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On Friday morning, Maggie walked into the church to find Tiny standing by the locked office door with two cups of coffee in his hands. This was not unusual. The look on his face was.
“Tiny, what’s wrong?” Maggie asked.
“I didn’t do it,” Tiny said.
“OK. Didn’t do what?” Maggie took one of the cups of coffee out of his hand. “Thank you.”
He nodded.
Maggie fiddled with her keys to find the right one, but when she did, she noticed that the office door had been forced open. It was shut now, but it was obvious that a crowbar had recently done some damage to both the cheap door and the ancient door frame. She gently pushed on the door and it swung open. And then she gasped.
The office had been destroyed. Every drawer had been opened and papers and books lay all over the floor. She set her coffee down on her desk and moaned. Her computer was gone. The closet door had been forced open, but the thieves had apparently learned what she already knew—there wasn’t much in there to steal, unless one really wanted a neon orange softball cap from eons gone by.
“I’ll help you pick up,” Tiny said.
“Thank you, Tiny.”
She looked around the room and saw that Chris’s door had also been forced open. It still stood ajar. She walked through it. His office was in worse shape than hers. His computer was gone too. His framed degree now lay on the floor, the thin, cracked glass bearing what was probably a footprint. His bookshelf had been tipped over, his drawers ransacked, his window busted out.
“Wait,” Maggie said. “I thought they came in through the office. Why’d they break the window?”
“I think they did that to get the safe out,” Tiny said.
“What safe?” Maggie looked at Tiny.
He didn’t answer.
“What safe, Tiny?”
Tiny looked guilty. She took a step toward him and softened her voice. “Tiny, you didn’t do anything wrong. Just tell me, what do you know about a safe?”
“Not much,” Tiny said, looking at the floor. “It’s just that Dwight was talking, he talks a lot when he drinks, and he was talking about how much money Pastor has, and he said he keeps it in a hidden safe, you know, to keep it safe. And hidden.”
Maggie looked around in wonder. “I don’t see how that’s possible, Tiny. I think Dwight is just spinning tales.” Then her eyes landed on a large, empty cabinet, it’s door hanging by a single hinge. “I’d better call Chris.” She took out her phone to dial. As she did, she asked Tiny, “Have you heard anything else? Do you know if anyone saw or heard anything?”
“No,” Tiny said, “but maybe G saw something when he was praying this morning?”
Maggie thought about that for a second. “Maybe. Maybe not, though. This wall is next to the parsonage wall. I’m pretty sure he walks around the whole property, without cutting between the buildings. But we can ask him.”
Chris’s phone went to voicemail. “Hey, Chris, it’s Maggie. Look, you’d better get down here. Someone has broken into your office. They took your computer. Not sure what else. I’ll call the police.” She hung up and dialed the police. She had them on speed dial. They said they would send an officer right out. Just as she was hanging up with them, Chris called her back.
“Hello?”
“Whatever you do, don’t call the police!” Chris barked.
“What? Why?”
“Because ... because, we don’t need bad publicity. People will be scared to stay there if they think it’s not safe. And our insurance is going to go up. Just do as I say! I’ll be right there!” He hung up, not giving her a chance to tell him that the police were already on their way.
In fact, they beat him to the church. Two officers, in two separate cars, were there within minutes. They took photos, and were beginning to question the guests when Chris finally arrived.
He took one step into his office and his hands flew to his head. “Oh, no ... oh, no,” he moaned.
“Pastor?” one of the officers asked. “Can you answer a few questions?”
Chris didn’t respond.
“Pastor?” the officer repeated.
“What?” Chris snapped.
“We’re trying to figure out how the thieves got into the building. Who has a key?”
“Just myself and the elders,” Chris said, thoughtfully. Then he gave Maggie a dirty look. “And her.”
“It’s all the same key,” Maggie said. “If someone had a key for the outside door, they would have just used it on the office door too, instead of prying it open.”
The other officer spoke up. “There’s a window in the sanctuary that is wide open. Could have been left like that, or they could have gotten it open somehow. Could’ve come in that way.”
“Well, then why didn’t they just use that window?” Chris said, nodding at the smashed window in his office.
“The fact that they didn’t come in your window,” said the first officer, “suggests it was an outside job. It was probably someone who didn’t know the layout of the building—”
“Or someone who was already inside when the doors were locked,” Chris interrupted.
“It wasn’t one of our guests, Chris!” Maggie argued.
“OK,” the officer redirected them, “can you tell us if anything is missing? Other than your computer? Mrs. Turney has already told us that your desktop has been stolen.”
“No,” Chris said without looking around. “I’m sure nothing else was taken. There was nothing else to steal.”
“What about the safe?” the officer asked.
“What safe?” Chris snapped.
“OK then,” the officer said, writing some notes, “but Mr. uh ...” He looked up at Tiny. “... Tiny here says that there was a safe in your office—”
“Well, Tiny is a huge idiot,” Chris spat, “who has never even been in my office. Now if you don’t mind, can you please clear out? I’ve got some cleaning up to do. And we won’t be filing any sort of report, so you can go.”
“I’m sorry, Pastor, but there will be a report. Mrs. Turney here has reported several things stolen, so we have to investigate.”
Chris looked around till he saw Maggie, and then shot daggers at her with his eyes. “And just what pray tell, was stolen from you?”
Completely phlegmatically, Maggie replied, “My sunglasses, two lipsticks, and an envelope full of money. It also appears that they’ve taken your new air conditioner.”
Chris sneered. “You had an envelope full of money in the church office? Why?”
“Well, you took away the slush fund, so I had a little emergency cash, you know, in case someone needed a Band-Aid and I didn’t want to take the time to fill out a purchase order.”
The police officer looked back and forth between them as if sensing that he should interrupt their discourse, but also fearing to do so.
Galen walked in just then and crossed the room quickly to his wife. “Why didn’t you call me?” he asked, taking her into his arms.
“I’m fine. No one was hurt. It’s fine. How did you know?”
“Pete called me.”
“It happened last night,” Maggie said. “Did you see anything when you walked the perimeter this morning?”
“Aw shoot. No, I didn’t. I’m usually looking directly in front of my feet. It was still pretty dark this morning when I was out there.” Galen looked at the police officer. “Sorry, I didn’t see a thing.”
“Why were you walking around in the dark this morning?” Chris snapped.
“I was praying.”
“Praying for what?”
Without hesitation, Galen replied, “For you.”
Pastor glared at Galen for several speechless seconds, then at Maggie, and then finally stormed out of the office.
“Wow, nice guy,” the cop muttered.
“He’s trying,” Galen said. “I think.” Then he looked down at his wife. “Do you just want to go home?”
She nodded. “Definitely.”
Galen led her back outside. Before she got into the car, she finally took a sip of the coffee Tiny had gotten for her. It was lukewarm, and she dumped it out into the dirt.
Pastor Chris returned to his office with Dwight in tow. They waited as the police finished working, and then the police left, and Chris and Dwight began to put the office back together. It took them all day.
Maggie didn’t return to church that day, so she wasn’t there to hear her best friend’s pained gasp just as Galen called the Bible study to order.
Galen did hear Harmony, and followed her eyes to the doorway. At first, he didn’t seem to recognize the person standing in it. Then obvious recognition, and dismay, fell over his face. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” he muttered. Then he looked around the room and seemed to remember that dozens of people were staring at him, waiting for him to begin. “Welcome, everyone. If you would, please turn your Bibles to Psalm 68.” A few people opened their personal Bibles. Some reached for pew Bibles. Others ignored Galen entirely. He waited as the sound of flipping pages filled the otherwise quiet. “Psalms is the longest book in the Bible,” Galen said. “And it’s right in the middle of the Bible, so if you open your Bible to the center, you might well land in Psalms.” There was some more page flipping and then the sound settled down. As it did, the newcomer settled into an aisle seat near the back. Looking pale, Harmony had also turned back around to face Galen. He made eye contact with her, and his eyes were full of compassion.
“OK, so this psalm is actually a song written by King David. As many of you know, King David was one of the major players in the Bible. He was an ancestor of Jesus, and he was a mighty leader who truly loved God. So, in verses five and six, King David writes about God, ‘Father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows is God in his holy habitation. God makes a home for the lonely.’” Galen set his Bible down and paused, looking at the people in front of him. He was not behind the pulpit. He wasn’t even on the stage. He was standing immediately in front of the front pew. He didn’t even have a microphone. He was wearing an old Skillet T-shirt and stained blue jeans. “Friends, nowhere in the Bible does it suggest that God is impressed by people who live flashy lives. God’s heart is with people who are lonely in this lifetime. But I promise you, if you give your lives to God, if you give your hearts to God, you won’t be lonely anymore. He is making a home for you. He has given you a home here, but this is only temporary. It’s not a perfect home.” There were some chuckles.
“Ain’t that the truth,” Randy offered.
“But God is also making you a perfect home that is not temporary. Friends, this life is not about this life. It’s about eternity. And I want to give you a quick history lesson here. Don’t tune me out. This is important. In this verse, King David uses a simple Hebrew word, ’ab, which our Bible translates to the English ‘father.’ But in the Hebrew that King David originally used, this was a very simple word, a word that little children used to refer to their human fathers. It’s an easy word to say, and is one of the very first words that Hebrew children are able to pronounce to this day. It’s more like the way we use our word ‘daddy’ than it is the way we use the word ‘father.’ King David uses this simple word for an all-powerful God. This means that you can have a very personal, a very real, a very special relationship with the almighty God. God is the God of the universe, but he is also your daddy. I know some of you don’t have human fathers. God is your father. I know some of you don’t have homes. God is your home. He is your shelter, and he is everything you need. If you just let him, he will take care of you. God loves his children, better than any human father ever can.” Galen paused and looked at the man in the back, the man who had just joined them for the first time in more than eight years, the man who had left his girlfriend without a word, the man named Levi who had never even met his biological son, Daniel.
Galen then looked back at his own people. “If any of you have any questions, I will try to answer them.”
Annie raised her hand.
“Yes, Annie?”
“If God loves me so much, why did he ever allow me to be fatherless in the first place? I’ve never even met my father and my mother never gave a crap about me.”
“That’s a good question, Annie, and one that I bet other people here have. I can’t speak for God, but I can tell you that God allows us to go through hard things, because if we didn’t go through hard things, we would never understand that we need God. We would think we could do everything ourselves. Does that make sense?”
Annie nodded, looking at least partially satisfied.
“Are there any other questions?”
No one else moved.
“OK then, let’s close in prayer.” Galen prayed over his friends and asked God to protect them and keep their hearts safe. When he said “amen,” the people scattered, and Levi made his way toward Harmony. Galen got to her first. “Just tell me what you need me to do,” he whispered to her.
“Get Daniel out of here,” she said, and placed the little boy’s hand into Galen’s large, protective one. Daniel looked surprised, but also completely trusting.
“Come on, bud. Let’s go to the kitchen and see if there’s any ice cream.”
Daniel followed Galen obediently, but said, “The kitchen’s locked at night.”
“Don’t worry, I have a master key,” Galen said, and they were out of the sanctuary and headed toward the stairs.
“Does Pastor Chris know that?” Daniel asked, and Galen laughed.
“What do you want?” Harmony asked Levi.
“I wanted to see you,” Levi said, reaching for her hand.
Harmony yanked it away and swore at him. “Don’t touch me. Don’t you dare. You can just go. Get out of here.”
“I want to see my son.”
“You don’t have a son,” Harmony spat.
“Yes I do, and I want to see him.”
“You don’t have a son,” Harmony repeated.
Levi’s jaw tightened, and his hands clenched into fists. “Look, you can’t stop me from seeing my son.”
Harmony turned to go, and Levi grabbed her arm and yanked her toward him.
“Let go of me!” Harmony yelled.
“I know he’s mine, Harmony. I saw him on the news. It said he’d grown up in the shelter. Wasn’t hard to do the math. So I come back to this dump and there he is sitting snuggled right up to you. Now where did he go?”
Harmony slapped him across the face, hard. He didn’t look surprised, just angry. He grabbed the offending arm with his free hand and now had her by both arms, squeezing hard enough to hurt.
“Take your hands off her,” Galen said from behind.
Levi craned his neck around. “Or what?”
Galen advanced so quickly that Levi dropped his grip. “You need to leave,” Galen said.
“Where’s the kid?” Levi asked.
Harmony looked alarmed, as if she was wondering the same thing.
“He’s eating ice cream with Tiny. In other words, it would be physically impossible for you to get to him. So you should go.”
“He’s my kid. You can’t keep him away from me.”
“OK. Then you pay for the lawyer and you pay for the paternity test and then we’ll do what the judge says. Until then, get off this property and don’t come back.”
Levi looked from Galen’s face to Harmony’s and back to Galen’s. Then, grudgingly, he stalked toward the door, trying to look tough as he went.
Harmony’s eyes filled with tears. “What am I going to do?”
“Get your stuff. You’re moving back to my place.”
Harmony went to her room to pack, and Galen went to get Daniel.
“Thanks, Tiny,” Galen said, patting Tiny on the back.
“No problem. I like ice cream,” Tiny said.
Galen waited patiently for Daniel to finish his Moose Tracks. Then, when Daniel started to lick out the bowl, Galen said, “OK, little man. Finish up. We’re going back to my house for a sleepover.”
“Was that my father?” Daniel asked.
Galen’s face fell. “What makes you ask that?”
Daniel shrugged. He took another lick. “I dunno. Just knew.”
“Well, you’ll have to talk to your mother about it. But for now, let’s get you to my place.”
“No, thank you,” Daniel said.
Galen’s brow furrowed. “What?”
“Thank you, G, for helping, but I don’t need to go to your house. We’ll be OK here.”
Harmony joined them then with a backpack slung over each shoulder. “Come on, Daniel, let’s go.”
“Mama, we don’t need to go. He won’t come back.”
“What? Who won’t come back?”
“That guy. That man who is my father. He won’t come back. God will protect me. Don’t worry, Mama. God will protect us. I don’t want to go to G’s house. I just want to go to bed. I’m tired.” He took his exceptionally clean ice cream bowl and spoon to the tray return as Galen and Harmony stood there tongue-tied. Then Daniel headed up the stairs. Halfway up, he turned back toward them. “Thanks for eating ice cream with me, Tiny.”
Tiny nodded and waved. He was still eating.
Harmony looked at Galen. “What do I do?”
“I don’t know. What do you want to do?”
“Well, the church will be locked, right?”
Galen looked at his watch. “It’s still over an hour till curfew. But then it will be locked.”
“OK then. I guess we’ll stay.” She didn’t look so sure, though.
“I could sleep in the hallway, outside the door,” Tiny said.
At the same time, Galen said, “You don’t have to do that, Tiny,” and Harmony said, “That would be great!”
Tiny smiled and stood to tower over them. “I’ll go get a pillow.” He headed for the stairs, still carrying his treat.
“OK, you call me if you need anything,” Galen said. “Even if you hear anything suspicious.”
Harmony nodded. “Sometimes I wish you guys would just move into the parsonage.”
