Pie Town - Lynne Hinton [106]
Without knowing that Oris Whitsett had chased down the priest in Gallup, been refused and then later gone shopping and bought the man a gift, the people of Pie Town just assumed that somewhere along the way from Northern California to Pie Town, New Mexico, somewhere along his journey from distant and unattached bidder of the Church to confessed and redeemed sinner, somewhere from lost to found, blind to seeing, broken to mended, Father George Morris had found a good pair of boots.
Part V
Chapter Forty
I am as light as a feather now that he is with me. I go places I never before had interest in or desire to visit. We dance upon moons and sail across low clouds. I never knew I was so lonesome for company. He is as young now as he was then, a child wanting to stretch and go farther than yesterday, try a new dive, see a sunset from another pinnacle. He is my joy.
Of course, his first desire is to go home, to finish what had begun, to see come to pass what was birthed in his frail, beating heart. We have been granted permission, and I have told him my tales, recorded the events he missed and what has already fallen into place. He smiles, seeming as if he somehow knows more than even I, and I smile in response because maybe he does.
We come with the wind because humans always find hope in the change of wind. It is the breath of God, after all, and it is meant to remind them that there is more to this world than just themselves.
We come with strangers, once unwelcome and now necessary, once ridiculed and now desired, once held at arm’s length and now pulled desperately into hearts. And we laugh at the absurdity of it all. These are the two who will bring hope back to this place of despair. These two, pushed out and pushed away, and the one still preparing to come, these are the ones who will put the world back on its axis. These two, not angels, not those with special powers or sleight of hand, but these two, broken and healed, lost and found, these two bring the gifts from heaven.
God is a God of humor and mystery. And though it seems long and often unpredictable, we enjoy the ride.
Chapter Forty-one
It sure is something,” Trina said as she stood with George across the road from the new church. “You did it. You got this town to build Holy Family.” She shook her head. “I never thought I’d see it.”
George turned to Trina in surprise. “What? I thought you believed in this idea. You were the one who told me to go for it.”
Trina grinned. “I believed in it and I wanted you to succeed. I just never thought you’d get everybody together and do it.” She rubbed her full belly and blew out a breath. The walk around the new church had exhausted her.
“It is a miracle.” George looked again across the road and remembered how he had tried when he returned to town to convince the community to build a new church. He knew the grief over losing Alex had affected everyone, and he knew there was a pall that hung over the town and everybody in it. And even though he understood the loss and the slow, hard way it settled on Pie Town, he thought he could get at least some of the people interested in the church.
He talked about it until he was blue in the face, held meetings at the school, at the diner, out in the park. He talked and talked and talked about the importance of a church, how Pie Town needed a place of sanctuary. He visited people in their homes, visited them at work, doing everything he knew how to do to raise money and interest until finally he was just about to give up.
He looked up at the sky, thankful for the arrival of spring, thankful for all that happened in the previous months in Pie Town.
“She came to you again, didn’t she? That was your miracle.” Oris was standing behind them, leaning against his car. He had driven Trina over to see the church since she