Grace Alive (A Christian Romance)

Part 13

Chapter 13

I arrived at Eateries by 12:25 and parked my car, watching couples, families, and random people walking into the food joint. I needed to try to sort out all of this crap in my head. Dad said I was in rebellion against God and was indicating that I was an enemy of God, because I was having a friendship with the world. Or at least that’s what it felt like this morning, but then I kept hearing God’s voice encouraging me to go be with Branson. That didn’t make any sense! One of us was wrong, either my dad never heard God, or I was hearing something crazy.

I remembered hearing that same voice before when I went through some really hard stuff in college. I had wanted to give it all up and throw in the towel, when I’d heard God whisper to my heart His love for me, and it was what held my world together. Now, that same voice was telling me to go out with Branson, despite my guilty feelings, I was going to follow that voice. I closed my eyes briefly and turned up my worship music in my car, feeling peace settle on me so strong that it brought tears to my eyes.

Someone rapped on my window, and I jumped awake. Had I fallen asleep? I looked over to see a grinning Branson, who was wearing a white T-shirt that had a cross going down one side of it with tiny silver gems and wearing dark-washed jeans. I rolled down the window. God, please don’t let me have drool on my face.

“Hi,” I said sheepishly and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.

“Hi,” he said. “You want to go in?” He motioned toward the restaurant and I nodded. I was happy he didn’t mention my drool fest as I climbed out of the car grabbing up my purse on the way. We walked in together, my nerves rising. What was I doing? What if someone from the church was here? It’s okay, Zoe, trust Me. I quieted myself at the sound of God’s voice. We got a table fairly quickly, and I picked up a menu to scan it. I’d only eaten here like once, so I wasn’t sure what the best thing to go for was.

“The fish is really good. Or if you like bacon shoot for the Mad House burger. It’s really awesome,” Branson said.

“I’ll go with that,” I said. I loved me some bacon! The waiter came over with a smile and put two waters on the table.

“Hi, I’m Jason. Can I start you off with some drinks this afternoon?” He smiled at us; his navy blue shirt read Eateries across the front of it.

“I’ll take a Coke and the Mad House burger with the works on it.” I handed him my menu. He turned his attention to Branson.

“I’ll get a raspberry lemonade and go with the fish special.”

Jason left to go put in our orders, soft music drifting from the speakers. Branson folded his hands on the table and turned his full attention on my face. I felt myself growing nervous.

“How was church today?” he asked. Did I really want to talk about this?

“Um, well, it was good,” I said with a fumble of my tongue. Geesh. Learn how to talk, Zoe. “How about you?” I asked just because that was probably the polite thing to do here.

“It was amazing! God healed two people today, three teenagers got saved, and Pastor Dom preached awesome!” His joy was infectious, and I couldn’t help but grin.

“That’s so awesome!” I said and felt a strange pull in my heart. People got healed? Weird. I mean, yes, we prayed for the sick and all of that, but I’d never seen anyone get healed really. It was just more something that was expected of us. My dad had prayer warriors that would beg God to heal people, but as far as I knew not many got healed at all. In fact, some people went up for prayer for the same things every time.

“This little girl, who was believing God for a miracle for her dad, came up holding her dad’s hand. He was mute, and she asked if Pastor Dom could pray. So he brought up all the children in the church, and they laid hands on him. And seriously, he started talking!” Branson was practically bouncing out of his chair. Wow. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Did I really believe that? God didn’t just do stuff like that, did He? My mind drifted to the stories of miracles Jesus did, the disciples did, and the book of Acts.