As much as Sarah wanted to think that what Ezekiel just said was garbage and sentimental nonsense, she couldn’t deny that it resonated with her. God is not just sitting on his throne in the heavens and watching gleefully as we suffer. He has partaken in the suffering. The stories from when she was a kid came flooding back to her The manger, the wise men, the angels, and many more. She remembered her mother telling her those beautiful stories when she was barely able to comprehend them. But somehow they stuck deep in her mind.
“Does that make sense Sarah…”
“Oh...yes…actually it does.” She was caught off guard as she had been lost in deep thought. “Actually it makes perfect sense, and in a way makes sense of everything. But it is still hard. You are saying that you just rely on faith. Because you never gave me an answer, you just said there must be a good reason.”
“Yes, Sarah, faith. And that is hard to explain. But tomorrow I am going to try and show you.” He said. “It will be fun, trust me.”
“Trust you, what is it?”
“Ah, but you must have faith in me,” replied Ezekiel with a wink and a laugh.
Sarah laughed too. There was a certain undefinable charm about him. She watched as he worked but this time she knew what to expect. She knew that he would hum glorious and uplifting tunes to himself and seem to smile and laugh the entire time he worked. It was if he was in constant communication with God and he was continually being filled with enthusiasm for life. Sarah tried to think joyful thoughts. But as much as she was beginning to learn about how Ezekiel saw the world, her thoughts of God and joy were drowned out by the pain of her loss. She continued working to take her mind off it.
After they finished work for the day, they went back as they had the day before. They enjoyed another great meal together. This time it was goose. It was delicious. Sarah was so exhausted after two straight days of working hard doing chores that she could barely bring herself to talk at the dinner table of after. She went to her bedroom as quickly as she could.
“I am sure that you learned some more life lessons from Isaiah today,” said Sarah to her father.
“Sarah, I have learned a lot in just the two days that I have been here. I honestly feel different about how I see life. It is hard to explain, but it is real. Sarah I want us to reconcile. I need to hear that you forgive me. It will ease my suffering and my guilt. Could you please offer that to me?”
Sarah felt a desire in her to forgive him for all he had done to her in the past. For some reason it nagged at her and she wanted to hug her father and reconcile with him. It wasn’t right for a daughter to hate her father so much. Maybe the hatred was cooling off. Maybe now she simply didn’t like him. But she still could not bring herself to forgive him.
“I want to believe you, dad. I really do. But you have let me down far too many times. You forgive a person for spilling their drink on you, but not for this. I am sorry I cannot give you what you seek.” Sarah got into bed. She felt the weight of her sorrow and sadness consume her. It was as if she could not escape it, it stifled her.
She remembered what Ezekiel had said about faith, and wanting to show her. But she still didn’t know what he meant, and she was too tired to be able to care very much. She drifted off to sleep imagining her mother and what if felt like to be loved by her.
“Sarah, get up, get up.”
“What, what is going on? Ezekiel, What are you doing here?”
Ezekiel whispered, “remember I had something to show you? Well now is the time. We must be quick though.”
Sarah got out of bed as fast as she could without being loud. She saw that her father was still there sleeping and didn’t want to wake him. “What time is it?”
“It is early, but not that early. We don’t have a lot of time,” he said. He grabbed her hand and led her out of the room and out the front door. It was very cold. “Here, put this on.” Ezekiel put his coat around Sarah. It fit surprisingly well. And smelled good.
“Where are we going,” demanded Sarah as she didn’t want to be out in the cold if she had no clue what was going on.
“You have to have faith in me, Sarah,” explained Ezekiel. “Now follow me.” Ezekiel began to run. he was faster than Sarah expected him to be. For where did an Amish boy learn to run fast. Ezekiel never ran track in high school or played football. But he could run. And Sarah struggled to keep up. They entered into the woods and the starlight and moonlight no longer illuminated their path. “hold my hand, Sarah.” Isaiah lead her through the trees. He moved deftly and without hesitation. He had done this many times before.