Free Wildflowers by Robin Jones Gunn Page B

music track. Strains of “Feliz Navidad” came pounding through the receiver louder than the silver bells had been. She turned the phone away and listened to the women with her back to them.
    “I wrote down verse 6 as my key verse, too,” another woman said. “Why do you think Jesus asked the paralyzed man if he wanted to be healed?”
    “I thought about it a lot, and I asked Gordon—”
    One of the women cut in. “No fair getting input fromhusbands when they’re pastors!”
    The other women laughed.
    Genevieve remembered the identity of the woman with the warm brown skin. Her name was Teri, and her husband was the new pastor at Glenbrooke Community Church. Leah had been talking about Teri and Gordon ever since they had arrived from Hawaii. Genevieve knew all about how Teri had taught at the high school with Jessica years ago and how Teri and her Australian husband had twin boys in kindergarten and a baby girl. They were living temporarily with Jessica and her husband, Kyle, since the Buchanan mansion on Madison Hill was large enough to be a hotel.
    Genevieve wondered what a pastor’s wife would say about wanting to be made well. After all, Genevieve knew what it was like to be stuck in a paralyzed state emotionally. She had been that way a long time. No one had ever asked her if she wanted to be well.
    “Gordo and I got into a big discussion about how sometimes we get stuck in our lives and in our routines.” Teri’s voice carried across the room as clearly as if she were speaking directly to Genevieve. “The paralyzed man in John 5 certainly had the routine down pat. He spent every day at the same place, doing the same thing, with the same blind and lame people.”
    “You know what?” Jessica said. “Excuse me for interrupting, but it doesn’t specifically say that this man was paralyzed. It just says that he had an infirmity for thirty-eight years.”
    “You’re right,” Teri said. “I hadn’t noticed that. It doesn’tspecify his particular problem, which makes this verse even more applicable to my life and what I was going to say. This man had been in this same routine with his problem, whatever it was, for thirty-eight years. Jesus comes to him, asks if he wants to be made well, and instead of simply saying yes, the guy gives the excuse that no one will help him.”
    Another woman spoke up. “And then Jesus heals him anyhow, right there, regardless of his excuse.”
    “Yes, exactly,” Teri said. “That’s why I marked this verse. I think it’s possible to have an infirmity of some sort and live with it as a routine for decades. It’s possible to forget that Jesus Christ has the power and the desire to heal us. We just find excuses and keep living with things as they’ve always been. But He is such an incredible, loving Father that He overlooks our weakness, even our inability to respond to Him correctly. He looks right at the heart, and He …”
    “Y-ello. This is Jack.” The voice on the other end of the phone jolted Genevieve back to the task before her. She felt her neck turning red and her cheeks burning.
    “Yes, um.” Genevieve cleared her throat and tried to collect her thoughts. “I, um, this is … I spoke with you earlier. This is Genevieve Ahrens. I’m calling back about the order for the maple tables and chairs.”
    “Right,” Jack said.
    “Were you able to find the correct order for twelve and not two tables?”
    “I checked with several people on that order, and it looks as if the salesman made the mistake when he checked the inventory. We don’t have twelve tables in that styleanywhere on the West Coast. The only other distribution center that carries that set is located in South Carolina, but it only has one set left. It’s a discontinued model. I don’t know if the sales rep told you that.”
    “No, he didn’t.”
    “What would you like me to do about your order? We can ship two tables out to you by Friday, but it would take at least ten days to get the