Chapter 7 #2
It was easy to catch onto the melody and fun to sing along.
The lyrics were positive, and I sang out loud with Donna.
I dropped out a bit and felt a little odd when the lyrics would mention blood as if it were a positive thing.
They sang about blood without skipping a beat.
Everyone seemed corporately thankful for blood—specifically Jesus's blood.
I wasn't sure why they focused on that. They were cute little sweet old people, and the songs were upbeat and happy, but they openly mentioned blood.
It was weird. They were old-fashioned, decent people, and the lyrics seemed oddly contrasting.
I didn't understand it, but it seemed harmless enough.
They were happy, and it was fun to sing in a choir for a day, even if I didn't get all the lyrics.
I recognized one of the songs, Amazing Grace, and I knew the tune and a few of the lyrics from it.
I got into it, leaning into Ms. Donna and matching pitch with her as we sang. She loved it, and she beamed at me.
The preacher came up after that. He was about as old as Ms. Donna. He was thin, and he was wearing a brown, oversized three-piece suit with his white hair, what was left of it, combed neatly over to one side and gelled.
He started to speak, and it was like he was reading my mind about the blood thing because he told us to turn our Bibles to something called First-Peter, and then he read a section that said we had 'been redeemed by the blood of Christ'. It made sense that the church would sing about it now that I knew the blood itself was what they thought did the trick to pay for the sins of the whole world. The preacher said that there wasn’t a sin too big or a person too wretched that this blood couldn't pay for it.
It was like this endless cache of sin-forgiving substance that would erase the sins of all eternity—even the ones that were happening right now. Even the ones that hadn't happened yet.
He went on to say that the only way the blood was able to work was if we believed it would—that all we had to do was believe that Jesus had shed his blood to pay for our sins, and that was enough to get us to Heaven.
He then talked about Heaven and the significance of our afterlife.
He tried to give us a different perspective on how long eternity was.
He said that science tells us that certain species of birds can fly around the whole earth in about fifty days.
He said that we should imagine that a bird flies around the whole earth, fifty days, and then every trip, he circles around to the top of a giant mountain and ever so lightly touches his wing to the tip-top of it—just a touch.
Then he goes around the whole earth again—fifty days it takes him to fly.
Again, he touches his wing to that mountain.
Imagine that bird doing this same routine until the sheer friction of it has caused that giant mountain to wear down to nothing.
He was silent for a few seconds, and then he said that it would take that bird quite a long time. He said that this amount of time was nothing compared to eternity.
I pictured that bird going through the process of flying around the whole earth to touch a mountain top, and I started taking things seriously after I could put that amount of time into perspective.
I mean, one touch of a bird's wing would barely do anything to the top of a mountain.
Then, he had fifty days to get back there and do it again.
Eternity was long. I didn't want to be separated from God for eternity.
I had no problem believing I was imperfect.
Just this morning, I had been in trouble for doing something I knew I shouldn't do.
The thing I didn't realize was that you couldn't get to Heaven unless you were perfect.
You either had to lead a blameless life or you had to let the blood of Jesus pay for your imperfections.
Believing seemed easy to me.
It was such a relief that all I had to do was believe that it was true, and it would lock in this happy version of eternity for me. The preacher told us that if we wanted to believe these things that we should pray a prayer along with him.
I prayed it.
I had my eyes closed, and I recited the words he said. I said I knew I was a sinner who needed forgiveness, and then I asked Jesus to come into my heart.
And
the
tears
were
like
a
hot
waterfall.
My throat closed, and my jaw ached.
My face contorted, and tears just fell from my eyes in an endless stream. It rang true to my heart that Jesus's blood could, in fact, cover my wrongs. This whole thing rang true. Relief and gratitude flooded my body, and I wept with brokenness and joy.
I felt that my eternity was locked in. I felt loved and accepted and freed by this Man I had never known. It was like Joseph who forgave his brothers—but so much more and so much better. Everything I had done and would ever do wrong was forgiven, and my only part in that was believing.
Nothing in my life had ever been so easy and beautiful. Relief and gratefulness flooded my body.