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Levi
“The sun’s coming up,” Levi observed.
“It always does,” Gamp said.
“So I lived through the night, I guess.”
“You sure did. How are your hands?”
His hands? They were the least of his problems. “They’re fine.”
“Are they still numb?”
Levi tried moving them. They were stiff and cold. “Only a little.”
“I told you to keep them in your pockets.”
Levi managed to chuckle. “Yes, sir.”
“How ’bout the rest of you?”
“Not good. Head still hurts. Leg’s still broken. Don’t suppose you can carry me back to the road?”
It was Gamp’s turn to chuckle. With good reason. Hallucinations didn’t carry people. And Levi was pretty sure ghosts didn’t either. He glanced at the wood in Gamp’s hand. He’d been working on it for a while, but hadn’t made much progress. “What are you making there?” He thought he’d better not guess.
Gamp looked at it curiously, as if he didn’t quite know the answer to that question. “I made a mistake, so I started fresh. A clean slate, you know.”
When had he had time to go out and find another stick? Oh wait, he had all the time in the world, because time didn’t affect him, because he wasn’t real.
“And to answer your question, I’m making a dove.”
“A dove?” Levi was glad he hadn’t tried to guess.
“Yes. A dove. You need the Holy Spirit right now, so I’m making you a dove.”
Levi closed his eyes and tipped his head back. He didn’t want to talk about religion.
“They’re coming for you, but you might hurry them along if you pray.”
“Oh yeah?” He didn’t open his eyes.
“Yeah. If I were you, I would pray for mercy, so maybe your pain would ease up some. Then I would pray for salvation. And then I would pray for the safety of those coming to get you.”
“Who are they?”
Gamp didn’t answer, but Levi heard his knife chipping at the wood.
“Okay, I’ll pray,” Levi said, surprising himself.
“Good.”
But Levi wasn’t sure how to pray. Of course, he’d done it before, when he was little, but this was different. This time felt heavier somehow, like he could mess it up.
“What’s wrong?”
“Uh ...” He wasn’t sure how to phrase the question.
“Spit it out, son.”
“If I pray wrong, will it mess up my rescue?”
Gamp hesitated, which made Levi nervous. “I think there’s a couple of ways to pray wrong. First, if you treat prayer like a list for Santa Claus, I think that would be wrong. Don’t go asking him for a new truck.” He chuckled. “And second, I think lying in a prayer would be pretty stupid. Other than that, if you pray with an honest heart, I don’t see how you can go wrong.”
Levi considered that. He wasn’t really good at opening up his heart to anyone, let alone a God he might not even believe in. He looked around the basement and then took a deep breath. What did he have to lose? He squeezed his eyes shut and silently said, I’m not sure what to say here, but I promise I won’t lie. He paused, trying to think of what to say. I don’t want to die, God. Can you help me not die? I sure could use a break from this pain. Could you make that go away some? And could you hurry up the rescue? Amen. Then he remembered. Oh yeah, and please protect the rescuers. Amen again. He opened his eyes and looked at Gamp. “There. I did it.”
“Good. Now, if you want, whenever you want, do it again.”
Levi sighed. “You really believe in all this God stuff, huh?”
Gamp blew on the chunk of wood, which looked nothing like a dove—or a bird of any sort. “Of course I do. I’ve seen it with my own two eyes, heard it with my own two ears, felt it with my own two hands.”
Levi found this information oddly overwhelming and didn’t say anything at first. “But if you’re dead, aren’t you supposed to be in heaven?”
Gamp looked up from his carving and winked at Levi. “You’re talking to me right now, aren’t ya?”
“Yeah.” Sort of.
“Then I guess I’m not dead!” He laughed. “The grave had no victory over me.”
Levi tipped his head back. “It hurts so much. The prayer didn’t help.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. Oops, I forgot I wasn’t supposed to say that anymore.”
“It hurts. I’m tired. I feel sick. I’m so cold. I’m not sure I can handle religion right now too.”
“Good, because I would never try to give you religion.”
Levi opened his eyes and looked at his grandfather. The light in the basement was brighter now, and he could see him clear as day, right down to his whiskers. “Huh?”
Gamp winked again. “Son, the God of the universe defines religion as helping orphans and widows. If that’s your definition, then sure, religion is a good thing. But I’m guessing that’s not what you were thinking of.”
“No.” Levi tried to organize his thoughts. “I was thinking of a bunch of rules and made up old stories.”
“Ah yes. Well, you’ll get to all that. But for right now, in this cellar, let’s talk about what matters, shall we?”
Levi felt hesitant. “Okay.”
“All right. Good. Here’s the basics. The God of the universe wants a personal relationship with you, Levi Langford. He created you for his pleasure, for his glory, and he wants you now for his pleasure and his glory. I don’t know why he let you fall into this cellar, son. I don’t know what he’s trying to accomplish, but I do know that he’s going to use it for good. And I personally hope that this brings you into a relationship with him because ...” His voice cracked.
Levi waited for him to continue, not sure if he should say something to try to get him going again.
“Son, I wasted most of my life living without God. Now I can look back and see the truth of a lot of that. Now I can look back and see how things might have been if I’d been walking with God all those years.” He let out a long breath. “But that’s my story. It doesn’t have to be yours. You’ve got an opportunity here to turn things around.”
Levi cringed at his words. He liked his life the way it was. He didn’t want to turn things around. But at least Gamp wasn’t telling him to ask Jesus into his heart because he was going to die soon.
“Penny for your thoughts?”
“I was thinking about heaven and hell.”
“You were?”
“Sort of.”
Gamp chuckled. “No time like the present, I guess.”
“You’re telling me that if I die right now from a brain injury, or if I freeze to death, I’m going to go to hell because I haven’t been walking with God?”
Gamp hesitated. “The question itself breaks my heart.” He rubbed his hand over his stubbly chin. “The truth is that I don’t know. I can’t see into your heart. But God can. The Bible tells us that God searches the heart. What he finds there is between you and him.”
Unexpectedly, this chilled Levi. He suddenly felt a little less confident in his stance. “Oh.”
“Yeah. Oh. Exactly. It’s a lot to take in. That’s why you should start now, not when you’re seventy-two like I was.”
