Favor From Above

Chapter 14 ~ Life

Life has a weird sense of humor. Lily remembered the days when she was the biggest nerd in her  school. She didn't have many friends. In fact she had only two friends Rhys and Lizzy. She thought college would be different but she didn't make any friends there either.

Things did a turnaround when she came back home. She became a member of her current church and now she had countless friends. People that were not pretending but genuinely loved her.  People her own age, people older than and people younger than her. When they got to church they were just people. It felt good to belong somewhere. She felt she had a family in her church and she loved that feeling.

Lily had always made her parents proud. In high school she was the top student in class. She collected every award there was to collect. She even graduated high school at fifteen, she was the youngest of her class. In college she passed every module with a distinction. The problem came after her graduation. Her father was not happy to hear that she wasn't keen on using her degree. Lily tried everything to convince him that she truly loved and was content with waitressing but he wasn't willing to listen.

Lily's father had cut all ties with her soon after she made that decision. She was a disappointment to him. Lily wasn't the only one to be cut off though. Her  brother, Dylan, had been cut off too after he decided to follow a career in music, his passion.

With the help of her brother, Lily had gotten her own apartment. She soon got back on her feet. Now she was about to open her own café. How very excited she was! She wished she could share such joy with her whole family but that wasn't possible.

Lily and her mother were still close. Lily popped by the house from time to time in order to see her. Her father never came out of the bedroom whenever she was around. She didn't want to cause a rift between her parents so she never talked about work with her.

She did talk with Dylan though. Dylan had left the country a few months back to go on a tour. They often talked and Lily missed him so much. He was going to be there for another month and Lily couldn't wait to see him again.  Lily's life wasn't perfect but she would never trade it for someone else's. She loved being Lily.

There was excitement in Lily's apartment once she returned from bible study that Tuesday. Becoming a business owner meant that she could buy herself a car. Many would ask why she didn't buy a car the moment she could afford one and she had a simple answer. She wanted her car to be as new and functional as possible at the point of starting her business.

In two weeks she would be buying the car. That sounded foreign to her. Twenty one years of life and she'd never owned a car. Five years of driving but never driving her own car. That explained the excitement.

                           ★★★★★★★

Matthew walked into his house after a hectic day at church. Lily had forced him to pick a department which he wanted to serve in. She had told him that he didn't have to start at the moment but could join at a later time. When he heard that, Matthew had chosen to join the praise team. He was a pretty good singer but he knew that he would never go up there to sing.

Matthew was hungry so he made his way to the kitchen. Becca, his chef, was out of town. He didn't trust anyone with his food and he didn't want to buy fast food so he was stuck cooking for himself. The only things he could make were toast and pasta. He didn't have any more pasta left so he had to go for the toast.  Matthew sat at his balcony as he took the last bite of his toast and gulped down the orange juice.

Suddenly, everything around him faded off and all he could see was whiteness. Matthew saw  his mother in the whiteness. She didn't look like she did when she was sick, she was energetic and looked more happy than she'd ever been. When Matthew came to, he was in his bed. He was sprawled on top of the sheets which surprised him because he always slept under the sheets.

Matthew was confused. He knew what he had seen was real. He not only saw but he heard and felt. He heard his mother's laughter. He had felt joy and peace around her. It felt like he was dreaming but Matthew knew better.

Something clicked in his mind and he rushed to the balcony. The plate and cup he was using were still there. Nothing had moved yet he had. How could he have walked from the balcony to the bed without knowing it? Matthew  decided to use man's trusted friend, Google. He discovered that he'd experienced what is called a vision. Without much choice left, he called the only person he knew could explain the encounter to him.

"Lily." Matthew said.

"Yes?" Lily had lost all the desire to greet him.

"I need you to explain something to me."

Even though Lily wanted to make a sarcastic comment about him needing other people, she decided to listen and not talk.

"Okay, what is it?" She asked.

Matthew was surprised that she was being so calm about everything.

"What's a vision?"

"According to the bible or ..."

"According to the bible." he confirmed.

"Biblically, it's when you fall into a trance and God shows you something. It may be pictures or scenarios. It may seem like a dream but its actually not" Lily explained.

"Okay. Why does one have visions?" He asked.

"Its one of God's ways of speaking to us. It happened to Peter in the bible and God was just giving him permission to preach to the Gentiles. Why all the questions?"

"No reason. I just wanted to know." Matthew lied.

"Okay then. Have a great night." She said.

Matthew didn't reply he just hung up. He didn't believe in God but now he was confused. What he'd experienced was no joke. Maybe it was time he took Lily's bible study seriously. Maybe, just maybe, God was really there.

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12/07/2017