Sarah's Surrender Read Online Free

gritted his teeth, still trying to understand. He loved children. He was a good father and would have been to any more children God blessed him with, so why hadn’t the good Lord seen fit to spare his wife and baby?
    â€œI didn’t spare my own Son so that you could have eternal life.”
    Jack clenched the fence railing as the truth hit him. God
hadn’t
spared His Son, and if He had, all men would still live in darkness. Who was he to question God? He gazed upward toward the darkening sky. “Thank You, Lord. I don’t have all the answers. Don’t know why You thought it was time to take Cora and our baby, but I will try to rest in Your arms. I miss her—and the daughter I never got to know.”
    Behind him, Jack heard a snicker. He turned and saw Cody and Drew standing just inside the barn’s entrance. Their eyes widened and the duo ducked their heads when they noticed him looking their way. He pushed away from the corral and moved toward them. The boys shuffled their feet as he approached. “What have they done now, Lord?”
    Drew leaned against Cody. “Who was your pa talkin’ to?”
    Cody exhaled a loud sigh and took on a mature posture. “He’s talkin’ to God again.”
    â€œDoes he do that a lot?”
    â€œYep.”
    â€œI can hear you guys, you know.”
    Drew’s eyes widened. “I didn’t mean nothin’, Uncle Jack.”
    He grinned and ruffled the boy’s hair. “I know.” He squatted on his heels to be on their eye level. “Cody knows you can talk to God anytime you need to, but do you?”
    Drew shrugged and glanced down, toeing the dirt. “I reckon so. Pa says that, too, but I just never saw you doin’ it outside of church and blessing our meals.”
    â€œMaybe you’ll see fit to talk to God one day, too.”
    Drew’s dark brown eyes, the same color as his pa’s, rounded again. “Ma makes me pray every night when I’m in bed. You reckon God knows everything I do, like I’ve heard you say when you preach?” He leaned in closer. “Even the bad stuff?”
    Jack tried not to smile at the boy’s whisper. “There’s a verse in the Bible that says, ‘The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholdin’ the evil and the good.’”
    Drew scowled. “What’s beholdin’ mean?”
    â€œIt means God’s watchin’ us,” Cody said, a proud look in his eyes.
    â€œThat’s right, son. God sees everything you do, so you’d best think twice before disobeying or doing something you shouldn’t.”
    Drew gulped and glanced over his shoulder into the barn.
    Just what had the two young’uns been up to? “Is there somethin’ you need to tell me?”
    Drew ducked his head.
    The whites of Cody’s eyes showed for a second before he, too, looked down. “We … uh … locked Michael in the tack room.”
    Jack knew this wasn’t a laughing matter, but he still wrestled back a grin. Boys will be boys. “What do you think you should do about that?”
    Cody glanced at Drew. “Let him out, I reckon.”
    Jack stood. “That sounds like a wise idea. Go on and do that.”
    â€œYes, sir,” the boys said as they turned in unison and shuffled into the barn and to the door of the tack room. Cody reached for the lock.
    â€œSon, let Drew do it.”
    â€œYes, Pa.” Cody stepped back.
    â€œWhy me?” Drew glanced at Jack.
    â€œBecause I suspect this was your idea, was it not?”
    Drew pursed his lips then nodded. “How did you know?”
    â€œI just did.” Drew was usually the one to stir up the trouble and Cody followed along.
    The boy twisted the lock they had slipped through the loop on the latch then opened the door. Light spilled from the small room, and the familiar odor of saddle soap wafted out the door.
    Sixteen-year-old Michael’s