At Any Cost, By Any Road
She watched him leave, something impressing her she
would not see him again
He had vowed to fight her poverty, brought about by the greed of
bureaucracy, and he was so sure he would succeed, there was a swagger in his
step.
Surely they would listen when they understood the reasons.
Word drifted back to her from time to time that he had met up with others
who felt the same way. Her hopes ran high as she prayed with renewed
purpose. Perhaps some day her son would fulfil the promises for a land of
peace and prosperity.
She prayed as only a mother can pray.
Disturbing news filtered back as she met up with other impoverished
families. They would meet as they went out to gather wild sycamore fruit and
the grapes of a lone vine growing inaccessibly in a wild ravine. There, too,
they befriended and tamed feral goats and milked them each day.
News came through the friendship network that the young men had so disturbed
authorities, they had to disband and flee for their lives.
There was silence of them for a long time, then news of their robberies and
violence came back to their families.
One family vehemently disowned their son, but she never ceased to pray for
hers. Then came news that two of the young men had been captured and
sentenced to death, guilty of the crimes she had so long feared they were
committing.
Guilty: her heart was pierced and near to breaking.
"But the Lord can reach him!" She remembered triumphantly, and she prayed
day and night.
There was no news. Her hope gave way to despair but still she pleaded for
his mercy for her boy.
Then one Friday a foreboding paralysed her. She did not go out but stayed
indoors alone and fasted and knelt in silent prayer.
She was hardly conscious of time and when she opened her eyes, everything
was in darkness.
The thickness of the dark felt strange. She stood up and opened the door but
there was no starlight and no moonlight, just a heavy blackness so black she
seemed to breathe it in.
In fear, she returned to prayer, reaching out again to her Lord for her son,
trembling with premonition.
"Lord," she prayed, "at any cost, by any road, bring him to yourself."
When she opened her eyes, the darkness had lifted and a strange peace
settled on her.
Days later, the news filtered back. Her son had been crucified that day,
along with her friend's son and another man. The third man was on the middle
cross between them.
The strange report was that her son turned to the third man on the middle
cross and said to him, "Lord, remember me when you come into your
kingdom." (Luke 23:42)
Elizabeth Price