Whispers
Even with the few extra hours of sleep, Evan barely awoke in time to make Sunday School. He rushed through his shower and shave and headed out the door. On the way out, he checked the wall of frames to insure all was as it should be. It was. He picked up his Bible and keys and walked to the bus stop.
The bus dropped him off a block away from his church. As he walked in, other members would nod and greet him, some of them even shaking his hand. He saw Richard and Elizabeth Cade down the hall, but they were too busy helping their five and six year old class members into their room.
He walked down another hall to his own class, he caught sight of Audrey walking into hers. To his surprise, she actually saw him and said, “Hi.” He replied in kind, and then she was gone. She looked prettier than usual today. Too bad this encounter reached the limits of her interest.
Sunday School was uneventful, and for that Evan was thankful. He sat down right as the morning’s announcements were being read off, and eagerly accepted the handout for the following lesson. Prayer requests were made, the opening prayer was spoken, and the lesson began in earnest.
Forty-five minutes later, the closing prayer had finished, and the group moved en masse into the main auditorium. The floor level was already close to full, so Evan walked up the nearby stairs to the balcony level. After scanning the rows for a couple seconds, he spotted a couple of his friends and moved to join them. His buddy, Dave, was the first to greet him.
“How’s it goin’, man?” he asked, holding his hand out.
“Not bad. Not bad,” Evan answered, shaking the offered hand. “Keeping busy. You?”
“Always.”
“Eric.” Evan shook his other friend’s hand.
“Evan. Have a good weekend?”
“Nothing to speak about,” he answered as he sat down. Actually, it was more like there was nothing he could speak about, as he wasn’t really sure himself what had happened. It probably was nothing.
The service started a few minutes later. After a few songs and the offertory, the pastor stepped up to the pulpit. As he did, Evan found himself scanning the balcony and the half of the floor level that he could see for other people he knew. Audrey was easy to spot, as she always sat in the same place. He didn’t notice anyone in a white suit, but when he heard the words “turn your Bibles” he refocused his attention back on the pastor.
Unfortunately, he had missed the reference everyone was asked to turn to. He leaned over to Dave. “What’d he say?”
“I didn’t catch it all,” Dave replied. “Hebrews something-thirty-two, I think.” Evan looked over to Eric, who just shrugged his shoulders.
Evan turned to the first page of Hebrews, hoping to locate the verse after he heard it read aloud, but by the time he got there, he was too late. He sat back and listened to the message about helping his fellow man. It turned out the reference he missed wasn’t the main text of the sermon, after all. Still, he couldn’t help but feel he’d missed something important.
When the pastor wrapped up, the music for the invitation started. Everyone was asked to stand with their head bowed and eyes closed, and then the pastor called to the “altar”—the steps surrounding the preaching platform—anyone whose heart had been impressed upon to meet the call of helping his fellow man.
Normally, Evan always kept his eyes closed when the invitation called for it, but something overwhelming compelled him to open them. A quick look at the altar told him why. Amid the small group of people who had answered the altar call was a man wearing a white suit and white hat. He couldn’t hear the words, nor did he expect to, but it was clear that this man was praying with an earnestness and fervency he rarely ever saw, even from the pastoral staff. If he hadn’t known better, he have expected to see him sweating drops of blood.
As the next verse of the invitational hymn began to play, Evan heard the pastor reassure anyone else who might need to take care of some spiritual business that no one was looking around, so he quickly complied. A couple seconds later, he peeked just long enough to see if the stranger was still there. He wasn’t, but at this point Evan was hardly surprised.
Two minutes later, the pastor asked one of the congregation members to dismiss everyone in prayer. He did, and soon everyone was flooding the parking lot, eager to get to their Sunday lunch.
Evan tagged along with his friends as they walked out to their car, keeping a passive eye out for the white-clad enigma, who was nowhere to be seen. Eric and Dave were both heading straight back to their shared apartment, so they invited Evan over for the afternoon. Not really having anything else to do, he accepted.
As they pulled away, he scanned the parking lot one more time, to no avail. Two thoughts persisted in his mind. He would see this stranger again, and he had to meet him, whatever it took.