Things I Never Told You by Beth Vogt

Author:Beth Vogt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FICTION / Christian / Romance, FICTION / Contemporary Women
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Published: 2018-05-08T00:00:00+00:00

He’d missed church. No big deal. He could still catch up with his friends for lunch if he wanted to.

Zach rested his hands on top of the bench, closing his eyes. He’d been so close. When he’d spotted Payton parked alongside the road, he’d thought God had answered his prayer so much sooner than he’d anticipated. She’d looked as exhausted as he used to feel after a cross-country meet. But maybe fatigue, not divine intervention, had lowered her defenses and allowed her to say yes to his offer to make her breakfast.

They’d been comfortable for a while. And then she’d shut him out the moment he mentioned going to see Pepper’s bench.

Zach shifted, hands gripping the rough wood of the bench. “Here I am again, God. Am I rushing her? Did I hear You wrong?”

He waited in the stillness, Laz stretched out on the ground by his feet. Maybe the time with Payton hadn’t gone the way he’d hoped, but then, he hadn’t anticipated seeing her at all today. He had to remember that things not going exactly the way he wanted them to go didn’t mean he was a failure.

His time with Payton wasn’t wasted.

She’d talked to him. Told him about her life—not just facts, but personal details. And now that he knew about Jillian’s cancer, he’d start praying for her, too.

His life was proof that prayer changed things. Changed people.

Zach rotated his left arm, pushing back the sleeve of his jacket and then doing the same with the sleeve of his flannel shirt, revealing the tattoo etched into his forearm—this one created by a professional. A grayscale image of pine trees that started above his wrist and covered the inside of his arm. The foremost tree was smaller and lighter in color than all the rest.

If someone looked close enough, they would notice the word REDEMPTION and Ephesians 1:7 written along the bottom of the tattoo. A reminder that God had forgiven all of his mistakes—even the mistake that wove his life together with the Thatcher family.

Three lives—his, Payton’s, and Pepper’s—intersected one winter night by a trio of choices. God could resurrect—redeem—anything. Anyone. He could only hope Pepper was in heaven. And he would continue to pray for Payton, the sister still on earth.

On so many nights when his choice to be sober . . . to stay sober . . . flooded his mind with images he’d rather forget, he’d sit on the edge of his bed and trace the outline of the tattoo. Turn his thoughts into a broken prayer for himself . . . for the Thatcher family . . . for Payton.

God was the author and finisher of his faith. His story wasn’t done yet. And neither was Payton’s.

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