Free Home to Hart's Crossing by Robin Lee Hatcher

department store, and Jesus was standing there, saying, ‘Look what I have for you, Beloved, if you follow me.’”
    Angie was transfixed by both the expression on Kris’s face and by her words. She forgot about the steno pad and her note taking. She almost forgot to breathe.
    “So I followed him,” Kris finished softly, “and there hasn’t been a day since that he hasn’t made me glad for it.”
    Kris continued with her story, telling of the many months of her recovery, both from the accident and from her addictions. She told of the woman from a local church who took Kris into her home and nourished her with love.
    “It took me over a year to work up the courage to call home. I hadn’t talked to Mom since I ran away at sixteen, and I was afraid she wouldn’t be able to forgive me. Finally I realized I had to call, whether she forgave me or not. I had to tell her how sorry I was for what I did to her, for the way I disrespected her. Only I was too late. Mom had passed away about the same time as my accident, and I never even knew it.” Her voice lowered, and the tears returned to her eyes. This time she allowed them to fall. “I never got to tell her how sorry I was for what I put her through. People think there’ll be plenty of time to make amends with those we love, but that isn’t always true.”
    Kris fell silent, but Angie knew there was more to come. The evidence of that was sitting on Bill’s lap as well as playing with dolls on a blanket next to Kris’s chair.
    “It took a while for me to work through the pain and confusion I felt. And all the guilt. I carried around a load of it for a long time before I laid it at the foot of the cross like Jesus tells us to. And then he sent these little ones into my life to love and to love me in return.”
    “You’re not really their aunt,” Angie said, suddenly remembering Kris was an only child, same as she was.
    Kris stroked Ginger’s hair. “No, I’m not. That’s just what the kids call me. I became friends with Susan, their mom, in a Bible study we were in together, and later I took care of her when she was dying of cancer. She had no other family to see to her, and she wasn’t married to their father. Besides, he took off when she got pregnant with Tommy, and nobody knew where he was. After they found her cancer, the doctors wanted her to have an abortion, said it would improve her chances of surviving longer, but she wouldn’t do it. Susan said she wouldn’t take his life to save her own. She went home to be with the Lord when Tommy was about five months old. Long enough for her to take care of arrangements for her children to stay with me. After we buried Susan, the kids and I moved back here, to the house Mom left me in her will. It’s a miracle, really, the way God’s provided for us all.”
    A miracle? Wouldn’t a miracle have been for Susan to live instead of die of cancer? Wouldn’t a miracle have been if Kris hadn’t been scarred in that accident or had never run away from home in the first place?
    As if Kris heard Angie’s thoughts, she said, “I didn’t have anybody. They didn’t have anybody. But together, we make a family. That’s God’s miracle. All things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose.”
    Angie was incredulous. “You’re saying you think this all worked out for the best?”
    “For the best?” Kris shook her head slowly. “No, I’m not saying that. Lots of bad, hard things happen to people, and plenty of it isn’t the best. The best won’t happen until this world is free of sin, once and for all, and God’s will is done on earth the same way it is in heaven. But for now, he takes what the devil means for harm against us, and he turns it into something beautiful in the lives of those who trust Jesus. That’s what he’s promised in his Word.” Kris leaned forward in her chair, her gaze so filled with peace it pierced Angie’s soul. “That’s how much the