Tara awoke to a new day.

She awoke to a new life! She lay in bed staring at the ceiling. If ever there was proof that she had become a “new creature” as Karen had called her, it was now.

She couldn’t remember the last time that she woke up without feeling the dread of going into a new day. Well, dread or the excitement to do something evil. Even then, there was a heaviness; a darkness that followed her out of her bed each morning. Funny how the darkness isn’t as recognizable from the inside. Now that I’m out…

Tears welled up again. Goodness! How many boxes of tissues will it be today?

She was giddy.

She threw the sheet off of her and rolled out of bed. She extended her hands into the air and said, “Good morning, Jesus! I love you!” She said it over and over again. “I love you. I love you! I love … YOU!” She laughed and spun around as if suddenly she were a ballerina.

Then she realized… Others might still be sleeping. She cringed.

The previous night, after all of the talk of their backpacking adventure and her incredible encounter with none other than the God of the WHOLE Universe, she realized that she didn’t have anywhere to go.

Mr. and Mrs. Lawton must have sensed it, because even without asking if she did have a place to go home to, Mr. Lawton said, “Tara, it’s pretty late. If you’re willing, we’d like to invite you to stay the night in Lydia’s room.”

She had gratefully accepted.

Walking up to the bedroom door she took a robe off of a hook. I hope Lydia won’t be upset that they lent me her PJs and robe.

She opened the door and quietly stepped into the hallway. The doors to the other two bedrooms were open with no occupants. She walked to the top of the stairs and smelled a combination of coffee and bacon.

“Oh, wow,” she whispered.

She used the restroom, brushed her teeth, and grimaced when she saw her hair. “There’s something you didn’t fix, Lord.” She let out a soft giggle as she ran a comb through it. “Well, it’s a little better,” she sighed.

Walking down the stairs she nearly ran into Brent as he rounded the corner and took a step up.

Startled, they both looked at each other for a moment.

“Sorry,” she said.

Brent smiled. “Nothing to be sorry for.”

Awkward silence.

“Breakfast is ready,” he finally said. “I was just coming up to knock on your door.”

“Thank you.”

Awkward silence.

“Brent, there are so many things that I need to say…” Her sentence drifted off.

“Okay. But we can talk later.” He held up two fingers. “Two things:”

She waited a moment, then took the cue. “And the two things are…?”

“One: I forgive you of everything. And two: I really need to eat bacon, so come on already.”

Tara found that particularly funny and erupted into laughter and even snorted; which, then, caused them both to start laughing.

They heard Brent’s father say, with a louder-than-needed voice, “Guess he didn’t need to knock.”

Brent and Tara smiled and headed toward breakfast.

MID-SEPTEMBER

THE TWO AND a half months that followed were a whirlwind for Tara. On top of the fact that she was still a full-time student, so many things happened that turned her old life upside down.

She started attending church with Marta and the Lawtons. She began to change her wardrobe into something a little more bright. She was reading the Bible that she was given when she made a public confession of her new faith. She and the members of the backpacking group got together again and ceremoniously burned all of her occult materials: books, amulets, tarot cards, horoscope manuals, and many other things. She thought it would excite her to be rid of all of it, but during their burning a strange and uncomfortable physical reaction rose within her. It felt like something inside of her was strenuously objecting. She remembered how nauseated she felt. She covered it up well, though, and made no mention of it to the others.

In addition to all of that … she prayed.

A lot.

The day after her powerful experience with Jesus, she tried to enter back into the same kind of interaction with him. And while she could certainly sense his Presence, she couldn’t hear his voice the same way she had that previous day. She could feel his love and could sense his encouragement, but couldn’t hear his words and it had frustrated her.

Brent later told her that she would probably hear him as a “still, small voice” from that time forward as she advanced in her walk with him. He also told her that God had given them his Word—the Bible—to guide them, along with a friend and counselor called the Holy Spirit, the “third Person of the Trinity.”

The Bible had always been the book of her enemy up to that point. She had thought it a book of dos and don’ts; a book full of mythical stories that had no real place in a civilized world. It hadn’t dawned on her that many of the writings that she had clung to as a practicing witch were hundreds of years old and full of myth, themselves.

She also had thought the book would be nearly incomprehensible, with all of the thees and thous to navigate through. But the translation of the Bible that she received from the church was modern in its language. 

She remembered walking out of the “counseling” room and back into the sanctuary of the church along with the other people who had accepted Christ that morning. She walked up to Marta, Terry, Karen, Eric, Brent, and his parents with what she knew was a big, silly grin—she couldn’t help it!—and showed them her new Bible.

“We’re so proud of you!” “Congratulations!” “Welcome to the family!” “We love you!” were accolades that she hadn’t expected.

As they had walked out of the church into the parking lot, she turned to Karen and said, “This is a thick book!”

Karen had told her that it was actually sixty-six books and letters, written over more than 1500 years by people, who, for the most part, never knew one another. She said that despite the number of people that penned the words, there was not a single contradiction over that span of time; that it was the only book of ‘sacred writings’ on the planet that had that bragging right.

Karen had told her that it was actually 66 books, written over more than 1500 years by people, who, for the most part, never knew each other. She said that in spite of the number of people that penned the books and letters, there was not a single contradiction over that span of time; that it was the only book of ‘sacred writings’ on the planet that had that bragging right.

Karen had then suggested that she not start at the beginning, which seemed a little odd to Tara, but to instead begin reading the New Testament, and to start with the book of John.

That same day, as the whole group enjoyed lunch together at a nearby restaurant, she opened to John and started reading, more out of curiosity than out of intention to actually embed herself within its pages. But the words were like magic to her.

She remembered thinking about the word magic—or magick, in the occult sense—and immediately rebuked herself. Old habits—and old words—were going to be things of which she needed to rid herself.

The words in the ancient text were more like… how had she thought of them? … more like an infusion of life! The words sounded a little mysterious in the first chapter, which only aroused her curiosity further.

Apparently, as she was reading, food had been placed off the side of her Bible that she hadn’t noticed. Brent had nudged her and asked if she was going to eat.

She had said, “I feel like I already am!” She looked at them with eyes of wonder. The group responded with smiles and laughter. She felt a little embarrassed and said, “I’m sure this is something you’re all used to and that it’s ‘old hat’ and all that, but … wow!”

Eric had responded to her comment. “Never ‘old hat’. But when we read it over and over we do mostly know what lies ahead. I envy you, Tara. I wish I could go back and experience the Word again as if it were the first time. I remember the affect it had on me, too.”

Mrs. Lawton chimed in with, “Tara, Brent’s dad and I are still working our way through the Bible for the first time. We’re really not too far ahead of you in the knowledge category. That book, for me anyway, has been very challenging. It’s like looking into a mirror sometimes and seeing all of the blemishes that need to be gotten rid of.” She smiled and absentmindedly raised her right hand to her cheek. “But we serve a good God who takes care of those blemishes in his own time and in his own way. I’ve read some of the books of the New Testament a couple/few times through, and each time I read, I keep finding things that hadn’t struck me the first or second time that I had read them.”

The others at the table had nodded in agreement.

Mr. Lawton added, “If you want to read something really interesting, take some time to read the first eleven chapters of the book of Genesis—the first book in the Bible in the Old Testament.”

She looked at Karen, who had simply shrugged and smiled, conceding the point.

Mr. Lawton continued. “It will tell you how life started and how everything fell apart. It was important for me to learn that life was meant to be more than it is right now. It’ll also tell you where all the different languages and cultures came from. Then you can jump back into the New Testament. Oh! And do you know the account of Noah and the flood? It’s in those first eleven chapters, too!”

“Keith, let the girl eat!” Mrs. Lawton declared.

With a light laugh, Tara had then pulled her plate within reach and started forking food into her mouth as she returned to the pages of God’s Word. She heard a couple of soft chuckles and she just smiled without looking up. She read, again, John chapter one, concentrating more deeply on the words.

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning.

3Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. 4In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

6There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. 8He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. 9The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.

10He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. 11He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him. 12Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God— 13children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

14The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.1

“Wait!” Tara blurted out, still staring at the words on the page. When she finally looked up she realized she had just rudely interrupted their conversations. She smiled apologetically and said, “Sorry.”

“It’s okay, Tara,” said Brent. “What’s up?”

“Okay, it starts off saying that there is this ‘Word’ and that the ‘Word’ created everything. Right?”

Several at the table had nodded.

“Then it says after that little number 14, that the ‘Word became flesh and dwelt among us.’ Is that talking about Jesus?”

“Sure is,” said Mr. Lawton.

“Then… wait… Jesus is the Creator?”

A couple of slight laughs and several “yeps” and “yeses” were issued.

“You’re telling me, that Jesus, the one that was crucified here on this planet, is the same one who created the entire universe?”

More nods and verbal affirmations.

Terry spoke up then. “And it’s not us who’s telling you, Tara. It’s God’s own Word telling you. You don’t have to take it from us.”

Tara thought for a moment about this new revelation and tears started to well up in her eyes. Softly, she said, “The Creator of the universe…” she swallowed. “The Creator of the universe died for me?” It was all she could do to finish the question. Tears fell.

Karen had then put her arm around Tara and the two brought their heads together. “That, my dear friend, is why it’s called ‘Amazing Grace.’”

1 John 1:1-14 – New International Version