part. “God is always a whisper away.” He smiled. “Let go of the past, Jack. Love God. Love people… love again.”
There they were. The same words his mother had always told him. Love God. Love people.
Tears filled Jack’s eyes, and there, with the stranger standing before him, Jack did something he had never done in front of anyone. Not since Shane died. He covered his face with his hands and he began to weep. He missed them so much, his family. Training himself to feel nothing, care about nothing but the mission ahead of him, had also denied him this.
The chance to grieve.
“God…” He still had his hands over his face. “I’m sorry. I… I need You.” He wanted to love again, he really did. And maybe now… maybe in light of this conversation, he and Eliza could… maybe they could…
He didn’t let himself go there.
Jack wanted to thank Beck, whoever he was and however he knew so much, so he lowered his hands. He wanted to explain to the guy that this moment had answered questions he’d had for ten years. But when he blinked his eyes open… the man was gone.
“Beck!” He called the guy’s name out loud, loud enough so that he’d hear him. But there wasn’t a rustle or sound, no snapping twigs or footsteps on the distant trail to indicate which way Beck had walked off.
The man had vanished.
Jack looked at the flat rock beside him, the one where Beck had been sitting. The dirt and leaves were there again, and there were no signs of the brush marks Beck had made when he dusted off the surface.
A dizzy feeling came over Jack, and he covered his face again. What had happened? How could the guy just disappear? And how had he known Jack’s name and his story, the situation with his family?
But his efforts at making sense of the moment lasted only a few seconds. Then he dropped his hands again and stared out at the water. Another memory came to him. His mother explaining to him about God’s messengers, beings sent to take part in a rescue or a mission, heavenly soldiers with a word from the Lord.
One Christmas she had told him, “Angels are real. Not just in the story of the birth of Jesus. But today. For you and me and your father. For all people.”
An angel? Was Beck a soldier sent from heaven? he had wondered. Sent to talk to him here on this hillside? The longer Jack thought about the possibility, the more he was sure. Beck was definitely an angel. He had to be. And the words Jack had heard when he first reached the top of the hill were true.
God did love him. He always had.
Earth was… well, it was just earth. Eternity lay on the other side. Each day in a person’s life this side of heaven was a gift. Nothing more. No guarantees about tomorrow. And in that knowledge God wanted one thing from him.
Jack had seen it all clearly in that moment. His Father in heaven wanted him to let go of the past and look to the future. Love God, love people. And God had brought a girl into his life who was just like him. She didn’t care if she lived or died. She didn’t love God and didn’t love people.
Eliza Lawrence. Lizzie James.
In all the world, Jack was the only person who understood her, who knew what it was like to lose everything and hate the world. Hate life itself—all at the same time. What it felt like to care only about the mission.
Back at the hotel, Jack spent the next hour reading his Bible, Psalm 23 and then Hebrews Chapter Two and all of First John. The words filled Jack’s soul and gradually they changed him. God had loved Jack first, and because of that He wanted Jack to love people.
Especially Eliza.
Not romantically, no matter how attracted he was to her. Because of the job. But with the love of God, so that Eliza would understand her worth. So he could tell her about how much God cared about her… and about the new life He offered for her. For him, too. And so she could see herself the way God saw her—as a child whole and set free and fully loved by God.
Defined by love, not victimhood. By grace, not the grievous things she’d been forced to do in bringing other girls to the Palace. God’s love was a