The Road Home (31 page)

When she stood back up, the splint gave her ankle good support, and she was able to stand on it, not without some pain, but at least it didn't buckle. She leaned on her pine branch, stepped carefully over the narrow stream, and made her way through the rocks to the trail on the other side. Just as she was about to start, she heard a faint voice from the top of the ravine.

“Jenny, where are you? You better show yourself, 'cause I'm not happy with you.”

Jorge!
Desperately, Jenny looked around. A few feet away, under the trees, was another brush pile on top of some fallen logs. She dropped
down and scooted under the overhanging branches until she was out of sight. Up above she heard voices drawing nearer. It was Luis and Jorge. They had a flashlight, and Jenny could see the light reflecting off the trees up on top of the cliff. Jorge was talking.

“I'm sorry, Uncle Luis, but you shouldn't have gotten me drunk. I fell down and she got away.”

“Yeah, well I'm not buying it,” Luis said. “I never heard of a Sanchez who couldn't hold his booze.”

“Maybe we're not all tough guys like you, Uncle Luis,” Jorge retorted sarcastically.

Jenny heard the sound of a slap, and Jorge cried out.

“Don't ever talk to me like that again, kid. Now let's find that girl, or you're gonna have more than one thing to be sorry for.”

“Okay, okay,” Jorge answered.

Their voices faded as they walked up the trail, back toward the cabin. Finally it was quiet again. Jenny realized she had been very lucky to fall off the cliff. The sides were so steep that the men hadn't considered the possibility that she could have climbed down, so they were looking for her in the woods up on top. She breathed a sigh of relief and let her pounding heart slow down. She stood to her feet, leaned on her stick, and began to hobble south down the hill, hoping to find the interstate or at least another cabin.

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY
-S
IX

Stains

O
NCE
J
ERUSHA WAS FINISHED REPAIRING THE QUILT
, she went over it one more time to make sure all of the damaged areas were put completely right. She worked from the top of the quilt to the bottom, examining each section until she was satisfied that the quilt was undamaged and whole again. The red rose, the heart of the design, was totally restored, and the new silken pieces glowed with the radiance that had been so striking when she first made the quilt. After she was satisfied with the repair, she turned down the lights and went to her room. She made herself ready for bed and then knelt down and spoke her prayers.

“Heavenly Father, I thank You for the blessings You have bestowed upon my life—my husband, my daughter, this farm, the plain life we live, and most of all, the eternal life You have granted me through Your Son, Jesus. I also thank You for showing me the wonderful power of Your redeeming blood, the blood that has made all things new. You have told us to be careful for nothing, but I confess to You that I am anxious for Jenny and Reuben, and for Bobby. I place them into Your care tonight. Please be with Reuben and Bobby as they search for Jenny.”

As she prayed, her anxiety began to subside, and a peace gradually settled on her. A scripture came unbidden to her thoughts.
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the
L
ORD
,
He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust
.

Jerusha began to recite the passage out loud.

“Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.”

Peace flowed into Jerusha's heart.

Early in the morning, the song of a black-capped chickadee singing outside her window awakened Jerusha. The sun was just peeking over the low hills away toward Pennsylvania. A faint touch of frost clung to the bottom of the windowpane, and a slight bite of cold chilled the air, even in the house. Jerusha could feel the coolness on her face as she lay still for a few moments under her warm quilt, listening to the sweet song.

“Chick-a-dee, chick-a-dee.”

For those few minutes, the morning held a measure of peace. But then the events of the past days flooded in upon her, and a knot formed in her stomach.

“Oh, Jenny, where are you?” she whispered.

Then the scripture from the night before came to her unbidden. She knew that the Lord had been showing her something about Jenny.
He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust. That is how You have been with Jenny all her life. You have protected her and guarded her since she was a little girl
.

Everything the Lord had been showing Jerusha about Jenny's life was beginning to piece together.

Just like when I make a quilt. I have the idea, then I do the work, and then I have the quilt
.

Jerusha got up and put on her robe. She went to the kitchen, lit the stove, and put on some coffee. When it was ready, she poured herself a cup and went back to her sewing room. The Rose of Sharon quilt lay where she had left it. She picked it up and turned it over in her hands. All the pieces were there, but large stains marred the front and the back. The largest one had been made when she fell into the pond carrying Jenny across the ice, but there were others where the quilt had gotten wet when she had fallen in the snow as she struggled through the drifts on her way to the cabin.

The stains were large and uneven. There were also dirty places where she had lain on the floor of the cabin with Jenny, wrapped in the thick quilt. Sooty handprints reminded her of how she had kept the fire burning. Jerusha sighed. There was still so much to be done before the quilt was fully restored.

“I'm not sure I understand everything yet, Lord,” Jerusha said. “I know now that Your blood covers the sins and imperfections in my life, so what are You telling me about these stains? How do they relate to my life? If my sins are forgiven, why is my life still stained?”

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling
.

“What?” Jerusha asked.

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling
.

Once more Jerusha became aware of the trap she had fallen into all her life as a quilter. She had always loved the end result, the finished quilt, but now she was beginning to understand that for the Lord, the work was complete before the foundation of the world. He was the Alpha and the Omega, so He saw the beginning and the end of each life. His attention was always on the process, the things that made a life what it was, and He maintained constant vigilance over the lives of His children to keep them on the path to His planned end.

“So, Lord, when I fall, You are always there?”

I will never leave you or forsake you. I love the church and gave Myself for it that I might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that I might present it to Myself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish
.

A picture came to Jerusha. She was twelve years old, and her father had given her a new pair of high-top shoes. They were beautiful black leather, handmade by a neighbor, and the finest shoes Jerusha had ever owned. One rainy day, she forgot that she was wearing her new shoes and went outside to play. When she came in, her shoes were covered with mud and stained by the pools of water she had walked through. She thoughtlessly left them on the back porch and went to her room.

Several hours later there came a knock on her door. When she opened it, her father was standing there with her new shoes in his hand. She saw the look of disappointment in his eyes, and then she looked down at the shoes. Instead of being muddy and stained, they were clean and polished, not a speck of dirt on them. They almost looked new again. Her father had said nothing but simply handed her the shoes and turned away.

A rush of shame and sorrow had come over her as her father silently walked down the hall. She had vowed to herself that she would never make that mistake again, but less than a month later she thoughtlessly wore them outside in the fields, and again they were dirty and stained. This time she didn't leave them, but cleaned them herself and tried to polish them. Her efforts didn't produce the desired result, so she had taken them to her father and asked for his help in cleaning them.

Her father had quietly showed her how to clean and polish them. First he wiped the mud off with a damp cloth. Then he placed a small dab of polish on a soft rag and rubbed it gently into the shoes with small circular motions, making sure that each crease and crevice was filled with polish. He set them by the stove for a few minutes until the polish
melted into the surface of the leather. Then he sprinkled a few drops of water on the shoes and buffed them with a soft brush. He didn't stop there, but repeated the process two times. When he was finished, he buffed them lightly with a cotton cloth until they shone like new.

“
Ja, dochter, das is gut
.” He had smiled at her. “We learn how to care for the things we are given. The next time, you will clean them.”

Jerusha thought about what she had learned. “So we are made new and covered by Your blood, but still we make ourselves dirty by walking in the world? Doesn't living the Amish way keep us from sin?”

The whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. Your church does not save you. I save you
.

“The first time I got my shoes dirty, my father cleaned them for me. The second time, he showed me how to clean them. But from then on, I had to keep my shoes clean or clean them myself if I got them dirty. Is that what You mean by working out your own salvation?”

Yes. I save you and show you the path, but then you must walk it. Each trial is a test. Will you do what I have taught you, or will you go your own way?

Jerusha looked at the quilt. “So even though it is restored and made whole, it can still be stained? And when it is, I must…what must I do then, Lord?”

If you confess your sins, I am faithful and just and will forgive you your sins and purify you from all unrighteousness
.

“So, just as a child, I must come to my Father to be cleansed from my sins?”

Yes
, dochter.
And I will show you the way, and then you must walk in it
.

Jerusha sat silently thinking. She began to understand that her life with the Lord had been shallow and empty, that she hadn't understood how He really worked in her life to save her, keep her, instruct her, and guide her. She had always believed that her church had kept her from the world, but now she understood that it wasn't her church, but her
relationship with Him that kept her. And now she knew that each day, her life could be stained by sin even though she might appear to be doing everything right—sins of omission and sins of commission, sins of pride, arrogance, and so many other things, she would be overwhelmed if she didn't have the Lord to walk with her.

With that in mind, she took the quilt to the washroom. She filled a tub with cold water and stirred in some liquid soap, and a very small amount of vinegar. She placed the quilt in the water, pushing it under the water and making certain the entire quilt was wet. She gently moved the quilt around in the water. Then she left the quilt in the water for about ten minutes. After that, she drained the wash water and filled the tub again. She repeated draining and refilling the tub until the water and quilt were soap free—just clear water and no suds. After the quilt was rinsed, Jerusha blotted it dry with towels to absorb the moisture. Then she hung the quilt over the quilting frame where air could circulate around it.