The Christmas Table by Donna VanLiere

Author:Donna VanLiere
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

SEVENTEEN

September 1972

Joan stands alongside John in his workshop, looking at the second table leg. He shakes his head. “Measure twice. Cut once.” He sighs, aggravated. “I know that. I tell myself that all the time. But what did I do?”

“You measured once and cut twice?” Joan asks, confused.

“I measured once and cut. Period.” He lifts up the other leg that he finished weeks ago. “Look at them! Not even close to looking alike.”

Joan cocks her head, looking at each leg. “They look exactly the same, John.”

He snaps his head to look at her. “Are you kidding?”

She laughs, looking at the legs. “John! These legs are identical.”

“Really? Then why is this one an eighth of an inch wider than this one?”

She looks at him, dumbfounded. “An eighth of an inch? Who’s going to notice that? It’s going to be under the table. I can’t even notice it and I’m standing right here in front of them.”

He holds each of the two table legs directly in front of himself, shaking his head. “You can’t see what I’m seeing.” A thought dawns on him and he looks at Joan, setting the legs down on the worktable, thinking. “That’s how it is, isn’t it?” She’s not sure if he’s talking to her or himself. “Right?”

“What do you mean? How what is?” she says.

He puts his hands on top of his head, realizing. “You can’t see the difference.”

“I know. We’ve covered this.”

He looks at her, wide-eyed. “We can’t see the difference inside of you.” She stares at him. “We don’t know what’s happening inside of—”

“We do know, John. The doctor—”

He cuts her off. “But we don’t know what God is doing. We can’t see the difference that He’s making.”

She sighs, her mouth turning down into a small, sad smile.

“Just listen to me, Joan. I made those table legs. I can see the difference between them, but you can’t. If God made your body, and I believe He did, do you?” She nods. “Then He can see what’s happening inside your lungs and your breasts and your body. He can see the difference from day one of your cancer diagnosis to today.”

Joan is struggling to understand him. “What kind of difference?”

“He’s doing something that we can’t see.”

He needs to stop this way of thinking. “John, you’re talking a miracle and…”

He puts one of his hands on each side of her face. “Joan, I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t believe it, would I?” She pauses and then shakes her head. “God’s doing something and even if we don’t see it, even if you don’t feel it yet, He sees the difference inside of you.”

Her eyes get misty looking at him. “I want to believe, John, but…”

“I believe,” he says, pulling her to him.

She pulls back to look at him. “How?”

He reaches for a piece of wood, smiling. “This.” He smiles and kisses her. “Today’s the day. God’s doing something. Today’s the day.”

September 2012

Lauren and Stacy each take a bite of chess pie inside Gloria’s office and smile at her.

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