Holden Beach: Day #6

I'll remember this day for years.

We girls woke up and read together; shortly after our discussion was over the natural movement toward the beach began.  Just before leaving, Brandon and Thomas showed up.  I hunkered down at the kitchen table with my laptop to do a little blogging catch-up.  One by one Thomas and each of the girls took their towels and walked out the door, but Brandon sat down across the table from me.  For 40 silent minutes I continued to write and he sat waiting until I closed my computer.  "Alrighty, I'm heading over to the boys' house to have lunch with Colin."

"Ok," he murmured. "I wanted to ask you something, but it can wait until after lunch."

I paused over my beach bag.  He'd been waiting forty minutes, I might as well hear him out now.  It probably wouldn't take too long anyways.  So I went back to the table and asked, "What's up?"

"Well, I've been feeling an increased need to get baptised this week.  I've been asking people what their opinion is, and I know you know me better than most of the people here.  I'm just afraid of casting spells instinctually, and I wonder what you think of it."

Sitting there, 18 months of history reeled through my head.  Snapshots of Brandon's struggle flipped like album pages.  The prolonged uncertainty of whether or not he was a Christian.  The ever-present tension of his Wiccan past and spell-casting.  The hours spent in argument and conversation about spiritual matters.  The worn patience and frustration pulling against the reigns of a stubborn mule.  His consistent unwillingness.  And the prayers from the last 2 months, always as a skeptical afterthought, that he could give up his Wiccan past so Dave and I could baptise him at the beach.  And I knew I was asking for the moon.

I told him, as I had before, that priority number one was declaring one lifestyle behind him before engaging in a ritual that symbolized commitment to another.  His interest in the ritual itself was nothing new; but if there was a desire for the commitment it illustrates, then that was a cataclysmically new event.  So I asked what he thought about renouncing, expecting the same stubborness I'd heard for 18 long months.

"I think I'm ready," he said quietly, then paused.  "Yeah. I'm ready."

It took a while for his words to travel from my ears to my brain.  And what a lightning bolt when they hit.  My stomach caved in and all the air left my lungs.  My body was pressed to the chair and my mouth filled with laughter as my eyes were flooded by tears.  Words fled the sacred space that had just erupted and called itelf JOY.

Shortly after, he walked me back to the boys' house, and I was left with Colin and a toasted PB&J sandwich.  And I was freaking out.  I wanted to dance (so I did).  I wanted to tell everyone (so I did).  I wanted to play Scrabble (so we did).

 

Even though I lost to Colin in Scrabble, the day was all uphill from there, floating on an unpoppable bubble.  At three, Katie and I left our Scrabble defeat to an afternoon date with 2 girls coming into our group.  Just as the boys played poker with the Diesel guys, we were connecting with 2 of the girls from Diesel over orange julius drinks and an impossible puppy puzzle.

And then, come seven, our house was stormed by an army of boys weilding casserole dishes.  They had promised to make us dinner one night, and what a feast it was: eggplant and meat lasagna, crab legs, a tilapia mix, perfect scallops, roasted red potatoes, even wine and dessert.  They forced the girls to sit at the table, and then came around to us one by one to serve us.  It was absolutely incredible.  I heard one of the girls admit to tearing up as a result.

We planned to have communion together after dinner.  So after a line past the 2 boxes of wine and passing around a couple of French bread loaves, we all sat down together in the living room.  Some of the girls started us off by singing "Amazing Grace", and then we all began praying together for a little less than an hour.  And Brandon, for the first time ever, prayed out loud in front of the group.  Thankful for our patience, grateful that even though he's a "stubborn ass" he got to this point.  Absolutely amazing.