Wrapped In Rain

by Charles Martin

it’s kind of like this fire here. You can’t actually see the heat coming off those coals, but you can feel it. And the closer you get to the heat, the less you doubt the fire.”

“Just ’cause somebody dies doesn’t mean they leave you.”

“You know sometimes how I walk into your room with a flashlight or a candle?” I nodded. “Well, love is like that. Light doesn’t have to announce its way into a room or ask the darkness to leave. It just is. It walks ahead of you, and the darkness rolls back like a tide.” She waved her hand across the room. “It has to ’cause darkness can’t be where light is.”

“Life is a battle, but you can’t fight it with your fists.” She gently tapped me on the chin with my fist and then put her hand on my chest. “You got to fight it with your heart.”

“If your knuckles are bloodier than your knees, then you’re fighting the wrong battle.”

“The devil is real. He’s as real as water and he’s only got one thing in his sick little mind. He wants to rip your heart out, stomp on it, fill you full of venom and anger, and then pitch you into the wind like fish scales.” Miss Ella was pretty good at painting pictures. “And you know what he’s after?” I shook my head and started listening, because Miss Ella had a tear in her eye too. “He’s after everything that’s good in you. See, the Lawd . . . He’s the Alpha and Omega. Nothing gets past him. Not the devil and not even Rex.”

“The Lawd put me here to look out for you while you’re growing up. The devil may have it for you, may be scheming until his horns are steaming, but he’s going to have to get through me first.”

“if the devil wants to lay a hand on you, he’s got to ask God’s permission. He did it with Job, he did it with Jesus, and he’s got to do it with you. He’s got to knock on the door and ask. It’s been that way since he got himself kicked out of heaven.”

Child, the Lord gives you what you need, when you need it.

“Many times in our lives, we act like He’s still dead. But several times today, we’ve testified that He’s not. So which is it? Why say one thing with your mouth and yet live another with your life? If He’s alive, act like it. He either is or He isn’t. You can’t be half-alive.”

‘Child, I didn’t raise you to live life dragging a casket. You don’t need an anchor; you need a rudder.’ She poked me in the chest—her arthritis had pretty well gnarled her fingers—and said, ‘Cut it loose. Bury it. It’s just dead weight. You can’t rake the rain, box up the sunshine, or plow the clouds, but you can love.

‘There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread.’

Love is a choice. It’s a decision.’ She told us, ‘It flows into, through, and out of each person like a river. If you try to stop it, it’ll snake around until it finds another heart and breaks through.’