Wrapped In Rain

by Charles Martin

“Just ’cause somebody dies doesn’t mean they leave you.” She gently turned my chin toward hers and said, “Tucker, love doesn’t die like people.”

“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.”

“Child,” she said placing her head to mine and her callused fingers on my cheek, “you can whip it and beat it senseless, you can drag it through the streets and spit on it, you can even dangle it from a tree, drive spikes through it, and drain the last breath from it, but in the end, no matter what you do, and no matter how hard you to try to kill it, love wins.”

In one of her front-porch sermons spoken from the pulpit of her rocker, Miss Ella had told him that if anger ever took root, it latched on, dug in, and choked the life out of whatever heart was carrying it.

I came home one afternoon, all full of myself, and Miss Ella yelled at me not to track mud inside the house. I ignored her. Quick as a minute, she reached me, jerked my head around, and said, “Child, you listen to me, and you look me straight in the eyes when I’m talking to you. I may be just old hired help, and a country woman to boot, but I’m a human. And you know what? God thought of me. He actually took the time to dream me up. I may not be much to look at, but what you see first started in the mind of God, so don’t stand there and ignore me like I don’t exist. You remember that.” Miss Ella only had to say that one time to get my attention. And yes, I took my cleats off at the door from then on.

Remember, there’s an inverse relationship between your head and your heart. If your head swells, your heart shrinks.

Child, I disciplined you because I loved you. Same thing with the Lord. “He chastises those he loves.” You might as well get used to it.