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Chapter 19: Bridgette Takes Care of the Pope’s Light Work

  “And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.” 1 Thessalonians 3:12-13

  Luke the Hun and Bert Loreword rambled down a narrow, winding, dirt trail between a sunflower field and a cow pasture. The sky was a miracle blue, and there were two or three shiny-white clouds up there dancin’, and it was just late enough in the morning to be getting first-warm. A mile or two south of the city, they soon saw the Pope’s Office, there on their left. It was a small, unassuming brown trailer, in front of a barn-looking, nice white church, with a big hand-painted red-letter sign proclaimin’, “This here is the humble office of the Pope of the whole world. Come on in.”

  Luke beamed and leapt up the steps and knocked on the screen door, as Bert walked more calmly up behind, with a slight smirk. Through the door, they heard a pretty female voice say cheerfully, “Please come in!”

  Luke was surprised, and thought to himself, “Wow. A lady Pope? The times they are a-changin’!” In they went.

  They found themselves in a small room, with lots of sunlight, a tile floor, and young children’s pretty watercolor paintings taped on the walls, and an old, good, wooden desk acquired at a rummage sale for a buck ninety-eight. Behind it sat the receptionist, a striking northern nymph with raven hair, bright blue eyes and a diamond smile. “Hello”, Luke greeted her, bowing. “Are you The Pope, Your Holiness?”

  The young woman laughed. “No, sir. I’m Bridgette, Assistant to The Pope. And you are?”

  “Luke the Hun, Guitar Champion and Laid-Back Cracker.”

  Bridgette checked her notebook. “Did you have an appointment with The Pope? I’m not finding it here.”

  Luke looked around at the many other people he now noticed waiting in chairs along the walls, and admitted sheepishly, “No, no appointment. Sorry. What shall I do?”

  Bridgette was friendly, reassuring him, “That’s okay, walk-ins are welcome; you’ll just have to wait in line for a while. An hour or two maybe?” she estimated optimistically.

  Luke realized that he should have expected this, remembering what the man of God had said about The Savior of the World being a busy occupation, and reflecting that the ‘Pope of the Whole World’ must be a pretty busy servant too. Too busy for Bert, who tapped Luke on the shoulder and told him, “So I’ll be back in an hour or two, K? These kind of places make me uncomfortable.”

  Luke was a little sorry that his friend was leaving, and a little cross that Bert didn’t seem to be giving religion a fair chance. So he pointed out bravely, “It’s not always bad to be uncomfortable, Bert. Sometimes squirming a little makes you question whether you’re right or wrong, and then think about how to be right! What did Kevin say? The not-so-sweet side helps you grow?”

  Bert flashed a wise-crackin’ grin: “Yeah, but he also said we couldn’t go into the city, so what does he know, eh?”

  “You’re going to try to get into the city?” Luke asked interestedly.

  “That’s what the walls are for, isn’t it?”

  “To keep you out?”

  Bert gave a little wink. “To give me something to climb over! I’ll bring you a souvenir,” he promised; then gave beautiful Bridgette a little leer and left.

  Luke found a chair close to the door, and close to the desk, and sat down to wait. After many long minutes of silence, his mind began to wander, a thought crossed it, and like a simple lad, Luke blurted out his question: “So how does one become Assistant to the Pope, exactly?”

  Bridgette looked up from her work, and took the time to answer thoroughly. “Well, one puts in an application, and then there’s a three-step interview process... that’s less of a burden if you have a local address, and I happened to be living here on the west coast already... Oh, but do you mean what skills are required? Well, one needs to be a longtime Christian, with a heart full of love and goodness and innocence...” She didn’t mean to flatter herself, and so blushed a little here, and dropped her head modestly for a moment before finishing, “and it helps to have some organizational skills, time management abilities, and some experience with shorthand for taking dictation.” She paused for a second, and then added playfully, with a wave towards the city, a gesture clearly meant to indicate Luke’s friend Bert, “Oh yeah, and a black belt in Kung Fu to keep out the riff-raff!”

  Luke the long-time warrior was impressed: “Do you really have a black belt?”

  That part had been said purely in jest, and she hadn’t expected him to take it seriously for even a second, so Bridgette couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of the idea. Tinkling like a brook, it was the happiest and most charming laugh Luke had ever heard! It made him want to talk to her more, so he tried again, “Well then, do you really have a heart full of innocence and love?” (Even more impressed, coz these were harder to come by.)

  She blushed again, and then considered for a moment before speaking: “I try to. It’s not always easy. But what else is worth having, in this world? That’s the best way to defend your innocence, I’ve found--always ask yourself that question. I wrote it out and taped it to my bathroom mirror to remind me: ‘What sin, what folly, is worth the loss of a single day of innocence?’ There: start every day with the right questions, and you allow God the opportunity to give you the right answers!”

  Luke was falling more in love with her with every word: her modesty, her sincerity, her commitment and discipline, her tender eyes, her gentle voice, her joyful laugh. He caught himself, and remembered what Hosanna had warned him, and decided Bridgette would feel the same way--how he ought to first remember that all that was good in her, all that he was in love with, was from God... So he ought first to love God?

  It was somewhat prescient of Luke to contemplate such things, for Bridgette was going on to answer the second half of the question: “As for love, that’s the easy part! I’ve invited Jesus Christ into my life, into my heart, Luke, and once you know Him, your heart practically bursts with love! God is Love! So, if we allow God to fill us, we will be filled with love! Right?” She looked for Luke’s agreement, or at least acknowledgment. He kind of nodded, coz logically the equation held together, except... “Except the hard part sometimes is letting God fill us,” Bridgette continued, hitting on the same idea that Luke had paused over. “The best way is to pray every day, and ask for that to happen,” Bridgette pointed out. (‘Every day?!’ thought Luke, alarmed.) “‘Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you,’” Bridgette quoted.

  “Um, actually, I did knock, and I still had to open it myself,” Luke joked, pointing at the screen door that led out to the sunshine and butterflies.

  “Ya got in, didn’tcha?” Bridgette shot back. Then she thought quickly and decided Luke’s point was valid. “Sometimes it’s true there’s a little effort required on your part too. You can ask God to work, and to fill your life, but if you’re living in a way that basically says He’s not welcome... well actions speak louder than words, don’t they?”

  “So there are actions that keep God out?”

  “Nothing can keep God out!” Bridgette surprised Luke a little, by the tone of authority she took on. No mere clerical help, she. She surprised him again by referencing the same verse Bert had given to Shadrach! ‘Nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ She followed up, however, by explaining: “Nothing can keep God out, but not everything helps to draw Him in, either, does it? What did the Apostle Paul say? “All things are permissible for me, but all things edify not?’ That’s the key, Luke. Try to live in a way that edifies, a way that helps make you more like Jesus. Not because that helps God, but because that helps you.”

  “Be like Jesus? That’s kinda hard isn’t it?” Luke asked, knowing that he couldn’
t do the miracles or even the goodness, and sure wouldn’t want to do the crucifixion part! “Besides, I’m not a believer yet anyway, so I don’t think that applies to me. If I started trying to live right before being sure I believe, wouldn’t that be like buying a house before deciding where one wants to live? Maybe I’ll just hang back and wait a bit...” Luke was sorry to see that this response distressed Bridgette a little. He had meant to sound cautious, but when he heard it spoken aloud, he realized it just sounded lazy.

  “But you do know where you want to live, Luke!” she protested. “In God’s Kingdom! Where else would you go?” she wondered, unable to even conceive of any comparable possibilities. “No one’s saying you have to buy the house yet. Just show some interest in it, and He’ll hold it for you!” Then she grew serious, as she admitted, “It’s true that the Bible talks about the cost of following Jesus. He said ‘Whosoever forsaketh not all he hath cannot be my disciple.’ So in that sense it costs everything. But it’s an empty everything, isn’t it? Luke? Isn’t it? And in exchange you get everything God can bless you with! Show me a real estate agent who will make you a deal like that one!”71

  After a thoughtful pause, Bridgette the one-time wild child continued her explanation with a heavy-metal song lyric, and a Bible verse: “It’s a long way to the top, if you want to rock’n roll,” she offered, and then applied it: “We all have a long way to go to be like Christ. (That friend of yours especially!) So move a little closer now, and move a little closer later. Come to the threshold on your own, and let God draw you the rest of the way. But it’s never too soon to begin!” Luke swelled with hope when he realized how much like Louise this part sounded. ‘A second chance...’ Luke thought hopefully, smiling to find that the Trolls had been right about him still being on the right path.

  Bridgette was still teaching: “What do you think this means? ‘Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded.’ You’ll go farther faster if you make an effort--even though it’s not our efforts that help us to heaven, but God’s grace! At least it’s a good faith gesture, and God will honor and bless that.”

  “So what do I have to do then?” Luke asked, genuinely interested and convinced, but also eager to make up for his earlier misstatement.

  Bridgette quoted Jesus: “ ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’ “

  “Well, that shouldn’t be too hard then,” said Luke, facetiously.

  “Come as close as you can,” Bridgette reminded him gently, “And God will respect that. He knows we’re human. He will help you to do better later. Of course there are some practical tips that help too...” Luke seemed interested so she went on. “Well, it can’t hurt to remember that God created us all. So all other people are your equals: when you look at them, you should see a person just like yourself, and treat them with as much dignity and kindness as you would hope for. Jesus said it best. (He always does.) ‘Therefore all things whatsoever that men should do to you, do ye even so to them’. But remember also that God created us not only equal, but also in His own image! Kind of demands a certain respect, doesn’t it? Means you have to try to see the good that God has put in every person; you have to treat people the way you would treat God Himself! Yikes.” She paused, and Luke could tell she was saying an inside-prayer, quickly repenting for some secret forgetfulness.

  Then, feeling God’s forgiveness herself reminded her to share this advice also: “‘If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.’ Kind of the same idea I guess, but I just wanted to share with you how important forgiveness is to love. If you can’t forgive someone for something, how much do you really love them? True, some things are very hard to forgive, and some people are hard to forgive! It might be harder for you to forgive strangers because you love them less, or friends, because their wrongs against you seem like treason. But in either case, you have to try! The harder it is, the better it will be for you when you do it. Like lifting heavy weights makes your muscles stronger, lifting heavy burdens makes your spirit stronger too. But with spiritual struggles, you don’t just lift them up and bring them down and lift them back up again like the Bench Press.” (She was a workout queen too.) “But you lift them up to God and get them off your chest or off your back for good, and are free of them! That makes for a joyful spirit, as well as a strong spirit! Yes, it’s hard and it doesn’t always come right away, but you just have to practice, practice, practice. And when you practice kindness, or patience, or generosity, or mercy, or forgiveness, you are really practicing Love. And Love is the one thing worth practicing! What else are we here on the pretty planet of Timnalauren for, do you think? We are here to learn how to love. So that we will be better able to return God’s love. And then there will be completion: the fulfillment that you seek. So by all means, yes, start today,” she wrapped up. Then she smiled sweetly and began to finish a stack of paperwork.

  Luke smiled and said “Thank you.” Inside he resolved to at least try. He remembered what Bert had said about being careful with vows, but how can you go wrong with a promise to try? The only way to break it is not to even try to do right and practice love--which for Luke, after all he had seen and heard so far, was no longer an option. In fact, he had already been trying for some time to find out and to do what he was supposed to do. ‘But maybe it makes it easier when you resolve, and think about it, and consciously remind yourself to keep trying?’ Luke thought hopefully, and was grateful for Bridgette’s assistance.

  As he pondered her words, and her eyes, and her laugh, and her gentle grace, this description occurred to him: “As though God had tired of the wickedness of man and wanted to prove that he could still make perfection, so he made Bridgette.” Luke hated to interrupt Bridgette’s work again, but couldn’t help sharing what was on his mind again, and blurted out the praise, “You have a beautiful soul.” Not that Luke was an expert, necessarily, but in her case it was obvious to everyone, or should have been, except,

  “Takes one to know one,” Bridgette retorted, with her head still down over her work. (As the only receptionist in a high traffic area, she was used to deflecting people who hit on her. But this time, the unusual compliment did make her smile inside, and she had to be careful not to become too proud.)

  Luke tried to read his Bible for a while, but then he decided he had better try to work out what he wanted to say to the Pope, whose time was tight after all. As Luke rehearsed his coming encounter, he began to get more and more apprehensive. As though he was unworthy to stand in the presence, to seek an audience with God’s ace-#1 servant. Then Luke kinda laughed at himself, and felt a little better as he realized, ‘Everyone keeps tellin’ me to pray. If I’m going to have to seek an audience with God himself one of these days, this should just be a relatively small step, here.’

  He was still a little heart-beatery however, so when Bridgette pointed to a sad guy going in to see the Pope and said, “You’re on deck, sailor; when that guy comes out, you can go right in, OK?”, Luke looked around at the rest of the people in the waiting room and hemmed and hawed and found an excuse.

  There were some lame, some blind, some with other grievous physical maladies to be healed, among the many people who had come to see the Pope.72 Luke felt bad going in before them and told Bridgette, “Maybe I should wait a little longer. Some of these people could go before me, it looks like they might have it worse than I do.”

  “What is worse than a wounded spirit?” Bridgette pointed out, and then pointed to the opening door, as a now-happy guy was coming out. Luke was struck with a small moment of fear , but was calmed when he saw Bert returning through the screen door. The familiar h
elped to reassure him. Bert gave him a wave and a Good Luck, and Luke took a deep breath and went on in.

  The Pope was a little shorter than Luke had expected, but he had bigger forearms. Used to be a blue-collar guy. He gave Luke a hard-grip handshake and asked cheerfully, “So how can I help you this morning?”

  Luke tried to remember what he had rehearsed. He showed the Pope his Bible. “All the stuff in here, about God making man, and man falling to sin, and Jesus coming to save us from our sins. Is it true? Did that stuff really happen?”

  The Pope had a bright smile and a brief answer. “Absolutely! All of it! Quite true!” Then hitting the intercom button73, “Next appointment, Bridge.”

  Despite having to fend off Bert’s advances74 (oh, for that black belt she had joked about!), Bridgette had the presence of mind to pause a little on sending in the next customer, knowing that Luke usually had more questions coming.

  Luke did have another question. It was reassuring to hear the Pope’s certainty about the existence of God and the truth of the Gospel, but the obvious question still begged an answer: “So where do I find God then? Been lookin’ for a while now.”

  “‘The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for behold, the kingdom of God is within you.’” quoted the Pope, in response to all Luke’s ‘lookin’’.

  Like most Huns, Luke had taken the biology course at Hun State as his science prerequisite. Coz it was the only science course they offered, for one thing. (A few students had gotten away without one, after roughing up the Registrar and getting him to substitute that as an extra Brawling Practicum.) They figured you could kill people easier if you knew where the heart, spleen, and esophagus were, for one thing. Also, to tear someone limb from limb, you have to first be able to identify which ones are the limbs. But on none of the diagrams had Luke ever been shown ‘the Kingdom of God.’ The ‘Islets of Langerhans’ yes, but he was pretty sure that’s not what he had wandered halfway across the world seeking. So his confused response to the Pope’s statement was the always-Hun-elegant: “What?”

  The Pope tried again to describe God’s omnipresence, going to the prophet Jeremiah: “‘Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD.’”

  Luke had a little laugh at the ‘hide in secret places’ part, remembering Shadrach’s attempt to do just that. Then, thinking about the biology charts again, he started looking at his hand, flipped it over and still didn’t see anything. “A God at hand? Ya think?”

  The Pope grabbed Luke’s shirt-front with rippling forearms and gave him a little shake. Either Luke was playing dumb deliberately, or he just wasn’t speaking the Pope’s language. Either way, a little shake was almost always in order. The Pope made a last attempt, from Psalms: “‘Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.’” Luke was still looking puzzleheaded, so the Pope leaned close and raised his voice: “GOD IS EVERYWHERE!”

  Luke looked around slowly at Everywhere. He still didn’t see anybody. Nor did he appreciate being grabbed and shaken. So he drawled slowly in his tough, almost-ready-to-fight voice, “He must be pretty skinny.”

  The Pope sighed, not used to dealing with the limited dimensions of Hun thought, and its materialistic, corporeal, tangible, direct lines of sight. He decided to try another tack. “Maybe we’re asking the wrong questions,” he told Luke (remembering to use inclusive language to defuse the potential conflict. They teach that in Pope School, mind you.75) “Instead of ‘Where will I find God?’, maybe the question is merely ‘When will I find God?’”

  Luke played along, “K. So? When will I find God?”

  “Whenever you like,” the Pope offered generously, hoping Luke would accept the implied invitation.

  Instead Luke started to get mad, and raised his hands in a ‘Hello! What kind of answer is that?’ gesture, thinking the Pope was mocking him, or speaking in riddles deliberately.

  The Pope finally realized that the Scripture which said ‘But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.’ might yet be the cause of Luke’s resistance. Truths which are self-evident and axiomatic to believers are often incomprehensible and unacceptable to the unsaved. So he stopped trying to give Luke an instant fix, a magic word that would snap him out of it, and changed his answer to a more patient, understanding and realistic, “When, you ask? It could take some time. How ’bout coming to Church with us tomorrow? All the good people of New Owen Sound will be there. We’ll sing a little, talk a little, pray a little. Learn a little. Maybe get a little closer to understanding God. Then we’ll do it again each week! Set up another appointment with Bridgette, won’t you? We can try this again in a few days. I know we got off on the wrong foot, but I want to work with you...”

  Luke remembered what Bridgette had told him about forgiveness, and calmed himself down, but had to answer honestly, “I don’t know. Maybe. I can’t say for sure where I’ll be tomorrow.”

  “You should be wherever God wants you to be,” the Pope counseled wisely.

  But Luke, who wasn’t wise yet, thought the Pope was doing it again. He was about to throw up his hands again and shout an exasperated “WHERE’S THAT?”, but he checked himself, and just repeated a grudging “Maybe.”

  Their interview over, Luke headed back out the door, and into the waiting room. “C’mon, let’s go,” he said to Bert. Then he stopped briefly beside Bridgette, not to make an appointment, but to politely kiss her hand, and mumble “Good-bye”, in case he didn’t make it back. (Usually when you start wrapping up the loose ends like that, you already know you’re not coming back.) He couldn’t manage a smile though, so he turned away, sullen and forlorn.

  “Wait! What’s wrong?” Bridgette asked, genuinely concerned. She liked both Luke and the Pope, so she was sorry things hadn’t gone better. “Are you okay? What happened?” She kept asking questions until she got an answer. She didn’t want him to go away mad. “Don’t just leave, Luke: Try to figure out what went wrong! Sometimes we get off on the wrong foot, sometimes we have a bad experience with the Church, or someone in it. But is that typical? Is that the pattern you can expect to encounter? The only way to discover that, is to give it a second chance! That’s fair isn’t it? After the huge Second Chance that Christ gave us?”

  Luke finally turned and got it off his chest. “I don’t think I like that guy.”

  Bridgette was genuinely surprised. “The Pope?” This had never happened before. Just a personality conflict, she supposed. Or maybe the Pope had been dealing with cardinals and bishops so much that he was out of practice talking with absolute beginners, she speculated. (Or maybe Luke had just been less patient than the first time he was told about spirit, coz the Pope was less pretty than Louise!) “The Pope is a lot like Jesus...” Bridgette explained, “you’ll definitely like him better and better the more you get to know him!” The part about the Pope being like Jesus reminded Luke of what Bridgette had told him earlier, about everyone being made in God’s image, and trying to see the good in everyone. Feeling that he had already blown that assignment, the least he could do to make amends was to stop and let the Pope’s assistant put him on straight paths again.

  “So what happened?” Bridgette repeated, once she saw Luke would talk.

  Luke tried to put his finger on it. “I guess I just didn’t understand what he was saying. Something about God being everywhere. So how come I’m having so much trouble finding Him?”

  “First of all, you got upset pretty quick. Let me tell you, in my humble opinion, that I think mostly you’re disappointed because you went in with high hopes, and your conversation didn’t measure up. Th
e Pope didn’t give you a special blessing or a divine oracle to make it all come crystalline. Well guess what. The Pope is just a human being like you and me. He’s not the answer to all your problems. That role is reserved for Jesus. Does that mean the Pope can’t speak with the voice of God? Of course he can, if he lets God speak through him. But you still won’t hear it unless you’re also listening for what God will say to you! You were too busy listening for the Pope’s words, maybe you forgot to let God prepare your heart for His actual message. Always keep your eyes on God, never on man. Any man. But...” she got around to answering his question at last, “as to the part about God being everywhere? ‘God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth’. You will never get to see God with your eyes. You have to see him with the heart. Have faith; believe that the things you can’t see still exist anyway! Remember, you aren’t the measure of all things. Your eyesight doesn’t encompass the limits of existence.”

  Luke’s head was starting to hurt again, and Bridgette could tell she was losing him, so she gave a couple examples. “Where are you from?” she asked, to involve him.

  “Hun-Country.”

  “Can you see it?”

  “Not right now. I could when I was there. (Except for that time in my freshman year when I got really drunk and had blurred vision.)” Luke remembered honestly.

  “But did it cease to be, when you left? Or do you still believe it exists?”

  “I hope it does!” Then more seriously, “I’m sure it does.”

  “Because you have reasons to know that it does. You’ve been away and returned to find it unchanged, that type of thing. So you believe it’s not just a memory in your head, it’s a real place. Well, we have our reasons to believe that God exists! We can teach you more about that if you stay,” she hinted. Then she resumed teaching, with the topic, “God is spirit. People have bodies don’t they?”

  “Of course.”

  “But if they die, the bodies are still there, aren’t they? So there must be something more to people. The life which animates the body, and later leaves it to return to God, we call ‘spirit’. You can’t see it, but you can tell when it leaves. You can see the difference it makes, at least. Well, God is a really really big Spirit. Fills the whole Universe, and then some! And you can know that God is there the same way: because the Universe moves, has life, is filled with Love. All things that wouldn’t happen without God!”

  The next-to-last thing she had said reminded her of a third example she could give Luke: “Can you see Love? Can you hold it in your hands and say ‘I see it, it is this shape and this size’?”

  “No.”

  “But do you believe that Love exists?” She looked at him pleadingly here: please don’t say no.

  The look was unnecessary. Maybe as a youth Luke had flirted with power and violence, but ever since leaving home and leaving that Hun-hard lifestyle, Love was constantly becoming, more and more, the one thing Luke did believe in. “Of course!” he reassured her.

  “Good! So start with that,” Bridgette advised him, satisfied. “Maybe tomorrow you’ll learn more. Maybe tomorrow you’ll believe in more things. You are coming to Church with us?” She blinked her wide, bright eyes innocently yet still enticingly.

  Luke looked at Bert, and Bert was mouthing the words ‘Let’s Go!’, edging a step at a time towards the door throughout their whole conversation. Too obviously. “Not sure. Maybe,” Luke half-promised.

  Bridgette had a feeling Luke wouldn’t make it back, so she gave him one last remark to remember. “Luke, I don’t know what your journey holds or where it will take you. It could take many days and lead you halfway around the world. Already has, no doubt. And maybe on the way you’ll meet some people you are supposed to talk to, gain some tools and ideas that will help you serve God later. But I do know this--for sure and for real Luke, for honest and for ever: If you really want to journey to God, you’ll find him quicker on your knees than on a ship or a bus or on horseback. One day, or one night, is all that it would really take. If you filled that day with prayer... Real prayer! Not just words. An outcry of need and longing. Heart open to God’s grace, mind ready to understand as much revelation as He gives you, spirit that desires God, will submitted to His will. You would meet God that very day! He would come to you that very night! 100% guarantee it, Luke. Then you can get about the real business, of learning what He has in store for you, and how to serve Him faithfully and joyfully forever.” Bridgette had fun hammering home the power of God with dramatic speeches like that. One of the perks of bein’ Pope’s Assistant, see. She could see it had an effect on him, Luke was definitely leaning, so she asked again, coyly, “Sure you won’t come tomorrow?”

  “He’ll have to sleep on it,” Bert answered for his friend, as he physically grabbed Luke’s arm and steered him out of there. Luke grinned and gave her a wave at least.

  “Hey, we was talkin’,” Luke protested, as he and Bert walked back towards New Owen Sound.

  “Yeah, well; we gotta get going. Hafta buy some new duds for our big sea voyage!”

  “Our what?” Luke wondered what his friend had been up to.

  “I found a ship. They are leaving in the morning. I signed us up as sailors! Remember Lawrence: ‘The Sea!’” (Bert did his best crazy, passionate, old man impersonation.) “Now we’ll finally get a look at it for him. You’re in, aren’t you?”

  Luke was hesitant. “I don’t know. I was kind of wanting to see how this Church thing goes. They might be able to help me. This could even be the place I’m supposed to be,” Luke speculated, thinking of Bridgette, and how good she was for him. (Later, adding up the day’s words, he would put in ‘True’, ‘Within’ and ‘Everywhere’ for the Pope, but added a whole bunch of words to recall the things Bridgette had said: ‘Innocence’, ‘Equal’ and ‘Image’, ‘Forgive’, ‘Practice’, ‘Completion’, ‘Second chance’, ‘Spirit’, ‘Prayer’, and ‘One Day’ and ‘One Night’.)

  “What are you talking about?” Bert asked in disbelief. “I was sitting right by the door. I heard him! ‘Uttermost parts of the sea’. Said God would be there, didn’t he? You telling me the Pope personally gives you a commission and you’re not going to go?”

  Luke struggled for a second, unsure what sophistry Bert was wielding: coz it sounded familiar, he thought the Pope had said that. (And Bridgette had called him sailor, too!) But, “I’m not sure that’s what he meant. He also said to come in to Church tomorrow.” Luke tried to reconcile all the things he had been told.

  “But if you go to Church, the ship will be gone. Decisions, decisions. See, like I told her, maybe you better sleep on it. One hates to be hasty,” Bert the Young Man Impetuous said with some irony and a crafty smirk.

  That sounded reasonable, so Luke stayed with Bert, they used Bert’s homemade grappling hook to scale the city walls on the side away from the gate (Kevin the Troll was tough enough in a playfight, they sure didn’t want to scrap him for serious), and they did some shopping. Bought Luke some warm pants, and they each got a pea-coat from a farmer named Mike and a P-hat from a mathematician named Pevler, so they would be all set for seafaring. Also Nebraska Cornhusker sweatshirts, “Coz it gets cold on the stormy seas,” Bert explained. Luke had looked hard for ISU Cyclones merchandise instead, but found none. As the first half of the Hun saying said: “Beggars can’t be choosers.” (‘Conquerors can!’ was the rest.)

  In the evening, they went down to the docks, and Bert led him onto the good ship TrogDogJonah. “Is that a good name for a ship?” Luke asked doubtfully, remembering all the hard times at sea had by the Jonah of the Bible.

  “Oh, so you believe those stories?” Bert replied playfully. Luke shrugged and said Kinda, Maybe. “Then you should believe the story about Jesus calming the waters and the winds, too,” Bert pointed out, then reassured Luke with the promise, “There’s more power in the name of Jesus than in the name of any boat. Don’tcha think?”

  Feeling better, they
shook hands with the Captain (he introduced himself as Jack), and he hooked them up with some bunks. “Go ahead and get some sleep. We embark in the morning. If you change your mind between now and then, I’ll understand. You can go, no hard feelings,” he said generously, after Bert had explained Luke’s situation.

  They turned in soon enough, but first Bert took Luke up to the deck for one last bit of salesmanship, pointing to the starry skies and the night seas. “Look at it: The Sea! It goes on forever, almost. And what does it hold? Miles of promises, leagues full of wonders. And what will you find there, do you think? What treasures for Luke? What secret blessings? The only way to know is--like the old farmer said--to Go and See.” Bert winked as he acquiesced in that old argument, and turned Luke’s tingle into Hey!

  It was a peaceful night, and the gentle motion of the waves helped rock them to sleep. The fact that they were tired from walking partway across the world prolly didn’t hurt either. The last thing that passed through Luke’s thoughts before he drifted off was a relevant poem he had once read and liked, back at the Iowa State library, in the days when he had dreamed of being a mariner: “The storm shall not wake thee, nor shark overtake thee, asleep in the arms of the slow-swinging sea.”76 He smiled, swung slowly and slept.

  Part 2: Searching by Sea