A Bound Heart

by Laura Frantz

Be happy while you’re living, for you’re a long time dead. Scottish proverb

Odd how a person’s presence or absence changed the mood of a place. When Isla and her retinue left for the city, the castle was like a flower in bloom.

There was no cure for being barren and selfish to the bone save Christ.

The British king had outlawed all forms of such dress after Culloden, the penalties severe. Magnus wore it in protest—that she understood. But he’d only done so on the anniversary of his father’s death. Till now.

Why did the Lord allow such things? Had she not prayed hard enough? Trusted God enough? Was He punishing her?

His prayers had been answered—again.

And surely Providence was at play most of all. How else could they share the same ship?

“Yet God has seen us here and promises to turn things in our favor no matter how dark. If He promises to bring good from all this, should we not look for the good too?”

And I believe in Him with all my heart.” “As Creator of the universe, perhaps. Not as a personal, intimate being, surely.” “If He isna personal, He is worth very little to me,” she said with more vehemence than the late hour called for. “Would a God give up His own beloved Son if He was impersonal and indifferent?”

What could possibly be more important than one’s faith?

That final day, slave traders with dogs came upon us and seized us. They tied our hands with willow twigs and took us aboard a ship. We sailed to a place where men are sold. But first we were cleaned and rubbed with palm oil. The captain of a ship bought me, but my father was deemed unfit because he had a limp. More of my people were taken and we set sail.”

Success follows patience.”

“The poor yield of before was due mainly to slave exhaustion, not soil exhaustion,”

“Three things come unbidden—love, jealousy, and fear.”