The Rancher's Temporary Engagement by Stacy Henrie

Author:Stacy Henrie [Henrie, Stacy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2017-11-03T14:04:57+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Maggy had been at the ranch for almost four weeks now, and she could finally admit she didn’t mind attending services on Sundays. There were still long minutes when she found it hard to concentrate, but the same restless boy sat in front of them each week, and she entertained them both by winking at him whenever he turned around.

The pastor had also said something this morning that she’d been mulling over ever since. In his sermon, he’d told the congregation that God loved them and knew them by name. He’d quoted a scripture in Romans and reminded them they were each His child and that made them enough.

Maggy decided to look up the verse after church, but only when Edward was out talking with McCall. She didn’t want him to know yet that she’d been reading the Bible in short snatches the last couple weeks whenever she had a private moment. While she trusted Edward not to tease her about it, matters of faith and how much her father and Jeb had affected those still felt too private to share.

Tracing her finger beneath the words, she read the verse softly to herself. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.

She’d believed that as a child, before her mother’s death, but did she still? It was hard to imagine a loving Father who thought her good enough to be His child when her own father hadn’t. And neither had Jeb.

The pastor seemed so sure, though, and so had her mother. Even Edward, who’d lost a sister to death, believed in a loving God—Maggy could tell each time he prayed. So what helped them continue on in faith?

She lowered her gaze back to the open page of the Bible and decided to keep reading where she’d left off. There were other verses she read that she liked, but nothing else resonated with her until she reached the last two verses of the chapter.

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Her heart began to race but not in a frightening way. She read the words through a second time, then a third. If nothing could separate her from God’s love, including any other creature, then why had she felt abandoned by Him for so many years?

A flow of thoughts, quiet yet penetrating in truth, entered her mind. It’s because I stopped looking like Mama told me to do. I stopped searching for Him, stopped praying to Him. He didn’t move or change...or stop loving me. She blinked back the sudden blur of tears in her eyes. I was the one who stepped away.

The beauty and peace that accompanied her realization lasted a few moments more before the old doubts and insecurities resurfaced to blot them out.

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