[Short Story] – Josh
This is one of my favorite stories that I’ve written, because it really speaks to the heart of the beliefs we cling to. I used to be a hardcore Christian, but I found myself dwelling more and more towards the outskirts of the faith as I dealt with small-minded people who were more concerned with telling others that they were going to hell than they were with helping those people out in their daily lives. It really bothered me.
Another thing that annoyed me was the insistence of these same Christians that the name “Jesus Christ” was the only name synonymous with the redemption of the soul. Truth be told, no one knows what the man we refer to as Jesus Christ actually called himself; the letter “J” didn’t even exist until the 9th century AD, and the Greek word “Iesus” is a translation of a Hebrew name. scholars believe he may have called himself “Yeshu” or “Yeshoua,” but the lack of sources outside the gospels make it hard to know what.
Both of those pet peeves played a heavy role in the creation of Elijah, who is very much like myself in the year 2001…
Josh
by Sean J. Jordan
December 5th, 2001 (Revised December 8th, 2001)
Love your neighbor as you love yourself, Alison kept reminding herself. No matter how annoying they are.
And Elijah was annoying.
“He’s been coming to bible study for three years now, and all he seems to want to do is stir things up,” one student bitterly complained. “I’ve been praying for awhile now that he’ll come around, but he’s one of those people who just seems bent on going to hell.”
Others in the group nodded in agreement, and Alison, ever the clueless college freshman, decided to speak up.
“It just seems like there’s got to be a better way to reach out to him than to ask him to leave,” she said timidly, feeling patronizing eyes turning towards her. “I mean, I know I don’t know him as well as the rest of you, but…”
“We gave him a warning,” the bible study leader interjected gently, and a few murmurs of agreement rose from around her. “I told him he could stay if he wanted to participate, but that he couldn’t talk about Josh.”
Josh. Elijah’s god, or so he claimed. And it had been the sheer mention of Josh that had created a verbal battlefield between Elijah and some of the older members of the group only moments before.
“We get people like this sometimes,” another student explained. “All they want to do is cause trouble.”
“There’s nowhere in the Bible where it says “Thou shalt be a doormat unto others,” someone else blurted out, and a few members of the group giggled.
“Sometimes, we just need to grit our teeth and pray for them,” the leader said calmly, and Alison found herself feeling uncomfortable as she heard it. “Maybe we should take a few minutes and go to God about Elijah.”
Alison felt her skin crawling. Why? she wondered. I’ve prayed for people before. But as the others in the group began bowing their heads, she excused herself with a sheepish statement about needing to use the bathroom and quickly walked out into the hallway.
Elijah was sitting outside, leaning against a wall and quietly talking to himself. I should just leave him alone, Alison thought, and then decided against it, instead walking to a spot next to him and crouching down.
“Are you OK?” she asked quietly. Elijah mouthed a few more words and then looked up and smiled.
“Sorry, I was just praying,” he replied cheerfully. He had a friendly, bouncy sort of voice. Alison sighed heavily and plopped down as her legs collapsed underneath her.
“They’re praying for you right now, you know,” she said.
He nodded. “They usually do.”
She shot him an annoyed look. “Do you get a kick out of antagonizing Christians?”
He laughed and pretended to rub his backside. “I did today.”
A look became a glare. “I’m serious. Is there a point to all this, or are you just trying to bother people?”
Now he was the one who was sighing, and she was surprised to see a serious expression on his face.
“Did it ever occur to you,” he said slowly, “that maybe I’m trying to save them?”
“Looks like you’re not succeeding,” Alison replied dryly. “I’d say you’re about 0-20 today.”
Elijah shrugged. “Yeah, I’m probably wasting my time. Most of them are set in their ways already.” His face brightened a bit. “But at least you’re out here. That’s got to count for something.”
“Just to try to talk some sense into you,” she protested. “I’ve got no desire to learn more about this… what did you call him?”
“Josh.”
“Right, Josh. I’m convinced Christianity is true, therefore, I am a Christian. QED.”
Elijah’s smile was almost condescending. “And I’m sure you could sit out here and prove to me that it’s all true, every word of it. Every ounce of dogma, every line of scripture.”
Alison shifted a bit to make herself more comfortable. “If you want me to, yes.”
“Please don’t,” he said, and then added quickly, “believe me, you wouldn’t be the first to try.”
Love your neighbor as yourself, Alison felt herself thinking, and stared at Elijah blankly. But how? she wondered. How do you love a guy who’s trying to frustrate you?
“I’m Alison,” she said almost automatically, extending her hand. “I don’t think we were really properly introduced.”
“Elijah,” he said, taking her hand and shaking it warmly. “You’re a freshman here?”
“Yes. Yourself?”
“A senior,” he replied with a grin. “Though sometimes, I still feel like a freshman.”
“Why?”
“Because I still haven’t lost my love for learning, I guess,” he said.
“So you’re a good student, then?” Alison asked, happy to change the topic to something more neutral.
“Terrible,” Elijah said wryly. “I love to learn, but I hate homework.”
“Do you like to read?”
“Love it. I think I read…” he paused to think, and then looked back up. “… four? books last week. Maybe five.”
“I’ve got one for you sometime,” she said. “Mere Christianity, by CS Lewis. It’s a…”
Elijah held up his hand and cut her off.
“I’ve read it,” he said. “Can’t you guys be a little more original?”
“I just thought you might like it,” Alison said, a bit wounded. “I’m not trying to convert you or anything.”
He leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. “You’re going to miss your Bible study.”
“They’re just praying for you right now. I’ll go back in a minute.”
There was a pause. “Why,” he said after a moment, eyes still closed, “did you come out here anyway?”
“I’m not sure,” she admitted. “It just seemed like it’d make more sense to try to get to know you personally than to let everyone else tell me who you are.”
“I like that,” he said, still not moving. “We should talk sometime.”
“About Josh?”
“Yeah.”
She stood up, brushing the dust from the hallway off her pants. “Only if we can give equal time to Jesus.”
“Fair enough,” he said. “Don’t let me keep you.”
“It was nice to talk to you,” she said, and began walking away. But as she turned and reached for the doorknob, she heard his voice.
“Do you mind if I pray for you?” he asked.
“Only if I can pray for you,” she replied.
“Let our gods duke it out, huh?” he said, and laughed. “I’ll talk to you later, Alison.”
She shook her head and returned to the study.
****************************************************************
It was nearly a month before she saw Elijah again, much to the relief of her friends in the bible study. He was standing in a small group of people, listening to a doomsaying, gay-bashing, bible-quoting campus preacher. Alison walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder and he shook his head sadly, not looking away from the performance in front of him.
“I’m glad Josh isn’t like this,” he said, and Alison groaned.
“Jesus isn’t like this either,” she said, turning away. Elijah turned with her, and they began walking away.
“You know, I tried to talk to this guy once, and he told me…” Elijah chuckled here, “… that I had a demon. Can you believe that?”
“Such a sad picture of Christianity,” Alison said. “I wish people didn’t think of us like that.”
“One thing I’ve never understood is how you guys can claim to worship the same Jesus and say that the other guy’s wrong,” Elijah responded. “One says hate homosexuals, another says love them. One says everyone’s going to hell, another says God doesn’t want anyone to. And then, my favorite … one says it’s a sin to consume alcohol and another invites you to talk about theology over a few beers. And it’s all in the name of Jesus.”
“And I suppose Josh isn’t so inconsistent?” Alison remarked darkly.
“Hey, Josh makes it easy. Two rules. Love him, love others. That’s all you need to know.”
Alison frowned. “Jesus said that, you know. Matthew 22:37-39.”
Elijah applauded. “Looks we’ve got a walking, talking Bible here, folks.”
“Maybe you should read it sometime,” she said stiffly.
“What makes you think I haven’t?” he replied. “But let me ask you… have you read the Koran? The Vedas? The Apocrypha? The Book of Mormon?”
“Of course not!” she replied indignantly. “Why would I?”
“How else are you going to know if they’re true?”
“But I know they’re not, so there’s no point in reading them.”
Elijah tsked. “That’s where you Christians get it all wrong. You decide if something doesn’t agree with your worldview, it’s not worth your time.”
“Now wait a minute,” Alison interjected, “if I believe Christianity is true, and other religions aren’t a valid way to God, then I can conclude their ideas aren’t as true as what the Bible’s got to say and therefore aren’t something I want to fill my head with. That’s reasonable.”
“Did you know,” Elijah said, seemingly undaunted, “that the book of Esther nearly didn’t make it into the Bible because it doesn’t ever mention God?”
“What’s that got to do with anything?”
“And did you know,” he continued, “that the Catholic Bible has six books that aren’t in the Protestant Bible?”
“As a matter of fact, I did,” Alison replied. “What’s your point?”
Elijah shrugged. “If the Bible’s the word of God, I don’t understand why there’ve been so many arguments over what’s supposed to be in it and how it’s supposed to be arranged. Can’t God make up his mind?”
“Hey, it’s not God’s fault,” Alison said. “It’s people who are constantly trying to twist his words. You can make the Bible say anything if you take it too literally and out of context.”
“See, that’s why I like Josh,” Elijah said. “It’s hard to misquote a god who hasn’t said anything.” They turned a corner and continued walking. Alison shivered a bit and zipped up her jacket.
“So where’d you get the idea of this Josh guy, anyway?” she asked.
“Well, it’s an interesting story,” Elijah said. “I was raised by a couple of Christian fundamentalists. You know, the type who name their kids out of the Bible? Actually, I don’t know if you know this or not, but my name means “My God is Yahweh,” which I think is kind of ironic…”
“I asked about Josh, not you.”
“Right, right. So anyway, when I was in high school, I decided I’d had enough of this church stuff. I was tired of the dogma, tired of the hypocrisy, and tired of people judging each other for not living up to the standards of a God who just wanted to send us all to hell anyway. So I was laying outside, looking up at the stars one night, and I started thinking. ‘We either live in creation or chaos,’ I reasoned, ‘and I can accept that we live in creation because life’s just too depressing to live in chaos. So there must be a God, and it stands to reason that he’s got ultimate power and knowledge over his creation since it doesn’t make any sense for a God to create something he can’t control.’”
“Sounds reasonable,” Alison agreed. “Go on.”
“OK, so then I thought, ‘He’s got to be morally perfect, because I have the idea of moral perfection, and it doesn’t make sense for there to be created ideals unless the creator can live up to them.’ That’s actually a pretty complicated line of thinking, but I’ll explain it another time. And anyway, I went on to wonder if God was a personal god. I decided that he’d have to be, since there’s such a thing as personal beings in his creation, and that therefore, he must have a name and an identity.”
“And so you named him Josh,” Alison interrupted.
“Well, it was more along the lines of asking him if it was OK to call him Josh and not hearing him object,” Elijah said.
“That’s ridiculous,” Alison said. “By your logic, I could ask the air if it’d like to be called Harold, and reason that if it didn’t respond, it’d be content to be called Harold.”
“Hey, call it Harold if you want to,” Elijah shrugged. “I don’t think it cares. But you’re missing the point. Air isn’t a personal being. Josh is.”
“But why Josh? Why not Frank, or Joe, or …”
“…or Jesus?” Elijah finished for her. “Because his name is Josh. If it isn’t and it matters, I just have to trust him to tell me that.”
Alison stopped and smiled as a sudden realization struck.
“How do you know he’s not trying to tell you through someone like me?” she said excitedly. “His name isn’t Josh. It’s Jesus. Don’t you see?”
Elijah stopped and looked back at her with amusement. “Or maybe your Jesus is trying to use me to tell you his name is really Josh.”
Alison groaned. “Are you trying to drive me crazy?”
“Not at all!” Elijah replied. “I’m just trying to help you to see the truth.”
“I know the truth!” she cried. “Jesus came and died for your sins so you don’t have to go to hell! Don’t you get it?”
“Hell…” Elijah mused. “Now there’s an interesting topic.” He glanced at his watch and looked back at her suddenly with a start. “But it’ll have to wait until next time. I’m late for class!” And with that, he took off running, shouting something about hoping they’d get talk again soon.
I hope so too, thought Alison, shaking her head. I think one of us is seriously confused.
****************************************************************
“I ran into Elijah today,” the bible study leader said sadly towards the end of the meeting. “He said he’s still praying for us.”
A few murmurs of disapproval worked their way through the group, and Alison found herself disapproving as well. But not of Elijah, she realized. Why do I feel like I want to defend him?
“I wish he’d give it a rest,” someone said in exasperation. “Everyone knows he’s just mocking our beliefs.”
“Well, my pastor said sometimes God gives us devils to test our faith,” another student remarked. “Maybe God’s using Elijah like he used Pharaoh with Moses.”
“Elijah’s not a devil!” Alison was surprised to hear herself blurting out. There was an awkward silence as eyes in the group turned towards her. Uhoh, I’m in over my head here, Lord, she thought. “He’s just someone who really needs to know about God’s love,” she said, feeling as if she was stumbling over her words in nervousness. “And sometimes, I don’t really think that we’re doing a very good job in… ummm…” The glares were beginning to feel like daggers. “… uh, showing that love to him.”
Someone groaned. “What do you want us to do? Pay his rent? Wash his car? Take his finals?”
The bible study leader turned towards Alison. “We’ve tried everything. All we can do is pray for him.”
“Yeah, but…” Alison fumbled, “… maybe we need to… you know, just accept him. For who he is, not who we want him to be.”
A couple of people in the crowd lunged for their Bibles and began flipping furiously, but the leader held up her hand to stop them and smiled kindly.
“You’ve got a heart for people, and I really admire that,” she said sweetly. “But one day, you’re going to realize that all the good intentions and love in the world can’t save someone. It’s only through Jesus Christ that anyone can experience salvation. We may not like it, we may not think it’s fair, but that’s the way it works. What we think doesn’t matter.”
“I happen to think,” the leader added quickly, “that Elijah is a very neat guy. But I also know that unless he chooses to accept Jesus Christ as his lord and personal savior, we won’t be seeing him in heaven. And I think that’s really all that can be said about him.”
A few of the people in the group nodded in agreement, and even the bible flippers seemed to be satiated by that. Alison nodded too, thinking technically, she’s right. He really isn’t one of us.
As the meeting closed, Alison ducked out quickly as several of the people in the group began to make a beeline for her, dog-eared Bibles in hand. And maybe, she thought as she escaped from the throng of well-meaning scripture-sharers, he doesn’t want to be.
****************************************************************
“Hey, it’s Alison!” a surprised Elijah said as he opened the door and saw her standing there. “What’s the occasion?”
“I… wanted to talk,” she said, a bit unsteadily, and he looked concerned.
“Come on in,” he offered, sweeping his hand into the room. “Excuse the mess – I didn’t know I’d be having visitors.”
She walked in nervously, quickly surveying the efficiency apartment. It was a bit cluttered, maybe, but hardly messy. Elijah offered her a chair and sat down on his bed, smiling gently and waiting for her to speak.
“How’d you find out where I live, anyway?” he asked.
“I looked you up in the student directory.”
“Ah, just like a stalker,” he replied with a grin. “I’ve always wanted one of those.”
Alison decided to change the subject. “So, do you live here by yourself?” Stupid question, she thought as she looked around. Elijah simply laughed.
“Well, sometimes I rent my closet out to wandering vagrants,” he joked, “but otherwise, yeah. It’s just me. Not many people want to live with an iconoclast.”
“A what?”
“An unconventional eccentric,” he explained. “That’s me in a nutshell.”
“Oh,” Alison said, and looked around. “It’s nice.” And it really was. The room was filled with books, some in piles, some lining the walls on makeshift bookshelves on top of his desk, stereo, and kitchen cabinets. It had a very homey feel to it, which was more than Alison could say for her cramped cinderblock dorm room.
“Yeah, I like to think so,” Elijah said, and began to stretch. “So,” he started, pausing to yawn, “what brings you here? You look upset.”
Butterflies were forming in her stomach. “Well, um,” she started, “we talked about you in Bible study today.” Elijah nodded, but said nothing, so she tried to continue. “And, um, well, I kind of got in an argument with the rest of the group.”
“Over what?” he asked.
She reddened a bit. “I told them we should accept you as you are and quit trying to make you into what we want you to be.”
“A noble sentiment,” he agreed. “Is that how you really feel?”
“Well, yeah!” she said. “I mean, we can’t make you put your faith in Christ, but we can at least treat you with some love and compassion and just let you be you.”
“Be careful,” he warned her with a smile. “You’re beginning to sound like a follower of Josh.”
I am not a follower of Josh! she thought, but decided not to say it. “Um, how, exactly?” she asked instead, unsure if she really wanted to know.
“Because Josh accepts people as they are,” Elijah said.
“Well, Christians are supposed to do that too,” Alison retorted.
“Ah, but they don’t.” Elijah held up a finger as if to ward off her responses for a moment. “When was the last time you saw a practicing homosexual in a Christian church?”
“Well, there are churches that accept them, but…”
“… but they’re wrong, right?” His tone was much more serious now. “How about a prostitute? Or a drug addict? Or someone who lies all the time? Or a couple who’s living together outside of marriage?” Alison was silent. “They’re real people too, right?”
“OK, so?” she asked. Elijah threw up his hands and sighed.
“Exactly. ‘So what?’ you guys ask. ‘They choose to live in sin.’ But Josh says that they’re people too, and that he loves them as much as he loves you or me.”
“Jesus says that too.”
“Maybe he does, but I’d never know from looking at his church,” Elijah responded. “You know, back when I was still going to my parents’ church, I saw something incredible. There was this girl who’d gone away to college and come out of the closet. And you know what they did? They excommunicated her. They actually told us not to attempt to contact her or talk to her until she repented from her ’sinful lifestyle.’”
“And you know,” he continued, “it really bothered me. Here we were, constantly talking about loving a world full of sinners, and yet we were doing everything we could to be separated from them. That was when I decided I didn’t need Jesus anymore.”
“Just Josh.”
“Exactly. Because Josh doesn’t care if you’re gay or the wrong color or a thrice-convicted murderer and dog rapist. He’ll take anyone, especially the people who aren’t good enough for you Christians.”
“But Josh didn’t die for your sins,” Alison said. “Jesus did.”
“And that’s another thing… your dead God,” Elijah said without missing a beat. “You Christians and your dead God. You make such a big deal about his death, you seem to forget he’s supposed to be alive.”
“Death,” he declared, “isn’t in Josh’s vocabulary.”
Now Alison was getting frustrated. “Well, it is in mine!” she said. “and I refuse to believe in a god who can’t comprehend the reality of it!”
“Who says he doesn’t?” Elijah asked. “Maybe he’s just not partial to who he’s willing to accept.”
“But it’s not fair for a god to save everyone!” she protested.
Elijah looked at her sadly. “Typical Christian response. You guys only want Christians in heaven. But Josh? He’ll accept Ghandi, and Siddartha Gautama Buddha, and Plato and Socrates and whoever else is just trying to figure out who God really is without worrying so much about being fundamentally righteous.”
“And anyway,” he added, before she could respond, “I didn’t say Josh saves everyone. There are people who are bound and determined to live apart from him, and if that’s what they want, that’s what he’ll give them. But he’s not going to turn them down on the basis of who they were. He looks at them on the basis of who they are.”
“But that’s twisted!” Alison finally broke through. “By your logic, you don’t even have to believe in Josh to be saved!”
Elijah shrugged. “I think Josh reveals himself to everyone, each in an individual way,” he said. “How they choose to respond to that is between them and Josh.”
“So you’re saying all religions lead to Josh then?”
Elijah looked annoyed. “Stop putting words in my mouth,” he said. “I didn’t say that at all.”
Oops, Alison thought. “Well, what are you saying, then?”
“First of all, let’s get this clear… there is truth in other religions.” Elijah looked passionate and intense as he said this; This must be one of his pet peeves, Alison decided. “Virtually every world religion, for example, says ‘Love thy neighbor.’ Christians tend to discard that as a partial truth, but I see it as a stepping stone to telling people about Josh.”
“OK,” Alison said carefully. “So what do you tell them?”
“I tell them what I know. That there’s a god out there who’s more concerned with relationships than with rules. That what he wants is a world where people treat each other with real love – you know, the kind that’s not trying to take advantage of anyone or sell anything – and that he’s willing to accept anyone, even the worst sinner out there, so long as they’re willing to follow him.”
“Sounds familiar. What does following entail?”
Elijah shrugged. “Different things for different people.”
“OK, what does it mean for you?”
“A lot of thinking, a lot of exploring.” He looked contemplative for a moment. “I guess you could say I’m still getting to know Josh.”
This guy’s a froot loop, Alison thought, and stood up. “You’re impossible.”
Elijah smiled. “All things are possible in Josh.”
She leveled a glare. “Whatever. I’ll talk to you later.” And quickly, before he could say anything that might convince her to stay, she flung his door open and walked out of the room, slamming it shut behind her.
I wanted to stay, she realized, and stood there for a moment, outside his apartment, deep in thought. Anger began to well up inside her. I think he was actually starting to sell me on all of this.
She felt herself fuming. Lord, give me wisdom and strength, she prayed, storming down the stairs and out of the apartment building. Because right now, I’d be happy if I never saw him again.
I think.
****************************************************************
It was nearly Christmas break before she heard from him again.
She heard the phone ringing as she walked into her room on her way back from class. Let the machine get it, she decided, unslinging her bookbag and taking off her coat before easing herself onto her bed, hoping for a quick nap after a long day. She was vaguely aware of the answering machine’s message playing, but not really interested in who was calling.
“Alison, this is Jenny, from your bible study group,” a panicked female voice said. Alison sat up. There was a lot of noise in the background, as if the call was coming from a mall or someplace crowded. “Are you there? Please pick up.”
She lunged for the phone, very nearly hanging it up is it slipped out of her hands. “Hello? Hello?” she said quickly, hoping she hadn’t goofed up.
“Listen, Alison, I work at the hospital and… look, can you come down here?” the voice on the other end said quickly.
“Why?” she asked, a little surprised.
Jenny sounded as if she were going to cry. “Elijah’s here. He’s… not well, Alison. He was in a bad accident.” And then, softly, “I think he’s dying.”
Alison glanced at her watch and felt her heart pounding. “I can be there in 20 minutes, I think.”
“Good. I’ll meet you at the entrance to the emergency room, OK?”
Alison thanked her and hung up. She paused for a moment, still recoiling from the shock, and then quickly grabbed her keys and coat and ran out of the room, flinging the door shut behind her, quickly returning to chide herself to remember to put her shoes on next time before leaving once again.
****************************************************************
Jenny was waiting at the entrance as she’d promised, dressed in a volunteer nurse’s outfit. She did not look happy.
“I’m going to have to sneak you in,” she explained, looking around fearfully as they walked down the hallway towards intensive care.
“Just me?” Alison asked. “Isn’t anyone else coming?”
“He didn’t ask for anyone else. Just you.” Jenny ducked around a corner, pulling Alison with her. A doctor walked by, seemingly oblivious to them.
“He asked for me?” Alison asked once the coast was clear and they returned to the hallway.
“He said he’s got something really important to tell you,” Jenny replied. They stopped at a door. “Here we are. We might not have much time, so be quick.”
Alison walked into the room and saw a heavily bandaged form hooked up to more tubes than she could count lying in the hospital bed.
“Elijah?” she asked quietly, not wanting to disturb him, but his eyes opened at the sound of her voice.”
“Hey Alison,” came his muffled reply. “Thanks for coming.”
“What happened?” she asked, walking over to the side of his bed.
“I got hit by a drunk driver,” he said, a bit slower than usual, and Alison realized that it was hurting him to talk. “I don’t know what happened to him. I guess he’s in Josh’s hands now.”
Alison felt herself beginning to cry. “Can’t you just give up this stupid god of yours and get your heart right with the real one before it’s too late?” she asked, and began sobbing. “I don’t want you to go to hell!”
“I won’t,” he said, calmly and softly, grimacing as he moved his arm to lightly touch her forearm with his fingers in consolation. “Josh will take care of me.”
“No, he won’t!” she wanted to scream, but settled for simply saying it instead. “He’s not real. Don’t you see that?”
“I do see,” he said, with a simple smile. “And if I abandon him now, what’s the point of having believed in him in the first place?”
Now she felt angry, and glared at him between tears. “Did you call me in here just to thumb your nose at me?”
“No, I didn’t,” he said, sighing. “I have something for you.”
“What?” she asked, not wanting to trust him. “It’s not about Josh, is it?”
“Yes,” he replied, and slowly, with obvious pain, lifted his arm to a nearby nightstand and picked up a small, neatly folded piece of paper.
“I don’t want it,” she said obstinately.
“Please…” he said, extending it towards her. “You have no idea how much this hurts.”
She took it, looking at him sourly, and began to unfold it.
“Not here,” he said, and then smiled. “Think about what it says, OK?”
Jenny walked in the room suddenly, and Alison jammed the paper into her pocket. “Wrap it up, guys,” she hissed. “I’m going to be in a ton of trouble if they find out about this.”
“We’re finished,” Elijah said, his voice returning to its normal, happy tone, if for just a moment.
“But…” Alison protested. Elijah smiled again.
“I love you, Alison. And Josh loves you too. Don’t forget that.”
And with that, he closed his eyes and pretended to go to sleep.
“I love you too, Elijah,” she said softly. “And just remember, it’s never too late to come to Christ.”
With that, she left, and Jenny, looking rather shocked, trailed behind her, saying nothing.
****************************************************************
She found out the next day that he’d died a few hours later of massive internal bleeding. Grief-stricken, she sat at her desk as she got home from class, crying and staring at the small fold of paper he’d given her the day before.
Do I want to open this? she asked herself, turning it over and over in her fingers. Do I want to confirm what I already know – that he died trusting in some made-up god and went to hell as a result? Part of her did not want to know – after all, she realized, I want to believe that he changed his mind at the last minute and is with Christ right now. But curiosity gave in to obstinance, and she found herself unraveling the note.
“Yeshuah wept” was all it said, and in big bold letters.
I don’t understand, she thought, staring at it in disbelief. What does this have to do with anything?
Yeshuah, the Hebrew name for Jesus. Yeshuah mashiah, salvation from God.
Jeshuha.
Joshua.
“Josh.”
She began to cry again.
****************************************************************
It was a small funeral, with only a few family members and acquaintances attending. Elijah, it seemed, did not have many friends. His parents were there, both looking very stern and puritanical, both looking too reserved to show anything but the outward signs of grief.
After it was over, Alison approached them and explained that she had been a friend of Elijah’s and that she was very sorry for their loss.
“Just tell me that he died in our Lord Jesus’s arms,” his mother said, looking as if she was about to lose control and begin sobbing then and there.
Alison smiled and choked back one of her own. “Not Jesus,” she said carefully. “But let me tell you about Josh…”
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Copyright Sean J. Jordan, 2008. All Rights Reserved.
The author grants permission for this story to be distributed freely for non-commercial use.
Tags: Fiction / Short Stories, sean jordan, Sean's Writing, short story
Fiction, Fiction / Short Stories | SeanJJordan | 
January 13, 2008 8:33 pm
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