His Healing by Perfect Love

Chapter Two

Julie Bryant finished stirring the freshly made lemonade in the plastic pitcher and inhaled deeply. She rested her hip against the kitchen cupboard of her log and timber, Ontario home and gazed through the window down at Catchacoma Lake. It was fifteen years since she and her husband Joe had moved into their fixer-upper home, but it felt as though it was just yesterday. It was what she loved most about her marriage to Joe Bryant.

Everyday felt like a fresh new start with him, filled with endless possibilities, hopes and dreams like they had been so blessed to experience ever since the day they expressed their love to each other when they were only high-school kids, standing in the middle of that football field after Joe's team had won a successful game.

Julie smiled at the memory.

"Daydreaming about me?" Two hands snaked around Julie's waist and spun her around.

"Hey..." She playfully slapped Joe on his arm with the wooden spoon, "aren't you supposed to be out back? What are you doing sneaking up on me?"

A cheeky grin covered her husband's face. "I missed my wife." He lowered his voice intimately the way he often did when it was just the two of them alone together. "All work and no play is making Joe a very dull boy." He leaned in and gave her a quick kiss, leaving her breathless.

She drew back, starry-eyed, and steadied herself on the counter. "I suppose we have enough time until the others arrive."

Joe was just about to lean in for another kiss when a car horn honked loudly from outside and they heard the slam of two car-doors. All excitement fizzled out when they heard the doorbell sound next.

Julie sighed.

"We're coming!" She hollered loud enough for the guests to hear and grabbed the lemonade from off the countertop. "Honey, bring the sandwiches out back for me, will you?"

                                                                                ***

"So much for play time." Joe muttered as he watched his wife walk around to the side door and left him alone to himself.

A few seconds later, Martin Copeland, husband of Julie's sister, came in through the French doors and silently helped him with the various dishes that his wife had cooked up. It was what Martin offered to do whenever their friends and family got together at their house− and Joe always accepted the awkward help −but he couldn't help but worry about the younger man. Martin had not spoken a word to any of them ever since the accident all those years ago and Julie had admitted to him, only the night before, that she was beginning to feel hurt from his odd behaviour. Joe had agreed because Martin was his friend too.

How long, God... how long will he stay like this? Show me how I can help him to open up and trust me, Father, I will do it.

Be strong and courageous my son and do not lose heart ... for out of faith, hope and love, the greatest of these is love.

Joe's breathing stilled at the answer and he immediately felt the strong presence of God take a hold of his heart, along with such an overwhelming peace, so sweet like no other that he gripped kitchen counter and bowed his head.

I hear you, God. Just help me in the process...

For Joe, learning to hear God's voice in the midst of trouble was an ongoing experience for him but recently, he'd been hearing the Father more clearly. During his Bible reading that morning while Julie was still asleep, he had again come across a passage that kept popping out at him. It was taken from 1st Corinthians chapter thirteen. If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal...love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud ...it always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres ...

Of course, God would bring back those very words to his mind now that Martin was over for dinner. During this season, when Joe's family needed him the most, he needed the extra strength from God to help him through. He was eternally thankful that God was stronger than he was because in a time like this, when skies weren't as sunny and blue, he was afraid that his shoulders weren't strong enough to lift the pain that his family still carried.

The sun was beginning to set over the lake, and, by the time Julie set down the last dish of food, everyone was seated around the table that Joe had put outside on the back porch. She took her seat between Joe and her sister Alison and across from them sat Alison's husband Martin with Craig and Susan Reynolds, the family's lifelong friends and business partners.

Unwillingly, Julie allowed her eyes to rest on the empty seat between Martin and Alison and almost immediately, a wave of sadness came over her.

Joe laced his fingers between hers and gave it a gentle squeeze under the table. "He'll be home soon, honey," he whispered. "God will bring this family the healing it needs... soon. We only have to keep praying and wait."

Julie looked across gratefully at her husband and willed herself not to start crying. "Thank you. You always know when I need you."

Joe only gave her a small smile, then turned his attention to the table. "Let's all pray over the food, now shall we?" He bowed his head. "Father, thank you for the time we have together as friends and family..."

As Joe prayed, below the wooden deck, the sound of running water from the lake filtered up to meet their ears. Julie loved that the most about this place─ how the lake never ceased to calm the atmosphere. It was one of the reasons why she and Joe had decided on the location for their home.

And, God had given them the opportunity to open Camp Muskoka Oaks, the Bible Camp that Joe had established thirty years ago on another lake as well. In a little while, they would all be over at Lake Rosseau, ready to start another long summer with children who came every year from all over. And as always, Julie was excited to see what God would do in the weeks ahead. But somehow, somewhere in her spirit, she couldn't shake the damp feeling that had weighed her down recently. Her nephew was still not at home, and she believed that was what led her to cut in before Joe could finish off the thanksgiving prayer.

"And, Father..." Julie's voice trembled with thick emotion as she continued, "please bring our boy Alexander home to us." She ignored the deathly silence that seemed to radiate across the table from Martin and continued, "We need to restore what was lost all those years ago."

Beside her, Alison broke out into uncontrollable sobs. "Yes Lord, please..." the sisters gripped each other's hands as though they were lifelines, "...please bring my baby back home to me."

As the evening went on and they'd eaten their bellies full and as Julie washed her face and got into bed later that night, she realised her heart felt a little lighter.

She believed it had much to do with the prayer she'd said that night. As she switched off the bedside lamp and curled up beside her husband, Julie allowed herself to breathe. God had heard their prayers! And like Joe said, she believed that the Copeland and Bryant's very own prodigal son would be home again soon.

They only had to wait on it.