Leap of Faith Read Online Free Page B

mother adored my father.”
    There was much more emotion behind those simple words. He could feel it. “She loved him more than she loved you?”
    “My mother gave up everything to follow my father, even her family. I think she’d followed him for so long she didn’t know how to step out on her own.”
    Her simple statement said it all.
    “What did you do?”
    She eased back in her chair. “One of the benefits of living in a cooperative is you have lots of extended family. I moved in with friends a few doors down. They were going to church with me. After I earned my high school diploma, I left. I’d learned how to do stained glass from someone in our community and made some money, so I just walked away. I can also garden and weave my own cloth, by the way.”
    Zack smiled. “You’re a true artist, Zoe. Stained glass is what you should be doing.”
    She hesitated. “How about you, Zack? What should you be doing?”
    He shifted uncomfortably. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
    She put her hamburger back on her plate and wiped her mouth with her paper napkin. “Yes, you do. You just aren’t listening.”
    He scrunched his own napkin in his hand. “What am I supposed to listen to?”
    “The silent promptings of your heart.”
    “My heart tells me I should have accepted the job a week ago.”
    “Then why haven’t you?”
    He released a heavy sigh. “OK. My mind tells me to accept. My heart says…”
    “What?”
    “It says wait.”
    “For what?” she asked with a tilt of her head.
    “I don’t know,” he said. “You tell me. You have all the answers.”
    “I’m not a fortune teller,” she said. “I don’t know the future, and I certainly don’t have the answers. I’m just a messenger. Saint Paul said we have to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.”
    “I’m trembling all right. If I listen to the promptings of my heart, I’d walk away from security and into the unknown in some third world country.”
    Zoe reached across the space to grasp his hand. “Zack, are you called to mission work?”
    He wasn’t even sure what Zoe meant. He only knew that her touch was warm and soft. He looked down. Her hand was delicate, with fragile, slender fingers and blunt nails. But the marks and scars on her tender skin told him she worked hard.
    As soon as she saw him looking, she released him and tucked her hand under the table where he couldn’t see it. That was the second time she’d tried to hide her hands, and he wondered if she was ashamed of them.
    “Zack,” she drew his attention off her hands and back to her sweet face. “When Mr. Hart told me I needed to come and see you, I had no idea what to say or do. All the way across the courtyard, I prayed. When I walked in, I still had no idea what to say. It wasn’t until I looked at your computer that the words came to me.”
    “And that’s supposed to encourage me in what way?” he said, deliberate skepticism heavy in his tone.
    She gave a little laugh. “To show you that God never fails us. He’s always there. Sometimes we just have to step out in faith.”
    “In my case it would be more like a leap rather than a step.”
    “I agree,” she said with another laugh. “It is a big first step. Maybe that’s why He sent me to you. He knew you’d need confirmation and support.”
    Zack agreed, all the while thinking he knew a thousand other reasons God might have sent her to him. Pink lips. Eyes he could get lost in. And he still wondered how her hair would look loosed and falling about her shoulders.
    “Zoe,” he murmured, “Why did you get so excited when you heard I might be interested in mission work?”
    She ducked her head. “Because it’s all I’ve ever wanted to do. In the cooperatives, everyone works. Right from the start, I chose to work in the nursery. I love children, and I’ve always had a heart for those who never knew their parents.”
    Her voice dropped off and once again. Zack was struck by the feeling that she