All My Tomorrows (16 page)

Molly set the hot bread pan on the cupboard and smiled. “I will love having a daughter that I can teach to cook, honey. I’ll teach you how to sew too, so one day you can make a pleasant home for that fortunate young man we talked about and for the children who come along as time passes.”

Donna nodded and wiped a hand on the apron that Molly had tied on her earlier. She glanced back at the table, letting her eyes take in the place settings that she had done; of course, only after being instructed by her new mother. Molly had found out
the Mitchells were so poor that they only had the bare necessities when it came to eating utensils and dishes. Donna and her twin had never learned how to properly set a table.

While Molly and her new daughter were dishing up the stew and other items from the stove, they were chatting and laughing together. They were so engrossed in each other that they failed to notice that Ken had come in from the barn and was standing just inside the door, a wide grin creasing his face. “Sure smells good in here, ladies.”

Donna stopped in the middle of a sentence, and both of them turned and looked at Ken.

Molly smiled at him. “So you like what you smell, eh?”

“Sure do!”

“Well, get washed up and you’ll like how it tastes even better. Our daughter really helped me, and it’s going to be extra good!”

Ken’s eyebrows arched. “So she’s a good cook, huh?”

“Excellent cook. She’s promised to teach me all she knows.”

Donna looked at Molly with a slight frown and a jovial look in her eyes.

Molly laughed and kissed her cheek. “Let’s get the rest of this on the table while Papa washes up, sweetheart.”

Ken picked up on Molly’s humor, laughed, and headed for the washbasin.

Moments later, when the three of them sat down at the table, Ken said, “Let’s pray.”

As Ken and Molly started to bow their heads, they both noticed the strange look that came over Donna’s pretty face.

Ken said, “Is this something you aren’t used to, Donna?”

“Ah … I’ve heard about people who pray before they eat, Papa, but we never did it at our house.”

“I see. Well, honey, because it is the Lord in heaven who provides our food for us, we always stop to thank Him before we
eat. In the Bible, Jesus taught us by example that it’s the right thing to do.”

At first there was a blank look on Donna’s face, then it vanished as she smiled. “I think it’s good to do that.”

Ken led in prayer, then they began eating. “Donna, your new Mama and I are born-again Christians. We attend a Bible-believing church in Wild Horse regularly.”

“Does your family go to church in Manhattan?” Molly asked.

“No, ma’am. The only time I was ever inside a church was for a funeral when one of my father’s friends died. I’ll look forward to going to church with you.”

The Talberts exchanged glances and smiled at each other.

As they continued eating, Donna said, “I’ve heard about people being born again, but I don’t understand what that means.”

Ken grinned. “Well, tell you what, honey. We’ll show you all about it in the Bible.”

“Okay.”

After supper, Molly and Donna did the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen together, then joined Ken in the parlor. They found him reading a sermon in Charles Spurgeon’s 1856 edition of the New Park Street Pulpit.

Molly stood over him. “So what’s Mr. Spurgeon preaching to you about, honey?”

“It’s really a good one. The sermon is called, ‘The Beatific Vision.’ It’s taken from 1 John 3:2, where it speaks of Jesus and says, ‘We shall see him as he is.’ On this particular page, he is preaching about the awesomeness we are going to feel when we see our precious Saviour on His throne.”

Molly nodded. “Oh yes! Awesomeness that can’t even be described with mortal tongue.”

“For sure,” said Ken, closing the book and laying it aside.

Donna noticed three Bibles lying on the small table at one end of the sofa. Molly picked one up and handed it to her. “This is for you, honey. We bought this Bible last week for the girl the Lord was going to send into our home.”

Donna accepted the Bible with a reverent look in her eyes. As she opened it and flipped pages, she said, “I’ve never had a Bible in my hands before.”

Ken and Molly looked at each other in amazement.

“Each evening before bedtime, your mama and I read the Bible together and have a time of prayer. We’ll start early tonight because we want to show you what the Bible says about being born again.”

“All right, Papa. And I want to thank both of you for giving me this Bible.”

“You’re so welcome, sweetie,” said Molly. “We’ll sit down here on the sofa. You can sit between us.”

When they were settled, each with a Bible in their hand, Ken said, “Let me show you first about Jesus giving us an example in offering thanks to God for our food before we eat.”

“All right.”

“Let’s go to Matthew 15.”

Molly helped Donna find the page in her new Bible, then opened her own Bible to the same place.

“Jesus is about to feed a big crowd, Donna,” said Ken. “Look in verse 36. See where it says He gave thanks?”

“Uh-huh.”

“All right. Let’s go to Matthew chapter 26.” This time, Donna turned to the chapter on her own.

Ken met the girl’s gaze. “In this passage, Jesus is about to eat with His disciples. Look at verse 27. ‘And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying Drink ye all of it.’ See that?”

“Yes.”

“There are many other places I could show you where He did the same thing, but I think you can see that Jesus set the example.”

“He sure did.”

“Good. Well, let’s go now to John 3, where we find Jesus talking about being born again.”

Molly took Donna’s Bible and turned it to the chapter Ken had just mentioned. Donna smiled. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, sweetheart. You’ll learn the books of the Bible in short order, I promise.”

“I sure want to.”

Ken explained to Donna that the man named Nicodemus in the passage was a deeply religious man but lost. Knowing this, Jesus told him what he needed to do to go to heaven when he died. They followed as Ken read it aloud:

Ken looked at Donna, who was obviously perplexed. “You’re probably wondering the same thing Nicodemus did. How can a person go back into their mother’s womb and be born a second time? Right?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Well, it’s not as hard to understand as it seems. The key to
understanding it is there in verse 6, where Jesus makes it clear that there are two kinds of birth. See? ‘That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.’ So there is a fleshly birth and there is a spiritual birth. I think you can see that the fleshly birth is your physical birth, when your mother gave birth to you.”

“Yes, sir.”

“But there is also a spiritual birth, which must come after your physical birth, or you can’t go to heaven. And the reason for that is because every human being comes into this world spiritually dead. And God will not allow anything dead into heaven. Let me show you about that. Let’s go back to the book of Genesis.”

Molly helped Donna find Genesis 1. Ken quickly pointed out the creation work God did in the early part of the chapter, then showed her that the great eternal triune God—Father, Son, and Spirit—said in verse 26: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”

He emphasized the “our” to show the three persons in the Godhead, then showed her in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 that man, being made in God’s image, began as a triune being: body, soul, and spirit. He then pointed out from John 4:24 that God must be worshiped in spirit and in truth, but if man has no spirit, he cannot know God nor truly worship Him.

Ken then took Donna to Genesis 2:15 where God put Adam in the garden of Eden, and that He said to Adam in the next two verses, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”

“Donna,” said Ken, “notice God warned Adam that he would die
the very day
he disobeyed and ate of the forbidden fruit. See that?”

“Yes, Papa.”

“All right, let’s look at another passage.”

Ken then took her to Genesis 3 where Satan beguiled Eve and tricked her into eating the forbidden fruit; then Adam came along after Satan had slithered away, and when Eve gave him fruit from the same tree, he ate it too. He then took Donna to verse 24 where God drove Adam and Eve out of the garden, and on into chapter 4 to let her see that Adam and Eve started their family outside of the garden.

“Now, Donna, let me ask you something.”

“Yes, Papa?”

“Didn’t God say that Adam would die the very day he ate of the forbidden fruit?”

“Yes.”

“Did God bury Adam that day?”

“No.”

“Adam was physically alive, wasn’t he?”

“Mm-hhm.”

“But you see, honey, since God means what He says, Adam died that very day—not physically, but spiritually. So he became a depraved being of only body and soul, but no spirit. He was dead spiritually—separated from God, who cannot be known or worshiped except in spirit. Does that make sense to you?”

“Yes, it does.”

“Good. Now, the Bible is very clear on exactly what a spiritually dead sinner must do to be born again. Let me show you.”

Ken took Donna back to the gospel of John, and this time, showed her in chapter 1 verse 12 that spiritually dead sinners must
become
the children of God. They are not the children of God just because they are born into God’s world. They are His creation, but in order to become His children, they must be born again. He pointed out that verse 12 said people are born again by receiving Jesus.

Donna listened intently as Ken read to her from Ephesians 3:17 that she must receive Jesus into her
heart.
He went on to show her Scriptures that said the lost, spiritually dead sinner must repent of his or her sin as they call on Jesus to save them and receive Him into their heart as their personal Saviour.

Then letting her think on that, he took her to passages that dealt with heaven and hell, God’s definition of sin, Jesus shedding His blood and dying on the cross of Calvary, and why He had to do that in order to provide salvation for lost sinners.

Donna shook her head in wonderment. “Papa, Mama, I have heard of Jesus Christ, of course, and that He had died on a cross, but I never knew any of the rest of this.”

“A lot to think about, isn’t it?” said Molly.

“Yes, it is.”

Ken and Molly knew it was wise to let the Holy Spirit do His work in Donna’s heart for the next few days before they would go any further toward trying to lead her to Jesus.

“Tell you what,” said Ken, “you think on all of this for a couple of days or so, and we’ll talk about it again. If you have any questions in the meantime, you feel free to ask them, okay?”

“Okay, Papa. Thank you for showing me those things.”

“Happy to do so, sweetie. Somebody had to help us once, now we want to help you.”

Later, when Ken and Molly were in their own room preparing for bed, they agreed to keep Donna before the Lord in prayer and to continue to direct her daily in reading more Bible passages on salvation.

At the Dexter farm outside of Salina, Kansas, Deena Mitchell stood in the kitchen with her heart pounding and her eyes wide as Rex bolted out the back door and slammed it. Looking at
Ralph and Norma, she said, “Why do you let him talk to me like that? I haven’t done anything to him!”

Ralph raised a palm. “Now, take it easy, Deena. Rex didn’t really mean what he just said.”

“It sounded like it to me! You heard him. He said he wished you had never brought me home with you.”

“Rex is just having a hard time sharing us with you, Deena,” said Norma. “He’ll get used to it.”

“I don’t think so. He wants to make it so miserable for me that I’ll run away. You know what he told me yesterday? He said I’m going to have to learn to milk the cows, and I’m going to have to start working in the barn, cleaning the chicken shed and the pigpen. And he said when he tells me to, I have to do his work—and if I don’t do it, he’ll beat me up. What about that?”

Ralph shook his head. “That’s just talk. He won’t beat you up.”

“Sounds like he means it to me,” said Deena, her voice cracking. “I don’t understand what’s happened here, Mr. and Mrs. Dexter. Why do you let Rex treat me like he does? And—and you both treated me so nice when I first came here. But every day, you treat me more like a hired hand than a daughter.”

Ralph looked at Norma, sighed, and set his steady eyes on Deena. “I might as well tell you, girl: we chose you because you were old enough to do the housework for Norma, as well as the washing and ironing. We’ve put a roof over your head, haven’t we? And we’ve put clothes on your body, haven’t we? And we’ve put food in your stomach, haven’t we?”

Deena’s lips quivered. “Yes, but—”

“That’s more than your real parents were willing to do for you. Right?”

Deena wiped at the tears that were now brimming her eyes, but did not reply.

Ralph went on. “Let’s have an understanding right now, Deena. In your spare time, you’re going to help both Rex and me do the work in the barn, the chicken house, and the pigpen. And Rex is right. I do want you to learn to milk the cows, so when I need you to do it, you can handle the job. You’ll learn to feed the stock too.”

The tears were streaming down Deena’s cheeks. “I don’t mind hard work, Mr. Dexter, and I’m willing to do my share. I’ll gladly do as you ask, but … but why do you let Rex treat me like he does; and why aren’t the two of you nice to me like you were when I first came here a few days ago?”