God moving in stories

*****Contains spoilers for Crossed Off and Injustice for All*****

God moves in amazing ways, often behind the scenes, and it’s only in hindsight that we piece together the delicate work of His hands.

I enjoyed illustrating this in “Injustice for All.”

Following “Crossed Off,” Holly is haunted by what she’s been through, and her sleep is consumed by night terrors. She’s sinking deeper into depression, and she’s hanging onto life by her fingernails.

During this time, Marx has a nightmare. At first read, it’s just an ordinary nightmare —a collage of regrets and unresolved guilt—but there is a part of this nightmare that foreshadows what’s to come.

In the nightmare, Marx finds Holly on the floor after she overdosed on prescription pain medication. But it’s only a dream, and he wakes to find her safe in his living room.

That part of his nightmare, however, wasn’t just his guilt and regret conjuring up frightful scenarios; it was a warning. It was the Holy Spirit whispering to him that things were worse than he realized, and that something was going to happen.

Marx, new in his faith, doesn’t put it together.

Sometime later, Marx’s mom feels compelled to pray for Holly in the middle of the night. At this point, she has never met Holly, and all she knows is that her son loves Holly like a daughter. So she prays for God to protect her.

On that very night, something rouses Marx from sleep, though he isn’t sure what. (That would be God protecting Holly as your mama requested, Marx 😉) He shuffles out of his bedroom and finds Holly on the couch, but this time, she isn’t safe. She has an entire prescription of painkillers in her palm, and she’s one desperate decision away from taking them.

She is too exhausted, too scared, and too weary to think straight.

Marx comforts her and convinces her to surrender the pills. When his mom calls and asks if Holly is all right, that’s when he’s able to see the work of God’s hands. As he holds Holly’s sleeping form, he ponders the question —if his mother hadn’t prayed, if he hadn’t woken at that precise moment, would he be cradling Holly’s lifeless body instead?

As the author, I know the answer to that question, but what do you think?

Have you ever experienced a moment like this? A moment when God moved in your life, but it was looking back on it that allowed you to truly see His part in it?