Tony

We do not save people.

I was standing in the produce section of Kroger tonight when my littlest sister's phone rang. She immediately started crying and my first instinct was someone had died. I tried to get her to tell me what was wrong and she couldn't get words out. I finally got very stern with her (I was scared at that point) and she pulled the phone away from her wet cheek.

"Papa got saved yesterday".

You have to understand... my grandfather on my mom's side is a tough man. I remember him as the racist, judgmental, harsh man who took me out west in a RV and made my parents take me to the doctor for my scoliosis. A man who loves his little wife (my step grandmother) more than anyone, chews doublemint gum and kisses on the lips. He's who Abby looks like. And he was not a part of our lives for years because... above all else... he's just stubborn.

But, from a distance, I have watched something change in him over the years. And what has changed in him, has in turn effected his entire family. He softened. He reunited with my mother and walked her down the aisle. He retired to a farm in eastern Kentucky where he has taught my little sister to take care of the horses she figured out she loved on her own.

But still, one of my most vivid memories of Tony was standing in the driveway of the Long Avenue house and watching him hit the hood of his truck and tell my mother that we'd wasted too much time in church already.

So I'm not sure what happened. Because I certainly haven't been as diligent as I should have been about praying for him. But I remember when Abby started spending weekends out in Elliott County, telling her that maybe that's why she was supposed to be there. Maybe Abby's life would be a witness. I'm not sure I believed it.

It's a good thing people's salvation does not depend on my faithfulness.

Because yesterday, my grandfather and a step-great-aunt and a cousin once removed and his girlfriend (... try and follow that...) all accepted Christ.

What happened?

I told my mom, who was crying on the phone as I walked through the aisles at Kroger, that I guess someone did die after all. Because isn't that what salvation is after all? A dying to ourselves? Forsaking the old life for the new one?

I got to listen to Abby process it all out loud with more understanding than any other fourteen year old I've ever met... she talked to my mom about how she's not good at sharing her faith. And I laughed, realizing how often God uses people who aren't good at things for His purposes.

Just so we don't get mixed up and start thinking we had anything to do with it in the first place.

Abby and I walked out of Kroger then, right into a sunny rain shower. And I looked up as I was about to cross the parking lot... only to be stopped in my tracks by a rainbow.

A rainbow that stretched across the sky - arcing overhead, ever color visible.

I stood there like a fool in the rain, squinting against the sunlight, staring in awe at this huge promise stretched across the sky.

We took pictures with our phones and loaded up the groceries and hopped into my little station wagon. And I got to pray with my littlest sister. Specifically for the heart of my step-grandmother who was the only one not to surrender her life yesterday.

When Abby and I finished praying there in the Kroger parking lot, we opened our eyes and the rainbow was gone.

In my ears, I can still hear Abby's prayer. That this family, which is just so big and so bold, would be able to change a small corner of the world. Thanking the Father that none of His children ever grow too old...

We are never too far gone.

I started to pray God would continue to love on our family. But I was stopped mid-sentence by what only could have been the celebration of the Heavens, and I knew God didn't need any prodding. He'd been waiting for a while for this child to come home.

Angels are singing tonight. The Kingdom just got bigger.