Deborah stirred the spoon in her cup nervously, unaware she was emphasizing her nervousness rather than hiding it. Though she and Becks were the best friends since the third grade Sunday School classes they attended at the Temple, the nearness of their shared university graduation and the inevitable separation ate at her more than her friend's annoyance at her. How did you tell someone. "You know what we've both been brought up to believe? I've made a different decision for myself, but I don't want splitting this atom in any way change the comfortable relationship we had with our sold selves."

             If only Becka hadn't just admitted-stated, proudly, despite her embarrassment, that she and Lance were 'doing it'. That alone changed everything-forever....but where was the manual on how to deal with old friends in new, startling situations? Either they forgot to tell her to get that book at the beginning of class, or she'd missed that day's lecture, because as they settled in on the worn and comfortable furniture as before, nothing was the way it was just just last week! Not them not anything!

           "  I just don't see why you have you have to give up everything for a Gentile god, Deb! A Christian god - Christians hate Jews! "

           "  For the same reason you gave up your virginity for something you really want and need, something that satisfied a deep seated need nothing else could fill! "

            Deborah fell back in horror from her friend's anger. remembering how often these words of righteous indignation had come out of her own mouth, even as recently as last September during the Peace Talks at Rosh haShanah! It made her feel like such a hypocrite, and yet she stubbornly clung to the new truth lodged within her.  " I needed something, something more valuable then... " She stopped, with tears crowding her eyes. What was so real inside her suddenly seemed alien when she tried to tell someone who knew her the way she was before!

              Becky bit at the edge of her cup in annoyance.

              " I don't want to be standing near you when you tell your mother! Or your Aunt for that matter! The head of Hadassah, and you the only child left at home! "

              " I don't either. "  Deborah agreed meekly, in a conspiratorial tone. Which had been meant to mend the breech and close the painful topic between them.

              " Lance and I love one another. We've made a commitment to one another. It isn't the same thing! "

             " In a way it is. "  Deborah argued defensively.

             " Go spend twenty minutes alone in your room and get over it, Deb! How could you do this? His voice raised to a plaintive wail, sounding like Deborah's aged grandmother Tiffany, who'd already 'passed on'. When she'd asked her mother Flo about her thoughts on the possibility of a life after this one, her mother had patted her hand in unconscious mimicry of the dead woman, and assured her that Nana would always be alive as long as they remembered her. It seemed less of an answer in retrospect. But her friend was only getting started in her emotional backlash, worse than anything she'd feared. Again using the aged woman's voice and words, Becka repudiated their friendship, even her right to existence as she excoriated her venomously.

          " Deb?  "  She exclaimed in horror, as she had once done when they were kids and she held up a dusty condom she'd found in one of the back alleys near the apartment building they shared. " How can you spit on the deaths of so many of our families who died in Nazi concentration camps? Or were drown during the Crusades because they refused to even pretend to convert to save their lives? Does their sacrifice mean nothing to you? What about your grandfather and most of his family? Your father and an elderly aunt being the only ones who were left? Doesn't that mean anything to you? "

            The words were like physical blows. but acknowledging their validity, she made no effort to defend herself from her friend's use of them against the wound growing in her heart.

           " They died because of their Jewish blood. It didn't matter if they were Observant or not, Beck'a. "  She said softly, burrowing her chin into her chest as she watched the overhead fluorescent lights in the murky still of the tea cup.

            " And what's the blood flowing in your veins? Not Jewishblood any more? "

            " I can't change the past. And I'm not going to take on more guilt. It's too 'Jewish'. " The first flicker of resentment pushing past her desire to win her friend over to her new state of mind.

             Becky gasped.

             "  All my life I've listened to what other people told me. I just wanted to stop an read it for myself, haven't you ever wanted too? Or is that why you get such good grade, because you swallow everything the professors tell you and vomit back to them word for word? "

              Their anger lashed out and collided in the tense silence, and Deborah knew that despite a lifetime of friendship, the other young woman would have slapped her face if she hadn't been holding the cup in her hands, even though she eschewed every other formality by kicking off her shoes and putting her legs under her on the soiled couch.

                 " Boy have you ever bought into it already, haven't you? Israel is surrounded by millions of Arabs and non-Jews waiting to destroy us and wipe us off the face of the earth, and you had to chose the worst line, the 'self-hating' Jew! What's that suppose to get you? A pat on the tushi as they clamp the doors of the execution chambers behind you? A 'good Jew'? I suppose! The pious little scholar locked away from the reality pf the real world while his hard working wife has to make do and provide for him and her, or the bronzed god-like men of the Six Day War, and all the other negative stereotypes that go with it? "

            " My point exactly. "  Deborah snapped. This wasn't going anything like the way she'd rehearsed it.

            Becka pushed her cup away, spilling some of the scalding fluid over the tender area between her thumb and first finer, giving her permission to shed the tears she was attempting to deny. Grateful when her friend leaned over and briefly gave her a gentle hug of consolation. But then Deborah withdrew, cutting her to the quick.

             " I don't want this to change our friendship, Becka. " She said dully, hearing the emotionless words fall on her ears like lead weights, and she tucked her feet as far under the worn couch as she could manage so Becky could get past her and the low slung coffee table without hurting herself.

             "  That's like trying to take the sugar out of the tea after I've stirred it! It might settle to the bottom, but it'll never be the same! "

             " No. "  Deborah agreed, holding her warmed cup near to her breast so it wouldn't spill when the couch reacted to her friend's abrupt rise. "  But it makes everything in the cup sweet, just the way He does in my life. "

              When Becka made no move to leave from the heavily trafficked couch, Deborah slid her feet and ankles back into a more comfortable position and risked looking at her friend at Becka's long silence.

              " I wish I had sweetness in my life. Having Lance in it doesn't make it sweeter, like I dreamed it would, only more... " She sought the word in the companionable spaces of their former friendship.  " ....more complicated. " The she frowned slightly, Had she misunderstood Deborah's initial remarks? Had the lanky, solitary woman found a lover of her own and not told anyone about it? The sense of their being returned to an equal footing greatly relived the pressure hidden behind her angry words.

                  " Who? "  She asked, smiling as though she were about to pry a confidence from her friend when Deborah was obviously ready to talk about it. " Who adds sweetness to your life? "  She teased, hoping to sound worldly.

                  "  The Messiah.  "

                  Becky reared back and snorted in derision. So she hadn't misunderstood anything after all! "  We'll talk about that when he gets here! "  She said in dismissal, starting to rise.

               Deborah's hand reached out instinctively.

               " But what of we die before he gets here? What will happen to us then? "

               " Haven't you read the newspapers lately? Come on! Get your head on straight! Besides, when you die, you die. "

               But instead of pushing her away, there was a moment's indecision, as though she'd suddenly found a reason why she had to stay here longer, although all this religious talk was getting on her nerves. She glanced at her wristwatch and sighed so deeply it caught Deborah's attention. Setting down the cup of tepid tea, Becky reached for one of the threadbare throw pillows they used for cushions on the floor when the couch got filled up for an all night talk-fest. In another five weeks they would graduate and the freedom to stay up all night on caffeine and the height of their spiritual explorations would be gone, taking the last of their youth with it as the results of the looming Final exams gave them a place in this brave new world outside th college walls. It felt a little like dying, so her friend's ardent question seemed all the more poignant and unsettling.

             " Do you remember Mrs. Katz telling us that Jobwas the oldest book in the Bible? That Genesis comes first because it explains everything the way GOD told it to Moses? "

             " Stop being so rude just because you're a Gentile now. "

             Deborah had the grace to blush and she looked away with a sadness that suddenly renewed her friend's resolve to harden her heart to anything puerile and juvenile Deborah felt compelled to share.

             " Yeah so?  "

             " So when Nana died, I got to thinking about what other people were telling me. And I remembered that passage where Job says that even after he's died and his body is eaten by worms, yet 'in his flesh' he'll see God. "

               "  Don't be gross. "

               "  I'm not trying to he. "

               "  Well you are. "  Becka countered but something in her attitude caught on the edge of her friend's mind.

               "  There's something, someone to see 'in our flesh', Becka. That's in our side of the rubber band, so you can't dismiss it that easily.

                " You wanna bet?  "

                "  Well then, I couldn't dismiss it that easily, and I got to looking at Genesis. "

                " Boring! "  her friend warned sharply, but the habit of speaking her thoughts aloud, even the profound and unsettling ones was simply too ingrained. As long as her friend stayed seated on the other end of the worn couch, there wasn't any way she could keep all this locked up inside her any longer. " I looked for myself and I saw things I never saw there before. Like Messiah being promised by GOD in the Garden of Eden! That he'll end evil, but not before the serpent, representing massive evil, bites his heel. It kills him, Becka! "

                " That's just myth! Story tales and myths! I thought you were more grown up than that! For cripes sake, you're going to graduate in another six weeks! Stop being a little girl, okay? "

                 "  No! It isn't okay!  "  Deborah answered softly, leaning back on the tuffed cushion and looking at her friend in the eyes. "  if Adam and Eve are a myth, then so was Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the Patriarchs. So was Moses and the Exodus...and if they don't exist, then neither do we as a people. "

                 " Don't get mad at me!  "  Becky demanded defensively.

                 " How else can I get you to see the danger I see? If you were asleep in the dorm and the building was on fire, I'd run in here and pound on your door as loud as it took to wake you up, no matter how mad you got at me, because once you smelled the smoke and saw the flames, you'd run for your life. The trouble is, for us as human beings, once you see them, it's too late! "

                   Becky looked at her with a pitying look that bordered on contempt. But she kept on, her voice softening, as if she was simply presenting a challenging view to her friend, when in reality, it was suddenly important to her that she make her friend see the very real danger she was in. Not from outside forced poised to attack the land, from an enemy within, an enemy older than time.

                  " Messiah was promised to Adam and Eve as they were forced out of the garden for willful disobedience, and his death promised a return to the fellowship one evil was defeated one and for all. the Son of God, just like Psalm Two says, born without a man's seed but int he belly of a virgin, so that he could be man and GOD at the same time. "

                  " Now there's a good laugh! When was the last time you saw a virgin birth unless... "  Her friend's hand stopped the graphic denial she was about to make.

                  " It only had to happen once! And GOD brought our people out of bondage, giving them a set of rules to live by in harmony with Him and each other, but He knew there hadn't been any change in the rebellious nature of the man he drove out of the Garden, so he made His promises conditional. If you do this, I will bless you; if you do that, I will curse you. "

                 " So? What's your point? "

                 " In the Garden of eden GOD told mankind through Adam that he was giving an unconditional gift, the Redeemer who would die to restore them to Himself. Mankind wants a warrior king, someone who'll rule Eretz Yisrael as a godly nation in the midst of carnal nations,just like David and Solomon. "

               " Good liuck with that! "  Becky answered bitterly. " She's lost both of her brothers in wars against an implcable enemy whose sole aim was a world without Zionism, a world map that held no land called Israel.

              "  I've read and reread Genesis. It doesn't say anything about that! It talks about GOD giving the land to Abraham and his descendent's as an everlasting covenant. "

             " You tell that to the sons of his other son Ishamel. You're preaching to the choir, as your...your other Christian friends would say. But why should that bother you, you aren't a Jew anymore! "

              "  Why not? "

              " Why not?  "  Becky mocked. "  Millions of dead, why not! You've seriously lost your mind, Deb! "

              "  When Messiah returns, and the way things look now, it could be in our generation, it could be any day now, He'll come down out of the clouds and His foot touching the Mount of Olives will cause such a great earthquake that the prophet Zechariah says the whole mountain will split in two, from sea to sea. "

             Becky leaned back reaching for her cup and then changing her mind. Not int he least convinced but at least her tone was less adversarial, as she reached out a second time and seized the tepid brew simply to be able to her mouth and buy time to keep from having to answer her normally shy friend's frontal assault.

             " You've become a Bible-thumper just like the rest of them. "  She said under her breath, and recognizing anger in her friend's changed posture that pretended a smile and leaned her elbow on the back of the couch, pretending to believe her. " I remember in Geology class when Professor Martin said there's already a fault line there. and how stranger the weather's been, do you think this new wave of sun spot activity will effect the computers enough to make them give us good grade, no matter what the teachers enter? "

             " It isn't a joke. "

             " No, Deb. You're the joke! I'm just the poor dump sucker sitting through one of your fire-and-brimstone lectures, hoping you'll get off this new kick and come back down to earth. "

             " An earth that we're destroying out from under own feet? "

             Becky fel silent pensively.

             "  You really believe in all this spirit and ghost and raising the dead stuff, don't you? We've always managed to keep our friendship intact, even when we picked opposite sides of the same issue. I just don't think that's going to happen this time, all your talk about Adam and Eve and the serpent and the apple stuff. "

              "  I didn't make it up. it's on our side of the Book. "  Deborah said, wishing her defeat didn't sound so obvious in her voice. She wished mightily that it was six weeks ago, or even three weeks ago. yesterday would be nice! But it wasn't...and that was a truth neither of them could argue away.

              The GOD of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Blessed be His Name. "  She agreed with the softly spoken refrain from her friend's lips, gave us rules to live by, Commandments to show us how to live with Him, and a set a sacrifices so that our minds could comprehend why He would send His only begotten Son to die so we could be restored to fellowship with him. "

              "  Christian! "  Becky demanded archly.

              " Psalm Two. Jewish. As Jewish as you can get. "  Deborah answered wearily, laying her head back against the faded wall paper, wishing herself any place but here, now. Wishing she'd never started this to begin with. It seemed clear and necessary when she was reviewing it in her own mind!

              "  All men die.  "

               Deborah moved her head to watch her friend's face without having the strength to raise it up from the threadbare material. Soon another set of co-ed's would move in here and claim the empty space as their own.

              " I don't want you to spend an eternity in that terrible place. The more I read, the more I believe that angels exist, fallen angels exist, because I can't deny the cruelty in the world around me. You're right, just look in the daily newspaper, or the nightly news. Men die, women die, tiny babies who never did anything wrong are burned up with Kasson rockets slamming into their nurseries while they sleep. It's the world that's gone insane, not me. I've found hope that godly Jewish men promised, saying that they were speaking the words of the One who created the world. Look at Jeremiah 31:3, a hope and a future, a plan for our lives; surely He didn't create this whole universe simply to allow it to be smashed into chaos for no purpose at all. Where's the promise He made to Abraham, when He and Sari were both old and she'd stopped menstruating, why should He suddenly refuse to keep the rest? Before 70 CE when the Temple and the records of linage were destroyed. Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled 668 of the over one thousand prophecies given so that we could discern the true Messiah, all the rest from genesis to Daniel and Ezekiel, Zechariah and Malachi speak of the End Times, and I don't know about you Becka, but frankly, I don't see how much longer this old world can continue to bear up under our abuse and survive, even if we didn't war with one another! He gave us promises of hope, and I've found them to be true in Jesus as the Jewish Messiah. "  She simply spoke the truth in her  heart, no longer caring if she convince her friend with words and images. Becky winced at the forbidden Christian name and all the horror it implied to her.

            " You're being selfish, Deborah "

            " So - shoot me!  "

            Becky's hand jerked slightly, spilling some of the sugared liquid down her shirt, but oddly, she didn't leap to her feet to wash it out or change. Instead she just held the throw pillow against the cloth to absorb the bulk of the liquid.

            "  Think of your Mother. Your Aunt. Their place int he Community. "

            " They think enough about that. "  Deborah answered dispiritedly.  " I wish they could find the peace I've found ... "

            " Peace?  "

             Deborah raised herself with an effort. Lying back against the couch was placing a burden on her heart physically, and she already had such a weight there feeling she'd failed her best friend in the world! When she saw the anger and disbelief were suspended, she began to have a faint hope. If only she could get get her friend to see a way to end the loneliness that seemed to wrap itself round the world lately with all the talk of the threat of ruined world economies, financial needs no longer able to be met by individual governments, of hate and war and 'limited nuclear strikes', then perhaps there would be a way of untangling 'religious' threads from the solid fabric upholding her life.

             " Do you remember when you asked me who brought so many changes into my life, and I said Messiah?  "

             " Yeah, so? We're all still waiting for the Messiah.  "  Becky said with a fresh edge of caution in her voice. How long was it going to take Lance to get here and free her from this inane and un-provable dialogue?

             "  Doesn't it strike you as a little odd that the Creator of the Universe would expend so much time, effort, and thought into showing us things that are important to Him, if all we do is end up in the dirt to rot? And what about the promises of Genesis? Does He just shrug and roll up his tent and walk away. "I'll do better next time!" He says to himself. " I put all that effort into people who don't even like me? "

             "  We don't have to like him. Just obey him. "

             " Then why don't we? Why do we pretend that the prophets are just nice little sayings to be shaken out during Services at Shul and then locked away the rest of the week like a Torah scroll?  "  She was so throughly disgusted with herself, she just wanted it to end, right here. Right now. Maybe GOD couldn't say that, but she could!

.

 Ω

.

            " Where are you going, Deb?  "  Becky asked anxiously.

            " I've got finals coming up. I'm going to my 'secret place' to study. Look the door on the way out, will you? "

           " Deb?  "

            " What? " her mind was on finding the textbook she needed. It wasn't under the pile of newspapers where she remembered putting it last night. What if one of her 'friends' came in and took her copy? How could she study then? She was tempted to ask God to help her find it, but she'd probably disappointed Him so badly in the way she'd failed to get through she doubted He'd even bother to answer her! No matter how hard she tried to keep a positive mental attitude, so many things had gone wrong since she quietly accepted Jesus into her live as Lord and savior. And Becky was right. her mother and Aunt  would undoubtedly disown her and cut her off from the family as soon as they were sure. For an instant it almost seemed a little tooconvenient that Rebecka showed up when she did. She straightened with an effort and looked at her best friend, alarmed to see how suddenly pale the normally extrovert young woman looked.

             " What if you're right, Deb? "

            " I thought you thought I've turned my back on my people? My religion? "  She said bitterly as self-reproach overwhelmed her will to be 'approachable' and 'safe' to be around.

             " I did. "  Becky agreed humbly, her worried tone drawing her friend back to her side.

             " Are you pregnant? You don't look well, Becka.  "

             " I don't think so. "  She kept shaking her head no after she'd stopped speaking, as if there was much more she was denying inwardly and Deborah felt fresh compassion and concern rise up in her for a dear friend. " we used protection. besides, you can't get pregnant the first time you have sex. "

            "  Now who's being naive?  "  Deborah coaxed, but the heat of her anger had already come and done,a nd she stroked her friend's arm, shock at how cold to the touch Becka was. 

             " What if you're right? I mean ... I never looked it that way. why WOULD an Infinite Being go to so much trouble to make himself known to a finite creation and make such a big deal about dying and shedding blood as a means of redemption? When a male opens the womb, a bird or a lamb has to die in the boy's place because the firstborn son who opens a womb is holy to the Lord. Holy...that seems such an odd word in today's dy and age, but as I was sitting here, I suddenly felt so strange. You know? "

              Deborah nodded, pretending that she did, when she didn't. Becky had listened to her patiently, the least she could do was to listen back.  'I wish I was the one responsible for making you see that.'  She thought to herself but none of her memorized speeches or verse had come out right. Most were still lodged behind her fear of Becky's anger. She had so few friends left here at school, she didn't want to risk alienating one of the last people she could depend on. Especially now, knowing how fierce her family's reaction would be. At least she could wait until she got her grades back from the final exams. It was more than enough time that she stood on her own two feet any how, she warned herself fiercely, suddenly aware that she hadn't fooled her friend after all. Becky was sitting there, silently, watching her face and reading her as easily as a first grade primer.

            " What if you're right? "

            Deborah inclined her head to show she was listening. It was all that she had to offer. Even the rare and expensive Celonian tea in the cups had grown cold and formed a film on its surface. But when she reached for the partially filled cups to clean up a little, Becka's icy cold hand snaked out and seized her, forcing her to look up and witness the raw landscape of genuine fear on her jovial friend's face.

              " I'm sorry Becka. I didn't mean to scare you! Forgive me, please! "

               Becka pulled back in repugnance, fighting to keep back tears that were forcing themselves on her lower eyelids, poised to drop. " For the last three weeks, I've made you out to be my enemy, Deb. But as I heard you today, I can see you really believe what you're saying. "

               " I do. In a funny way, I've never been more at peace, more sure this is what I want. I don't feel alone, not like I used to do. "

                " I don't want to burn in darkness for an eternity! "

                " You won't, you won't! God is too good, too kind! He'd never do that to you! "

                " You don't know what I've done.  "  She wailed,almost to the point of panic.

               " More than what you've already told me about today, Becka?  "  She teased, but as her friend's face grew even more severe, a cold chill began to form at the pit of her stomach. " And..? "  She asked, not wanting to hear the answer.

                " I've done something terrible, and if he's real because we are, like you said today, and creation is real...oh Deb! Deb! I don't want to burn in a lake of fire! "  Becky sobbed, pressing the lime green throw-pillow against her belly.

                " Are you sure you're not pregnant? You don't look well! Maybe you should go to the Clinic? "  Deborah temporized as she felt a sudden rigidity take hold of her rapidly pulsing heat. Anything, any topic but the growing awareness that her friend wasn't here just to pass the time of day as they had ... before ... 'Why did she feel so compelled to say something anyway? Becka had as much chance of being right as she did! 'she reproached herself; but even as her alarm was building, a peace was forming within the empty spaces created by her fear. An odd strength that had nothing to do with her, as much as it was the Presence of the Holy being who'd overshadowed her and given her such respite since she yielded up her pride and her anger, alone in this very room. She found herself sobbing, tenderhearted toward her friend in a way she'd never experienced toward another human being, and unsure of what to do or say, she merely sat beside the weeping co-ed, stroking her arm with her fingertips and waiting for Becky to regain her composure.

             " I know he's real. I just ... I just ... I ... just don't want to shut Him out any longer. he's never been so real, Deb! "  Becka said in awe and Deborah nodded, smiling through her tears. It was an experience you had to feel for yourself, as your mind cleared and all life, all rational thought and being came into focus as the result of a living, loving, intelligent Source who valued His final creation more than all the earth he loved. She didn't have words to describe it either, but she recognized the birth of awe and wonder in her friend's eyes. " What do I do Deb? "

             " I've told you how I feel before, that for me, at least, I've found the Bible has become one continuous book from cover to cover. With even more things explained as faith was released to everyday men and women, like us, and not just to holy men from time to time. "  She stopped, catching her breath. how dare she talk like this to another Jewish person? But Becka merely nodded, her eyes searching out her face, as if the contours of her muscles, sinew and skin could show what was being revealed only in her spirit. The same things that had seemed empty and ludicrous only an hour ago. " Scripture tells us that if we believe with our hearts that Jesus died for our sins and was raised from the dead by GOD, then we will be saved. We'll have eternal life, spent with Him, in joy. " 

             Becka grew pensive.

             " But that's Christian! " She demanded unhappily, wavering again.

             Deborah's brows tightened into a knot. " Honey, do you remember what an Orthodox man says when he ties the phylacteries on his arm and his hands? "

             She shrugged unhappily. "  Sort of .. "

             " I had two brothers and I used to hear then say it in English sometimes when they put on their Tefillin. He repeats something from Hosea that got me to thinking about this for myself. Hosea 2:21. " I will betroth you to Me forever. I will betroth you to Me in righteousness, with justice, with kindness, and with compassion. I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, and you shall know Elohim. " 

             " So?  "  Becky asked, her confusion and wariness growing with every second.

             " So! "  Deborah agreed emphatically, then seeing the blank look on her friend's face, she shifted her position and her voice became tight with the need to express what she was thinking, whether Becka would receive it or not, " So when you commit yourself to loving and being with only one person for the year of engagement ... "

              " Like Lance and I did, before we ... "

               Deborah fought the urge to slap her friend's face. The last thing she needed was for Becky to drift off on another tangent. She might NEVER have this kind of conviction again! "  A man and a woman don't get into bed right away, they have a grace period so to speak, to get to know one another, to discover one another. well, once we've made the commitment to Jesus Christ to be our Lord and savior, we have this time to get to know more about Him, what He wants, who we are in Him, before we ever die and go join Him in the marriage supper of the Lamb! You see! "

               Becka's jaw dropped and her eyes grew as wide as the unused saucer leaning precariously on the rim of the worn couch between them.

              " Oh! "  She said softly. All their lives they'd been talking about the marriage contract and the lovely Ketubah that would be formally signed and handed to her by the rabbi at the time of  their formal union. Suddenly, it all made sense. " earthly patterns rflecting  deeper spiritual meaning. "

              Deborah nodded, unable to keep the joy out of her voice as she hissed 'Yes!'explosively, even though it was 'uncool' to show so much emotion between friends of the same gender.

            " Then we make the commitment and we have the time to know him. "  Becka said at last, her gaze turned inward. " I guess ... I guess I don't know anything about this raised from the dead thing, that's pretty Christian...I...oh! Abraham! That's what you meant! Before he was the father of a nation, GOD made promises to him that weren't conditional on what he did or didn't do. The land was only part of it ... I ... how? "

              " How what? "

              " How do I make that kind of commitment? I want too, I do. I want to have what I see in you, Deb! I want to be happy again, and not sacred all the time! "

              " Some people will turn away from you, Becka. " Deborah felt compelled to say.

              Becka nodded.

              " And some will turn toward you. But ultimately every one of us has to die and face the Ancient of Days alone in front of the Judgement Seat just like our sages and prophets have said for centuries. And when we accept that Jesus died in our place, we don't have to be afraid. "  She lowered her head. "  Dear Lord Jesus. "  She said out loud, softly and hesitantly at first. " I've made a mess of my life. Please come in and restore the peace I had when I opened up my heart to You ... "  She paused, unsure of the right formula to follow when she realized Rebecka was repeating the words softly, after her, shocked ti realize only now, that this wasn't Becka's first encounter with the risen Christ.

               " Cleanse me, Lord Jesus. Restore my soul, renew my life. "  Becka said in a low, tremulous tone. " I tried to do it on my own, but I can't. Thank you for dying in my place and taking the weight of my punishment and guilt on your sinless body. Now, please live your interrupted life in me, an grow me to meet the challenges that lie lie ahead. Grant me strength to do what I must, to know that nothing will ever happen in my life without your knowledge and permission, and I'll never have to be alone again. I've been so lonely, dear Lord! Grant me the confidence and the peace to stand before th Ancient of Days at the end of my life. I am yours to love, Lord. This day and ever more! "  Becka added earnestly. To which Deborah answered softly, "Amen."

              They openned theiur arms and their hearts to one another and hugged with an exuberant joy, nodding as their souls filled with the sureness and wisdom of GOD the living, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

.

*

.

           "  I have to tell you, deb. Before I came here this afternoon ... please don't hate me! But I turned you in to the Campus Police for being a Christian! I saw you as a traitor to our people! I'm sorry! I don't know what me me do it. You've been so happy, and I've been so miserable, I've hated you for it! Please, please forgive me! "

            As Deborah opened her mouth to reassure her of continued, deepened friendship, the small cluttered room was suddenly filled with a loud, authoritarian pounding from the other side of the locked door. Neither woman showed fear, thought heir breath quickened and as they looked at each other, attempting to steel themselves for what they knew would come next. The door splintered before Deborah could reach to unlock it and four burly men in uniforms rushed in, armed and excited by finding their quarry passive and unresisting, knowing they weren't alone. A third Person stood in the center, holding them near with nail-scarred hands. A cord of three strands is not easily broken.

.

.

The End