Free Though None Go with Me by Jerry B. Jenkins Page B

one up is supposed to wake the others!” one said. “You trying to make us look bad?”
    Elisabeth said nothing. Did they really want to be awakened when she got up? Maybe she’d find out the next morning. She headed back down.
    â€œWe don’t have time to wait for them,” her supervisor said. “Let’s get cracking.” Again Elisabeth did her work and theirs.
    After breakfast dishes and dining hall cleanup, Elisabeth policed the outhouses until lunch. She barely had the energy to eat, but lunch revived her and she was able to manage her afternoon chores. She was determined to talk with Ben before the evening service, regardless how forward she appeared. She hurried through her work, changed quickly, and found him at the front of the auditorium chatting with someone about the program.
    She tried to smile when he looked up at her, but he motioned he would be a minute. Finally he broke free.
    â€œI really wanted to see you last night,” she said.
    â€œMe too,” he said. “You got my note?”
    â€œNote?”
    â€œI left it in the screen door of the kitchen last night. I had a homesick camper and by the time I got over there it was eleven-fifteen and you were gone.”
    â€œThanks, but I never got it.”
    She wanted him to suggest trying again that night, but he just looked at her. Her reserves were gone. Feeling bold, she said, “Tonight?”
    â€œOh,” he said, “that was in the note too. The reverend and I have an errand in Paw Paw and won’t get back until after midnight.”
    Elisabeth wondered if she would see him at all that summer. “Well,” she said. “Safe trip.”
    â€œThanks.”
    And that was it. No apology. No wishing he could see her. No setting a time for the next night. He handed her a slip of paper listing the hymns for the evening, and she trudged back to the piano.
    The boys were filing in, so Elisabeth opened to the first selection. It was “My Savior’s Love,” written just a dozen years before by Charles H. Gabriel. Elisabeth sight-read the music, silently running her fingers across the keyboard. She was about to turn to the second selection when she caught sight of the lyrics. She had sung the song many times at Christ Church, but suddenly the truth of it pierced her.
    She had been so self-possessed, so worried about the offenses and slights of the last day and a half that her mind had been derailed from God. What had she endured compared to what Jesus had gone through for her? The song seemed to slay her. She stared at the verses through pools of tears and found herself playing the song softly but with deep expression.
    The music soothed the rambunctious boys. Elisabeth was unaware that her playing had also caught the attention of the platform until Ben stood at the pulpit and raised his arms, asking that the boys bow their heads and listen. He began to sing just above a whisper in a voice so filled with emotion that Elisabeth felt the presence of God.
    She was amazed anyone could hear either the singing or the playing, but there was no other sound. From the corner of her eye she saw her coworkers emerge from the kitchen and stand silently in the back as Ben sang:

    I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene,
And wonder how He could love me, a sinner, condemned, unclean.
For me it was in the garden He prayed: “Not My will, but Thine”;
He had no tears for His own griefs, but sweat-drops of blood for mine.
In pity angels beheld Him, and came from the world of light
To comfort Him in the sorrows He bore for my soul that night.
He took my sins and my sorrows, He made them His very own;
He bore the burden to Calvary, and suffered and died alone.
When with the ransomed in glory His face I at last shall see,
’Twill be my joy through the ages to sing of His love for me.
How marvelous! How wonderful! And my song shall ever be:
How marvelous! How wonderful is my Savior’s