A Very Special Delivery

happier, better. Just look at how you’ve gotten her out of that house and back involved with the church and with people. Don’t give up on her, Ethan. Give her a little more time.”
    Ethan wished it was that simple. Patience he could do. Time he could do. He leaned against the porch post, pondering the question that had haunted him all night. Even if those things would bring her around, did he have a right to be with her?
    An old faded green metal chair sat at one end of the porch. With a scrape of metal against concrete, Patsy twisted it toward him and sat down.
    “You love her, don’t you?” she persisted.
    “Yeah. I do.” He ran a hand through his hair. He’d even been thinking about marriage. Now there was a concept.
    “And she loves you,” Patsy said in that matter-of-fact manner of the aged. “Fact is, she’s crazy about you and that baby. I can tell by the way she looks at you when you aren’t paying attention. So what are you going to do about it?”
    He gnawed the inside of his cheek and thought about the question. He knew what he wanted to do. He wanted to tell Molly that nothing she could do, short of denying she loved him, would drive him away. He could wait forever if he had to.
    His answer wasn’t as optimistic. “Nothing.”
    “Nothing? Boy, what are you talking about? You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting and praying for the right man to come along and sweep that niece of mine off her feet.”
    “That’s the problem, Miss Patsy. I’m not the right man for Molly.”
    “What makes you think such a silly thing?”
    He hitched one shoulder. “Molly’s a nice girl. She’s never done a bad thing in her life.”
    “Oh, I see. Hazel Rodgers and her self-righteous comment about your past.” Lips pursed, Patsy shook her head. “That woman is so busy hunting for the speck in someone else’s eye she can’t see the two-by-four in her own.”
    “I’m not Mr. Clean.”
    “Well, I never liked a man with an earring anyway,” she said and then laughed and flapped her hand. “I’m just going on with you, Ethan. But you listen to this old woman and you listen good.”
    White tennis shoes squared, she leaned forward and pointed out at the brown van.
    “See those mirrors on your truck? God doesn’t have those. Some people do, but God don’t. He never looks back at what you’ve done, only forward to the good you’re doing now. There’s no Reverse in God’s kingdom.”
    Ethan allowed a smile. Miss Patsy had a way of laying out the gospel unlike any he’d ever heard.
    “Are you saying that God doesn’t hold my mistake against me? That He isn’t trying to tell me I’m not good enough for Molly?”
    “That’s exactly what I’m saying. Oh, some people will criticize no matter what you do, but you have to give it to God. Move on. Put the past to rest once and for all.”
    “But part of my past will always be with me.”
    “The Lord has a purpose in all things, even mistakes or tragedies. Now, I’m not saying He causes them, but I do know that He takes anything that happens in our lives and works something good from it. Just look at you and Laney. Isn’t she worth the trouble? Aren’t you glad she’s in your life, no matter how she got there?”
    The light inside Ethan came on as bright as if the sun rose in his chest. When he’d turned his life over to the Lord, the nightmare with Twila had culminated in a beautiful thing—his daughter. Then, from the ashes of his unrestrained lifestyle, a new and better man had risen.
    “I’ve been as bad as Molly about hanging on to guilt, haven’t I?”
    “Most likely. But if we trust Him, the Lord will take us from where we are to where He plans for us to be. And it’s always better than anything we can imagine.”
    Patsy was right. Even the time in his life that began as a mistake had become his greatest blessing—Laney.
    “I think Molly’s struggling with that, too, Miss Patsy. Because of all that’s happened she’s lost confidence that God has her best interest at heart.”
    Hadn’t he almost done the same?
    “Well, mark my words. The Lord has a plan. You and me have just got to be smart enough not to get in His way.”
    “I can’t make her want me and Laney.”
    “No, you can’t.” She pushed up out of the chair and came to him. “But I’m asking you as a friend, Ethan. Don’t give up yet. Give her some space and some time. And keep on praying.”
    “What if she never comes around?”
    “What if she