A Lily Among Thorns

𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙿𝚃𝙴𝚁 𝙵𝙾𝚁𝚃𝚈-𝙽𝙸𝙽𝙴

✞ J U L I A N   W E S T B R O O K ✞

ONE MONTH LATER

Loud obnoxious ringing wakes Julian out of his slumber and he groans loudly into his pillow. The sun hasn't even come up yet. He grabs his phone off the nightstand and turns off the ringing by answering his call. "What?" he answers rudely.

"Julian Christopher," Mama Ruth responds. Julian's eyes widen and he clears his throat, quickly realizing his mistake. "You wanna correct what you said?"

"Uh, yes. Good morning, Mama."

"There you go. Good morning. I want you to take me to church today."

"Alright. What's the special occasion? You haven't gone in years and one of the first things I did when I became lead pastor was upgrade the live broadcasting just for you."

"I know, I know. But I was talking to Celai late last night and she convinced me to go. I know I have God's strength to get me there, I just need you to be my chauffeur. Speaking of Celai, she told me about the date y'all had. I could hear her blushing through the phone, you got that girl whipped," she finishes with a laugh.

Julian smiles involuntarily. They went out the night before and it left them both feeling intoxicated with love. They always tried to maintain at least one real date a month and last night's was different, but Julian couldn't put his finger on what it was that set their date apart from the rest.

He glances at the ring box on his nightstand. It's been one year, one month, two weeks, and six days he's been holding onto it. He's mastered the art of patience at this point.

"I'll be there in an hour and a half," Julian tells Mama Ruth. She agrees with his timing and their call ends.

Julian groans as he lays in the darkness. He's still exhausted, but with hearing Blaze scratch and cry at his door, he knows it's time to get up.

He sighs. "Good morning, God. Thank You for waking me and my family up. I trust You with whatever You have planned for this day."

| ✞ |

In sync with the praise team, Julian nearly finishes his rounds of greeting everyone in the church, and as he's making his way up to his position as lead pastor, he's stopped by a very angry Celai.

He can't help the smile appearing on his face. Her lips are pouted, her eyebrows are scrunched up, and her arms are crossed over her chest. Julian knows better than to tell her she looks cute when she's obviously upset.

"What's wrong?" Julian asks with a smirk.

"I texted you like three times and you never responded. It was really important."

Julian pats his pockets and realizes his phone isn't on him. "My bad, I must've left it at home or in the car. My morning was a bit different because I brought Mama Ruth with me. What'd you say?"

Celai gasps and her anger fades at a rapid rate. "Mama's here?" she asks, her voice going higher with excitement.

Before Julian can respond, Celai is already over the situation and walking past him to Mama Ruth in her reserved seat.

He laughs softly and shakes his head as he takes center stage, swapping spots with the worship team. After doing announcements and coordinating the offering, he's ready to give the Word that the Lord placed on his heart.

"Today's message is called Steppin' Out because there's a lot of people that are children of God that need to step out on faith, step out of their comfort zone, and step out of the grave. We'll be in 1 Corinthians 3, all it is is verses one through seven." He gives the church a moment to flip to the correct page before he continues. "Right off the bat, we have Paul practically condemning the Corinthians, saying that he can't talk to them like spiritual beings because they're still young in their faith. And I want to put it out there that there's nothing wrong with being young in faith, every journey is different, but there is a difference between being young and being stunted in growth.