Sojourners

to a Far Place

by Sharon E. Barber ©

    I don't know how we got to that place, my father and I, but we'd walked there. Together. Something that we hadn't done since I was a child and we'd gone fishing at the stream across field from our house. It was such a nice feeling. Being together. Just he and I. Father and daughter. Friends. Holding my hand, he suddenly squeezed it and, just as suddenly, I felt like a little girl again in the safety of my father's grip. I felt safe, protected and loved. Nothing could happen to me here with him. He was my Knight in shining armor, but somehow I knew there were no dragons here.

    Dragons. Bad things that happen in a person's life. Problems to be met, overcome and conquered. Dragons. And there had been many. He'd taught me how to fight the dragons. And sometimes we won and sometimes we compromised, but we never lost. We'd always been able to pick up our pieces and walk away. Victorious.

    He said nothing as we walked along. Just glanced at me every once in a while with that smile on his face. The smile that said he was showing me something. Teaching and sharing something that he'd learned and now would help me to learn. I'd come to trust that smile.

    We had an unspoken relationship through the years, but one that said everything each other needed to know. We were able to look at each other from across a room and smile and we just knew what the other was thinking. My Mother called it a bond. We'd never really put a name to it. But we knew it had always been there. That it would always be there. It was like a silver cord that connected us. I to him and he to me.

    Suddenly I became aware of the landscape around us. It was beautiful. A vast arid place filled with small rock, slightly sloping knolls and cactus. I could see for miles and miles. And the sky was such a beautiful shade of blue. Cloudless and vast. He'd grown up in a place much like this in West Texas, but I had only seen such things in the "cowboy movies" we'd watched when I was a child. It felt so comfortable here. So peaceful. We'd followed no path to get here, but I felt no need to look back to see where we'd come from. Turning slightly, he took me to the top of a knoll and allowed me to look out beyond. It was endless.

    But below us was a road. A dirt road that reached far to the horizon and ended not far below us. How strange, I thought. A road that goes no where.

    Turning, he smiled that smile again. "Not so," he said. "It comes here." And as if I understood its special meaning, I nodded, accepting it without question.

    Below us I could hear his name being called. Two women were hurrying up the road towards us and calling his name, followed by the yapping of two dogs. Not understanding, I turned to him. And he smiled and squeezed my hand again. There seemed to be an urgency about him now, but also an uncertainty, as if he needed to do something, but really didn't want to.

    It was my turn to smile.

    Letting go of his hand, I stepped back and nodded. Dropping his head, he sighed. A long, satisfied sigh, as if the student suddenly understood the lesson and the teacher was satisfied. Looking back into my eye, he smiled and turned away to go. The women called to him again.

    Stopping halfway down the knoll, he turned and looked back at me, as if hesitant to leave me there.

    "We'll be all right," I called, not knowing why. "I love you, Dad."

    He raised his hand and waved...and smiled. And I knew it would be all right.

    Raising my hand to wave at him, it struck my husband's chest. He was standing above me, calling my name, as I lay on our bed that early Sunday morning.

    "That was your Mother on the phone," he said solemnly, "Your Dad," his voice faltered.

    Suddenly, I knew.

    The dragon had won this time.

    But the Knight was safely in a Far Place.

    And I had been given the lesson of a lifetime.

Special thanks to Sharon E. Barber © for giving us permission to use this story.

Addendum from Sherry Sharon:    When we encounter the "dragons" (Sharon Barber refers to) in our lives, and we all do, remember this promise from scripture, "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:37-39)

Copyright by Danny Hahlbohm. All rights reserved by the artist.