highness held down upon the pencil sharpener with her right hand, put the pencil in with her left hand, and turned the crank with her right hand as she held down the pencil sharpener. Though number two lead pencils were good for underlining in the Bible, making the verses thus underlined very manifest with dark lead, such lead became dull quickly and did always need more sharpening. Number two lead is
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quite soft pencil lead. How did Lisa Highness go about and do her Bible study every day in the way that was best for her? First she read a chapter one time through beginning to end. Then she would go and reread this same chapter and put underlinings under verses or groups of verses that stood out to her.
Then she would read this same chapter again as it was. Then she would go and study her underlined verses or passages of verses, reading them each three times through in a row. And her underlinings were of three types. The one type—the basic “underscore,” as she called this type—was a regular underline underneath the verse that was a good verse. The next highest type—the one she called a “double-bar,”–was a particularly dark underline beneath the verse that was a great verse. And the highest type—the “box” as she called it—was a very dark box drawn around the verse and full of dark underlinings within the box; and these were for the grand verses that she discovered. Further, she would pray three petitions to God every time she sat down to read the Word of God. First she would pray, “Lord, teach me what You’re trying to tell me in the Bible this night.” Then she would pray the words of Psalm 119:18: “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.” Then Miss Highness would pray the words of Psalm 119:27: “Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of thy wondrous works.”
Here and now, Lisa was in the book of Matthew in progress. She had prayed her three supplications. And she began to read and study and underline in Matthew chapter seven. And Miss Highness came to Matthew 7:7-11: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?” Whoa, here was an instant box! And in eager zeal, Lisa went to work and drew in a box all around and throughout this group of five verses. And after much such work with
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her pencil, she paused to reflect upon this box of verses. And a most profound revelation came upon her as she pondered in the Lord. Surely the Good Lord had given her so much blessing in this life; what could she give back to Him in the life to come as a way to say, “Thank You?” Suddenly Lisa Highness wanted to give back to God in Heaven something in return for all that He had done for her here on Earth. But what could it be? What did she have that would be good enough to give to Him?
What present could honor such a Recipient from a woman like her? And her heart became impassioned with restlessness. And she prayed now, saying, “Lord Jesus, You have given me all things. I want to give You something. What would You like? Tell me, and I shall give it to You. I await Your answer to my prayer. In Your name I pray. Amen.”
Just then her telephone rang. Leaping up, she skipped to the phone and answered it, “Hello?”
“Hello,” said the voice on the other end. This voice was a man’s voice, and she knew not who it was, yet it sounded pleasingly familiar. This man went on to say, “Is this Lisa Highness?”
“This is she,” she said. “I think that I heard your voice before somewhere.” She was both beguiled and curious.
“Gravel!” he said, any hesitation now become sureness.
“Flanders?” she asked in most manifest gladness.
“This is I, Lisa,” he said. “Do you remember me?”
“A girl does not forget a guy who writes stories about her,” she said. “What a nice surprise to hear from you like this.”
“I was wondering if you would mind a nice surprise for me to come and see you like this,” he said.
“You’re coming over?” she asked.
“If you would like,” he said. “God wants me to come.”
“Right now, I hope?” she asked.
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“I would like that, Gravel,” he said.
“I’ll be here waiting, O Flanders,” said Lisa Highness.
“I’ll be right over,” he said. And they hung up. Gravel remembered this real neat guy who had such a crush on her. And she really kind of liked him, too. He and she were both unsaved back in those days. She was saved now herself. What about him? Maybe he was saved, too. After all, he did say that God was sending him here. God uses believers in ways that He does not use unbelievers.
Was she still his fox here a year later? Was he still a cute guy now a year later? And what would God send him here to her apartment for so spontaneously? Yes, God works in mysterious ways. A little impatient and somewhat nervous as such a “rendezvous,” Gravel stepped out of her apartment, walked down the hall and waited for him at the top of the staircase. She wanted to make it easy for him to find her. And in came Flanders down there. He stood there for a moment in this front entrance to this Steckardt Building. He looked up at her, and she looked down to him. An affinity passed between them with no words spoken. Then he climbed the steps and stood before her; and the affinity became a chemistry.
She saw a handsome admirer in a winter navy pea coat and blue jeans and penny loafers. He saw an old flame in an enchanting Halloween outfit: a black and gray and white long-sleeved plaid shirt and a ladies’ vest buttoned up with all black in back and with all jack-o-lanterns in front and a black ruffled skirt of two flounces that reached to her knees and black fishnet stockings covering even her feet and no shoes.
She said, “Ah, Flanders, I am glad that you still wear that pea coat that your dad got for you at the thrift store.”
“It’s warm for winter nights like this,” he said. “I love your outfit tonight, Gravel. Even as a cashier you never looked this good!”
“Oh, I go shopping at the thrift stores, too, Flanders,” she said.
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“I suppose you’re wondering why I came over all of a sudden like this,” he said.
“Do come in and tell me why the Lord sent you here on our first date together,” she said.
And they came in and sat down at her dining room table abundant with Bible study paraphernalia. He spoke and asked “You read the Bible, too, Gravel?”
“Oh, everyday,” she said. “Do you read the Bible, too?”
“Yes, also daily,” he said. “My bedroom desk looks like your table here, Lisa.”
“Are you a born-again Christian, Flanders?” she asked in hopes.
“Yes. I am. For almost a year now,” he said. “And you—are you a born-again Christian, too?”
“Yes. I am, too,” she said. “For a little less than a year now.”
“That’s odd,” he said. “I was sure that God had sent me here to win your soul for Christ. But you are already saved, Gravel.”
“Are you disappointed, Flanders?” she asked.
“No! It is the best news I have heard since we parted, fairest Lisa,” he said. “My fears for your soul are suddenly all gone from me, and I can rest in your salvation. Amen! Yes! Amen!”
“Maybe God sent you here for a different reason than to witness to me,” said Gravel.
“What do you think that it could be?” he asked.
“I do not know, Flanders,” she said. “But I would bet that it will be something great!”
“I’m getting warm,” he said. And he took off his pea coat and hung it on the back of his chair. Then he said, “Would you tell me the great news of how you found Christ, Gravel?”
“Oh, I would be glad to, Flanders, she said. “It happened last winter when I was visiting my sister in Iron Mountain up north. A guy too tall for basketball and a big snowball that caused an accident and a whole bunch of salvation tracts had everything to do with my getting saved.”
“I’ve got to hear this, Gravel!” he said.
And Lisa “Gravel” Highness gave the testimony of her salvation: “I was visiting Laurie in
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Upper Michigan, and the snow was deep, and the snow was falling in big flakes. We two sisters were working together rolling a snowball in her front yard till we could roll it no more. It was big—up to our waists—and it was stuck. We gave one last mutual heave, and the snowball rolled over one more time, but it was now in the city’s sidewalk. This time we could do nothing more with it. And now it was between a telephone pole and a fire hydrant and blocking the way of any pedestrians who might be walking down this sidewalk. And we were afraid of getting in trouble with the police. The telephone pole was against the one side of our snowball, and the fire hydrant was against the other side of our snowball, and the complete width of the sidewalk was blocked by our great big snowball. And the snow on the ground alongside the sidewalk was a foot deep on both sides. We two gals thought that we had just done something illegal.
Laurie said, ‘Lisa, let’s get out of here before the sheriff sees us.’
And I said, ‘No, Laurie, let’s stay here and ask some guys for help.’
Then, wouldn’t you know it, Flanders, a walker began to come toward us down this sidewalk. He was the tallest man I had ever seen before. And he was the skinniest man I had ever seen before. His face was positively gaunt, Flanders. He looked like he would fall down if he took another step.
And he looked to be about fifty years old, and he was full of white hair all over his head and his face
and his neck. And not only that, even though it was thirty degrees above zero then, he was dressed for thirty degrees below zero. Right then my sister fled and kept running. And I was alone between this lank giant and the fat ball of snow. I panicked and said, ‘Sir, I’m really, really sorry.’ He then stopped beside me, studied the problem before him, and said, ‘My good woman, the Lord will provide.’ I had to bend my head all the way back just to see his face way up there.
I then asked him, ‘He will?’ And the giant man of faith smiled at me in kindness. Then he raised both of his hands in the air up toward God, and I could see that he had on both mittens and gloves, and in his hands were two little wooden index card boxes with hinges. Then this towering
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fellow lifted up his right leg and stepped out onto the top of this stationary snowball; and he set his left leg onto the top of the snowball as well, and he stood atop this big ball of snow, his head now three feet higher than it was before. From where I stood next to him, I could not see his eyes anymore he was so high now above me.
He then said, ‘The Bible, young lady, says, “…: but safety is of the Lord.” Proverbs 21:31.’ And he still held up those two little wooden boxes in the air in both hands. And in a crazy faith he sought to next extend his right foot back down toward the ground and to follow through in like with his left foot. But suddenly my snowball decided to move forward under his weight. And to my horror, I saw this frail lean gentleman fall down upon his back upon the top of this snowball, and his wooden boxes opening up and falling out of his hands and spilling their contents all about, and his giant like
frame bouncing off of the ball of snow and falling sprawled upon the sidewalk on the other side of the ball of snow. I thought he was dead! Yet he sprang right back up, saw my great anxiety upon my face, and said to me, ‘Young miss, the Scriptures say, “Salvation belongeth unto the Lord:…” Psalm 3:8.’
Completely in the Lord’s hands and quite unharmed he began to pick up all the little papers that were lying about in the snow and the two boxes and to put the papers back into the boxes. I quickly joined in and began to help him gather them up before the wind might drive them away. All this while, he kept saying, ‘Thank you, good ma’am.’
And I kept saying, ‘You’re welcome, sir.’
And he began to hum a carol that sounded like, ‘The First Noel.’
Then our work was all done. I asked him, ‘Are you really all right?’
And he said to me, ‘Kind lass, I am all right.’ Then he asked me, ‘Fine lass, did you know that in Heaven, no man or no woman can fall and get hurt from an accident?’
I thought for a while and said, ‘It makes sense that in Heaven there can be no such thing as getting hurt and having accidents, tall sir.’
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And he told me, ‘Nothing that is bad happens Up There.’
I said to him, ‘Things that are bad happen down here.’
And he said, ‘Never again in the life to come for the born-again believer.’
‘No more problems? No more sickness? No more injuries? No more stress at work? No more
feeling bad? No more dying?’ I asked him.
‘Verily, good woman, only perfect peace and joy and love when a Christian comes home to Heaven to be with his or her Saviour,’ he answered me.
‘Could I become a Christian then, too?’ I asked him.
‘Just ask God, and you will become a Christian, too, as I did long ago, my lady,’ he told me.
And I understood that all one had to do to get to Heaven in the life to come was to ask God to save you from your sins in this life. This man then told me that Christ’s death on the cross and His resurrection made this so great salvation free to any who would ask for it. And I wanted right then to get saved.
And we had a word of prayer; he led me line-by-line through the sinners’ prayer; and that was how I became a believer, Flanders. Then this gentle towering giant walked away, singing ‘The First Noel’ again, and I never saw him again. I think that he had to go to another soul in need of Jesus right then and tell him about Jesus as he had just done with me.”
“What a guy!” praised Flanders here in the apartment. “Your testimony of salvation is wild and crazy, but good and glorious, O Gravel.”
With a grin, she said, “What about your testimony of salvation, Flanders? Is your true story wild and crazy like mine?”
“Yes, Gravel,” he said, “and also good and glorious.”
“Oh, do tell me how you got born again, too, Flanders,” she said.
And Flanders Nickels told Lisa Highness his true tale of salvation: “It happened right in the middle of a workday of all times. It happened at work of all places. And it happened with a most
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peculiar real little man when I was working with the Brach’s Pick-a-Mix candy display.
“Ooo, Brach’s Pick-a-Mix! I love their candies!” said Gravel.
“I do, too,” he said. “My favorite is the Neapolitan coconuts. They have four sections of candies in one candy—dark brown and light brown and white and pink.
“And I liked the Royals, which came in four different flavors,” she said, “chocolate and maple and raspberry and vanilla.”
“I, also,” he said in agreement.
“Tell me what happened then,” she said.
“Well, I was there at the Pick-A-Mix display with the bank bag to take the nickels and other coins to the bank. I had the little metal box full of nickels and other coins resting safely and securely upon the floor to my left, and I had the money bag ready to pour the coin box into it. Then what looked like a little boy came walking toward me. I could not see his face. He had on a Mexican sombrero whose brim was wider than a brim to a witch hat, and he had his head looking down, and he was leaning upon a tall walking stick. His head reached only to my belly, and he looked hardly three feet tall. So I thought that he was a boy maybe handicapped somewhat. Whatever he was, he was not looking where he was walking. And he unintentionally hit my coin box with his walking stick, knocked it three feet away, and sent the coins out all over everywhere on the sales floor about me. This little fellow cried out in great sincere regret, ‘I am so sorry, senor!’ But his voice was the voice of a man. And he raised his head, and I saw his face beneath the sombrero. And I saw the face of a grown-up man so hirsute with black hair that he looked like a ‘wild bull of the Pampas.’ Black hair of skull and eyebrows and mustache and beard and sideburns—even of neck—clearly showed him to be a man, albeit a real little man at that.
Fearful of hurting his feelings and not upset by this accident I quickly said to him, ‘No problem, sir. It was an accident. I can pick up the coins real easy.’
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‘Do let me make up for my carelessness, amigo,’ he said, and he worked to get down on his hands and knees, and he began to help me to gather up the coins and to put them back into my money bag.
Grateful, I said to him when we were done, ‘Thank you for your help, sir.’
And he said to me a most peculiar and novel question nobody ever asked me before, ‘Do you know God, sir?’
‘I know God,’ I said. ‘Everybody knows God.’
Then he said more specifically, ‘But do you know God personally, sir?’
I thought for a while, hoping to say something wise to this peculiar and kind dwarf, and I said, ‘Well, I heard of God. I do not really know Him personally, if that answers your question.’
‘That answers my question,’ he said. But then he said, ‘You do not know God as I know God.’
‘Is that a bad thing?’ I asked him.
And he answered me, ‘To know God personally is the very best thing. But to only have heard of God is the very worst thing.’
‘That sounds like a very bad thing for me.’ I said to him.
And he said, ‘Jesus saves!’
Everything this little guy said and everything this little guy did was downright peculiar. And I was running out of patience. And I was becoming offended.
Then he said, ‘Without knowing Jesus as Saviour a person ends up in Hell.’
Then I went and said something not kind to him, ‘Sir, you are a peculiar little man.’
But he was not fazed. Instead he went on to say with great long-suffering and humbleness, ‘We born-again believers are called “peculiar people” in the Bible.’ At once I was suddenly no longer offended by him and his Jesus.
‘It really says that about you?’ I asked him, ‘that Christians are “peculiar people?”’
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‘Oh yes, amigo,’ he said. Then he recited me the Bible verse, ‘”But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:” I Peter 2:9.’
I could tell that this peculiar person was definitely destined for an eternity in Heaven. I began now to think about where my eternal destiny was going to be. And I became afraid. Maybe I really was going to Hell like he said. Right then I was willing to do anything not to end up down there for forever. How good it would be in this life to know that no matter what happened—even be it the worst thing called death—that I could still end up in Heaven. Remembering what he had said that had set me off, I asked him, ‘Is there a way for me so that I can have your Jesus as my personal Saviour, too, O man of God?’
‘Verily, O seeker,’ he said. ‘Only believe and ask and receive.’
‘I want to do that!’ I said. ‘But what do you mean by that?’
And one thing led to another, and all of a sudden I was praying to Christ to save my lost soul, my lips repeating the correct words of prayer that this little saved man had me to repeat. And by the time that I said ‘Amen’ at the end of this prayer, I knew that I had become a born-again believer like this very wise midget. And I no longer was afraid of going to Hell. Now I was also a peculiar person on my way to Heaven in time to come. I looked up from this prayer, and I said, ‘Thank you, amigo.’
And he said, ‘To God be the glory. You are most welcome, hombre.’ And just like that he began to walk away, leaning on his tall walking stick.
‘I never got your name,’ I called out to him.
Yet he said, ‘My God bids me to go to my next lost soul to win for Him.’ And just like that he was gone.
“Whether I thought my father-in-the-faith to be too tall, or whether you might think that your father-in-the-faith were too short, our God uses His very diverse children to bring others like us into his
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family. Doesn’t He, Flanders?” asked Lisa “Gravel” Highness.
“Yes, Lisa. Both in winter snowstorms and in the toils of the workplace,” concurred Flanders.
“God works in mysterious ways,” said Gravel.
“And His ways are not our ways,” said Flanders, glad in the Lord.
Lisa grew quiet and pensive, and Flanders wondered upon her thoughts in her heart. Inquisitive, he asked her, “What’s on your mind right now, Gravel? I can tell that you’re thinking about something in the Lord.”
“I was thinking about the prayer I was asking God just before you called and came over this evening, Flanders,” she said. “I thought about it real hard and real long when I was reading from the book of Matthew. And when I asked God about it, behold, you came back into my life.”
“Why, Gravel, that must be why the Lord brought me here tonight so all of a sudden,” said Flanders.
“Maybe the Good Lord brought you here to help answer my prayer that I had discovered tonight, Flanders,” said Lisa Highness.
“God thinks about everything,” he praised Jesus.
“You came here thinking to lead me to Christ, and instead you are here to make my new dream come true,” she said.
“Your new dream to come true—your prayer for this of earlier this evening—what is it, Gravel?” he asked her.
“It is that I can find something that is in my life that I can give back to God as a small token of so great gratitude for every good thing that He has given me in my walk with Him,” she said.
He said, “Do you mean that you want to give our loving Lord a gift for all of the gifts that He has given you here in this life, Gravel?”
“Yes, Flanders. That is it. Very much so,” said Gravel. “And I want to give it back to Him Up
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in Heaven when I get There.”
“And you don’t know what He would want from you,” said Flanders.
“I don’t think that I have anything to give to Him,” said Lisa Highness.
“Oh, you have it. Believe me. It’s there,” he said. “We just have to find out tonight what it is,
Gravel.”
“I am so glad you came, Flanders,” she said.
“Shall we look into the Word of God?” he asked.
“Will I find my answer there?” she asked.
“You found your question there. Did you not?” he asked.
“Yes, I did, Flanders,” she said.
“God speaks to us believers through His Word,” said Flanders.
“The perfect Authorized King James Version Bible,” she said.
“The Good Book, Gravel,” he said.
“Where should we begin our Bible study tonight, Flanders?” she asked.
“Do you have a favorite place in the Bible?” he asked her.
“Yes. I Thessalonians chapter four,” she said.
“How come?” he asked.
“Because that is all about the rapture, and I can’t wait for the rapture to happen for me,” said Gravel.
“Then let us begin there, Lisa,” said Flanders.
“Verses thirteen through eighteen,” she specified.
“Let’s read them together,” he said.
And they both read this passage of verses together out loud here in her dining room: “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not,
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even as others which have no hope. For if ye believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”
“You love the rapture. Don’t you, Gravel?” he asked.
“I love the rapture,” she said. “The Bible says that it is imminent.”
“The next event on God’s timetable,” said Flanders.
“Do you want to see my second favorite passage in the Bible, Flanders?” she asked.
“What is it?” he asked.
“It is I Corinthians 15:51-54,” she said.
“Is that also about the rapture?” he asked.
“Yes! Which I cannot wait for,” she said.
“Let’s read that together, too, Lisa,” he said.
And together they read this Scripture out loud from their Bibles as well: “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then
shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“You so love the Lord’s appearing, Gravel,” he said.
“It is coming,” she said.
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“That is a very good thing about you, Lisa,” he said.
“Nothing more has to happen before He comes for us to snatch us Up to Heaven,” she said.
“The translation of the saints,” he said.
“The blessed hope of us believers,” she said.
“I never knew that you were so in love with the rapture of the church, Gravel,” he said.
“Yes! Yes! I dream about it at night. And I dream about it in day,” she said.
“I think that I have an idea from God coming to me now,” he said.
In fervor and in ardor, Lisa “Gravel” Highness said, “I would gladly give it all up down here for Jesus and run away with Him in Heaven for ever and ever!”
“Gravel, this moment God has told me the answer to your prayers,” declared Flanders Nickels.
Her date for the night knew what she could give to Jesus for a present!
Just then in came her roommate Liza, and Liza once again brought a storm of troubles with her into their apartment. She cursed and said, “Blooming bad night of bowling!” And she cursed again.
And she slammed the door hard with a “bang!” The peace of the Holy Spirit was suddenly gone here at Gravel’s place. Liza Rant was back home again. Inside her heart, Lisa’s elation at Flanders’s words just now fell down into her stomach and made her sick inside. He had the most important thing to say to her in a place that had to be quiet, and Liza came at this most wrong moment and brought loud noise
with her, and the Devil likes loud noise.
Losing her Christian patience, Lisa said, “Liza, don’t you have a place that you need to be?”
“Roommate, this is my apartment just as much as this is your apartment,” snapped Miss Rant.
And she stamped her feet onto the floor on her way to the living room in the next room.
“Flanders,” whispered Lisa, “can you try to make her go away? It is hard to focus on godly things when she is here.”
“I must tell you what God has said to me just the moment ago when he answered your prayer
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to me, Gravel. At least she is in the next room. Maybe we can have enough peace and quiet in this room for me to tell you what I found out,” he whispered to Gravel.
Just then the roommate turned on the TV very loud. And peace and quiet was gone now in the dining room where Gravel and Flanders were alone.
In frustration Gravel yelled, “Turn off the TV!”
But Liza in the living room could not hear her.
Getting flustered himself, Flanders called out, “Liza, could you turn it down a little?”
Again Miss Rant could not hear the request there in front of her TV.
“I’m losing it, Flanders,” she said. “This great news that you have to tell me is slipping away on me in this house of din!”
Then Liza also went and turned on the radio in the living room, and she blasted the hard rock radio station WAPL to an equally loud volume to the TV. Now it was twice as loud here at home as it was at first. “Flanders, please help me!” cried out poor Lisa.
Irate, Flanders called out into the living room, “Miss Rant, could you turn off the radio or at least turn it down a little?”
The wild young woman did not hear him. And she made her body to shake and move with the music there on the sofa.
Incensed for the cause of his Gravel, Flanders stood up at this dining room table, ready to go in and have a fight with this woman of the Devil in the living room.
Holding on to God and to His ways, Lisa Highness looked up at Flanders where she sat and did shake her head in a “Nay” to him. He nodded his head in assent and sat back down at the table with Lisa. Neither Christian quite knew what to do right now.
Then the police scanner went on in the living room. Liza now added even more noise to the living room. And this dining room was now three times as loud as it was earlier. The walls shook.
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Their ears hurt. Satan was here. And answered prayer seemed to have gotten away from Gravel. And the two Christians at this table could no longer talk and hear each other with this great clamor of Hell in this apartment.
Flanders wrote a note on a piece of paper that said to Gravel, “Let’s go and talk in the hallway outside your apartment.”
Gravel replied with this note to him, “If we do, she will follow us out there.”
He then wrote this note to Gravel, “Then let’s go outside and talk,”
Gravel wrote, “Then she will follow us outside, Flanders.”
Then Flanders wrote, “Gravel, come to my place and talk.”
And again Gravel wrote, “Then she will follow us to your place.”
And great disquietude came upon the two born-again believers. And thoughts given by the tempter the Devil began to eat away at the woman Lisa Highness: What if the rapture were to happen this night just before Flanders could tell her her answer that she so had to hear from God tonight? If she did not find out what God had to tell her about her gift to Him before He raptured her up, her heart would not be right for the rapture! This news that her date needed to tell her and could not right now was causing her to all of a sudden not love the Lord’s appearing for the first time since she had learned about the rapture. This mystery hindered her vow of running away with Jesus. And her belly turned sour with sickness. And she learned to hate her roommate now for her first time.
Meanwhile, in this great grating clamor, Flanders began to worry for his Gravel as well. What he knew was that the gift she had to give to her Saviour in Heaven was all and only because she loved her Saviour so much that she wanted to run away with Him in the rapture. Because she did so love the Lord’s appearing, she had a certain present that she would give back to Him at His throne. It was there in the Bible, and Flanders knew what it was, and he had to tell her what it was. But what if in this great noise something were now coming between her and her love for the imminent rapture? And what if the
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rapture were to happen right now before this thing between could be taken away from her? If that were the case then she would not have this gift to give to God. And he sinned and worried himself sick for the woman.
Then Lisa “Gravel” Highness had enough with Liza Rant, and she stood abruptly up at this dining room table, and she was about to throw her roommate out of the house. Himself taking charge, he said to Gravel in this great decibel of noise so that she could read his lips, “Let me pray first.” And she nodded, but stayed there standing, feeling like slugging her diabolical roommate. And Flanders prayed that God’s will be done now with this Miss Rant in the living room.
Behold, suddenly everything went out in the living room. The lights went out, and the TV went out, and the radio went out, and the scanner went out. And loud Liza was suddenly in a dark and eerily quiet living room. But the lights here in the dining room were still on and bright. The power went out in the living room. The power did not go out in the dining room. God’s will was done with Miss Rant.
Liza said, “This is getting scary, roommate. I’m getting out of here.” And just like that Miss Rant got up off of the sofa, marched to the apartment door, and went out again for the rest of the night.
And the peace of the Holy Spirit came back upon the two born-again believers here at Gravel’s place.
“Praise God!” said Lisa, sitting back down.
“Yes, Lisa,” said Flanders. “I can hear us speak again. Amen.”
“I can now tell you what you can give to our Saviour once you get to Heaven,” he said.
“What is it?” she asked, so excited about her walk with Christ.
“A nice shiny crown,” he said.
“A crown?” she asked, absolutely delighted.
“Yes, Gravel,” he said.
“A real crown?” she asked, wanting to hear him say it again.
“Yes, girl,” he said.
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“A nice shiny crown, for me to give to my Lord?” she asked.
“Yes, Lisa,” he said. “And it has a name.”
“What’s it called?” she asked.
“’The crown of righteousness’–for those Christians who want the Lord to come with all of their heart and soul and spirit, my Gravel,” he told her.
“My very own crown of righteousness,” she said, putting her hands to the top of her head to pretend to feel it there right now.
“It’s in II Timothy 4:8,” he told her.
Lisa Highness quickly took her hands from her head and back upon the Bible, and she searched the Scriptures and found this verse and did read it out loud both to herself and to Flanders and to God:
“Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”
“Up in Heaven, Jesus will reward you with this crown of righteousness because You loved the rapture in this life,” said Flanders Nickels. “And then, as you kneel before His throne Up in Heaven, you will take off this crown of righteousness and give it back to Him.”
“What a verse! What a crown! What an answer to prayer!” said Gravel. And with her hands, she pretended to take off her crown and to lay it before Jesus’s feet. “Lord, all that I have I give back to You,” she prayed in this reverie. And Gravel’s face beamed with the joy of the Lord.
“I still care for you, Lisa,” he said.
“And I care for you, Flanders,” she said with burgeoning affection that she never knew she had for him.
“There is something else that I have brought with me tonight besides my Holy Bible,” he said.
He put his hand inside his big right pocket of his navy pea coat that was hanging on his chair. In ardent
curiosity, Gravel said nothing, but waited in wonders. And he pulled out a tiny paper grocery bag that
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read, “Olsen Foods.” He held it out to her. She took it. He said, “Open it and take it out.” She opened it and took it out. And she held it adoringly and carefully in both hands. It was a tiny little ceramic vase all full of round wooden toothpicks. On its front was its original caricature: a red apple with a stem and a bunch of purple grapes with leaves and a stem on its top, all inside a green square with black lines running through the green perimeter. On its back was an embellishment created by this special guy who still carried a torch for her: a gold-colored paper note taped on upon which was written in pencil, “In memory of Lisa Highness—my Gravel the fox.” Not one of the toothpicks was missing from this vase here a year later.
In magic of romance, Lisa said, “Flanders, you remember.”
“I remember, Lisa,” he said. “Do you remember?”
“I remember, Flanders,” she said. “It is as full now as it was when I bought it for you.”
“These toothpicks were a present from a dream girl, Gravel,” he said. “Who am I to use them in my teeth?”
“A dream girl? I?” she asked in the warmth of the moment.
“Am I falling in love?” he asked. “I do not know.”
“My head is getting dizzy, and I like it,” she said.
“Maybe you’re falling in love, too, Gravel,” he said.
“I never fell in love before, Flanders,” she said.
“Our God is a God of love,” he said.
“He is the God Who brings two back together after a year away, Flanders,” she said.
“He is the God Who is with us tonight as boyfriend-and-girlfriend-in-the-Lord.” he said.
“He made this vase of toothpicks with the hands of a good worker,” said Gravel.
“And He made the crown of righteousness which you found out about tonight,” said Flanders.
Lisa “Gravel” Highness went ahead and sang the first stanza to the hymn called “All Hail the
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Power”:
“All hail the pow’r of Jesus’ name!
Let angels prostrate fall;
Bring forth the royal diadem,
And crown Him Lord of all;
Bring forth the royal diadem,
And crown Him Lord of all!”
“Amen, girlfriend! The crown of righteousness! Sing about it again for me!” exclaimed Flanders Nickels in the love for hymn.
And his girlfriend Gravel went ahead and sang the first stanza this time of the hymn called, “Crown Him with Many Crowns”:
“Crown Him with many crowns,
The Lamb upon His throne:
Hark! How the heav’nly anthem drowns
All music but its own!
Awake, my soul, and sing
Of Him who died for thee,
And hail Him as thy matchless King
Thru all eternity.”
Reader, it is written in the Holy Bible, “The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne,…”
Revelation 4:10.
That is the tale of a crown. And this story is a tale of a crown. Most beautiful in Heaven is the crown of righteousness. Amen and amen.
