In the Arms of Immortals

Chapter One

Thirty thousand dollars bought her the right to avoid being scalded alive.

Mariskka Curtis did not miss the shoddy built-in shower that had been in her old apartment. Now she owned a penthouse, and one of her first decisions as a new millionaire was to have a high-end luxury shower installed.

“For thirty grand, it should make my breakfast, too,” Mariskka said to no one.

At least the bathroom was warm, making goose bumps and bad leg shaves a thing of the past. The maid had lit the fireplace in the master bath an hour ago and brought a fresh careen of coffee up. The milk still needed to be frothed, but Mariskka didn’t mind that.

She pumped the handle six times and the milk bubbled up. She poured coffee into her monogrammed cup, then the foamy milk over the coffee. Mariskka inhaled, surprised that coffee could still bring her so much pleasure.

Rolling her neck to get the morning kinks out, she swung open the shower door and sat inside. The shower began as a slow warm mist around her feet, giving her a few minutes to finish her coffee before the gentle raindrops started from the overhead faucet and the dawn lights bounced pink off the shower glass.

Later this morning she was scheduled for an appearance on yet another talk show to dazzle America with her rags to riches tale. She hated the hollow feeling in her stomach that came from lying. She had stolen her best-selling manuscript from a patient’s room. The patient, Bridget, had been a famous editor, and left it behind when she died. Mariskka stole it on impulse, thinking it might be valuable if sold on eBay. Only later, when packing the editor’s belongings, had Mariskka seen the business cards thrown in the bottom of her bags. One was for an agent. Mariskka had contacted the agent, passing the manuscript off as her own. It couldn’t hurt anyone, she had thought. Mariskka had also stolen Bridget’s watch, but only because she intended to return it to the family. Only later did she realize Bridget had no family.

When the agent sold that manuscript in a seven-figure deal, it was as if God answered her prayers. Mariskka made a pile of easy money. She bought things she never dreamed of owning. She even donated some of it, paying hospice bills that threatened to bankrupt families and sent worn out care givers on vacations. Good things had happened to plenty of people because of her decision to steal.

As the mist rose she finished her coffee and waited for the overhead shower to turn on. Hard rock blared suddenly through the shower speakers, and she dropped her coffee cup in surprise. It shattered at her feet. Instinctively she yanked her feet out of the scalding puddle. Losing her balance in the wet mist, she hit her head on the imported tile and blacked out.

The smoke stung Mariskka’s eyes.

She blinked, trying to clear her mind, groping in the darkness for the shower door. The shower had stopped, and the music was dead. She wondered if the building had lost electricity.

She crawled over something sharp and jagged. The lights must have shattered above. It was too dark to see anything; she wished she had windows in her bath as she pushed back the shower door.

Something was coming.

She felt the vibrations through her legs, shaking her to her stomach. Straining to hear above her thundering heart, she heard a heavy scraping against her hardwood floors, the sound of a sharp tool being dragged over the floors, catching every second or so, bumping over a seam. Heavy footfalls shook the floor, and metal screeched together with each step. She thought of the armored boots she had seen on medieval knights in museums.

Something slammed against the door, making the wood split.

It hit again.

“There is no Blood here,” someone said.

“God help me,” she whispered.

When she said the word God, the thing outside the door shrieked like an animal. A sword pierced through the door, creating a jagged seam as the intruder jerked it back and forth in the split wood. Light streamed in from her bedroom windows, but she could see nothing except a sword sawing its way through the door.

They should be testing the microphones for the television hosts right now, she thought. Amber-Marie Gates, her publicist, was going to be furious when Mariskka didn’t arrive on time. Or when she didn’t arrive at all.… Mariskka’s mind was gone, traveling down more familiar tracks, unable to process her death.

Then the door burst apart, and she was showered with wood fragments. A figure too large to pass through the doorframe stood, stood, twisting its head in different directions, staring at her. The glowing blue dawn outlined its frame. Morning sunrays shot up from behind its head and between its flexed arms, illuminating dust particles spinning down and turning the shifting light into a kaleidoscope.

Metal wings reflected the light at their sharp ice-pick tips; below these, the shoulders of a man were layered with scales. Each finger was tipped with dozens of iron claws, all pointing backwards. Once it grabbed her, she wouldn’t get free without tearing herself to shreds. It was built for death.

“There is no Blood here,” he said.

“What?” she screamed.

“You have no Christ.”

A tail with an iron tip, long and scalpel sharp, raised behind him as he pointed his sword at her. He turned his shoulder to come through the door. As he thrust his wings against the frame, cracks ran up the walls above the door.

He lifted his sword, aiming for her neck. She wondered if her lips would still be moving after death, the way Anne Boleyn’s had.

He spun back around, his sword in motion.

A shower of sparks was burning her.

She remembered lights like this.

She was a child at Disney, watching the Magical Parade of Lights. A green, scaled dragon floated past her as she sat on the sidewalk, full of lemonade and ice cream. When the dragon swung its head in her direction, with its blind paper eyes and red paper streamers coming from its mouth to look like fire, Mariskka vomited right between her shoes. No one noticed, not the least her mom, who had taken the wide white pills so she could get through the day, one of their last together. Mariskka wanted her to take the pills so she wouldn’t be in pain, so she wouldn’t groan in the night, but the pills made her dull and distant. Either way, Mariskka lost her mother a little more each day.

She stood, grabbing her mother’s hand, pulling at her to run. Her mother laughed, tipsy from the combination of opiates and Disney princesses, swinging her around in a dance, not understanding the panic in her daughter’s eyes. Mariskka struggled to get free, to see where the dragon went, but it was gone. She would lie awake for years after that, wondering where it was now. The eyes had only been paper, but she knew. It had seen her. It had seen something inside her.

Mariskka was still remembering herself as a little girl when she noticed her impending death had been delayed. Another creature was here, holding a sword, blocking the iron-winged monster from killing her. He had gold-and-straw colored dreadlocks that ran down his back and the body of a linebacker. Judging from how close his head was to her ceiling, Mariskka guessed he was about eight feet tall.

The man picked up the dark iron angel by the neck and slammed it against the wall. Plaster rained down.

“She is ours,” the iron-angel said. “We can take her.”

“Not yet,” the new creature said.

A dark stain spread underneath the iron-angel on the tile floor. The stain shimmered as teeth began to appear, ringing the edges.

The new creature yelled over his shoulders. “Cover your eyes!”

Mariskka stared at the stain, which was devouring the iron-angel as it moved up it his legs.

The new one screamed again, “Mariskka! Now!”

Mariskka obeyed.

She heard the sound of an animal screaming in pain, and then all was quiet.

She looked up to see the new creature staring down at her. His nose was inches from her face, and his dreadlocks fell forward, tickling her cheeks. If he were human, she thought, he would be beautiful. But he could not be real, not with his strange eyes that were like big, gold saucers and canine teeth that peeked out from his lips. His breath smelled of meat, too. She collapsed, losing all control over limb and thought.

His arms slipped behind her knees and under her neck, lifting her without effort. He carried her to the bed and laid her down, drawing the curtains and stepping back into the shadows. He sat in a chair, resting one arm on the armrest, watching her. A thick, numbing sensation started in her toes and poured slowly into her body. She felt it filling her, working its way through her abdomen, then her arms. When it got to her eyes, they closed and she slept.

©2009 Cook Communications Ministries. In the Arms of Immortals by Ginger Garrett. Used with permission. May not be further reproduced. All rights reserved.

UNEXPLAINABLE …
APART FROM GOD

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

ISAIAH 55:8-9

God is beyond us–able to think and act in ways that defy human logic and surpass human understanding. He’s limitless in power and He’s infinite in knowledge, wisdom, and understanding.

For the sake of relationship, He lowers Himself to our level in many ways. Yet He often chooses to express Himself in ways that are, well, unexplainable–apart from Him. And He does this to point us to Him.

A Story of the Unexplainable

Abraham was seventy-five years old when God told him he would be the father of “a great nation.” God instructed him to leave his relatives and his homeland and to venture out with his wife, Sarah, to a land that the Lord would show him, a land that would one day belong to his descendents. It was an incredible promise, an outrageous offer.

There was just one problem. Abraham and Sarah were childless. It’s impossible to give land to descendents you don’t have. It’s equally impossible to father a nation when you haven’t fathered a family. While Abraham and Sarah had certainly tried to bear children, it hadn’t happened. And now, at the ages of seventy-five and sixty-five respectively, their chances of doing so were virtually nil.

Nonetheless, Abraham and Sarah, in obedience to the word of the Lord, left home in quest of this Promised Land and the birthing of a nation. They must have believed God would perform a miracle, enabling them to bear a child.

It wasn’t long into their journey that they reached the territory God had for them. The Lord appeared to Abraham there and told him, “To your descendents I will give this land” (Gen. 12:7). Now all they needed were descendents to give this land to. But months passed, years passed–and still no child.

God reiterated His promise, telling Abraham, “One who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir” (15:4). In dramatic fashion God led Abraham outside at night. “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.… So shall your descendents be” (15:5).

However awesome this must have sounded to Abraham, Sarah remained barren.

Then one day, she had an idea. Abraham could bear a child by another woman–by Sarah’s Egyptian maid, Hagar. Sarah had come to the logical conclusion that the Lord had “prevented” her from having children (16:2); it was no longer humanly possible for her. But Abraham could father a child by another woman.

This made sense to Abraham, so he had sexual relations with Hagar. Sure enough, she gave birth to a son who was named Ishmael. Abraham was eighty-six when the boy was born (Gen. 16:16).

Laughable, But True

At this point, the Bible goes silent for thirteen years. When Abraham’s story resumes, he’s ninety-nine–some twenty-four years removed from the day God first issued the promise.

Once again He comes to Abraham and reiterates His promise more strongly than ever:

I will multiply you exceedingly.… And you will be the father of a multitude of nations.… For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you.… I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.… I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings…for an everlasting possession. (Gen. 17:2-8).

God also adds this about Sarah: “I will bless her, and indeed I will give you a son by her” (17:16).

How does Abraham respond? “Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed” (17:17). This was so ridiculous, so absurd, so inconceivable and incomprehensible, he couldn’t help but laugh in God’s face.

So Abraham offered God a suggestion–an alternative option that he and Sarah had hatched: “Oh that Ishmael might live before You!” (17:18). In other words, “What about the son I already have? Why not make him the first descendent? I’m not getting any younger, so let’s get on with things!”

God’s answer is direct and unmistakable: “No” (17:19). He tells Abraham, “Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.” Moreover, God promises that Sarah will give birth to this son within a year’s time.

When this news reached Sarah’s ears a short time later, she too laughed in the face of God (18:12).

But as you know, God’s promise proved true. Abraham (at the age of one hundred) and Sarah (at ninety) did have a child, whom they named Isaac.

The Delay Explained

Why then did God have Sarah and Abraham wait so long–a quarter century–to see His promise fulfilled? Was He merely testing their willingness to obey? Was He wanting to stretch their faith?

I think the best answer to this question is found in God’s response following Sarah’s laughter: “Is anything too difficult for the LORD?” (18:14).

I believe God had them wait because He wanted to do that which could be explained only by His involvement–that which is unexplainable apart from God. In this way, the very life of Isaac and the fulfillment of the promise would point to God Himself. There could be no other explanation. Isaac was unexplainable–apart from God. Ishmael, on the other hand, was explainable: A man has sexual relations with a woman of child-bearing age, and she gets pregnant. But when a baby’s born to a century-old man and his wife of ninety after they’ve tried unsuccessfully for decades to have children–well, there’s only one explanation for that: God did it. Isaac’s very existence would always point to God. This is what God wanted, and it’s why I believe He had Abraham and Sarah wait so long.

This is the sort of thing God desires to do in and through the lives of all His children. He wants to do the inconceivable, the uncommon, the unexpected, the remarkable, the incomprehensible, so that He–God–is the only explanation for what occurs in our lives. In this way, our lives point to Him.

Do you realize that God created you to point to Him? Do you understand that your life is intended to make Him known? God wants the unfolding of your life to be unexplainable apart from Him. As Paul expresses it, “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). You’ve been created for good works that put God on display. Just as a work of art reflects the artist, we are to reflect God.

Jesus said it this way: “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16).

His Ways Point to Him

If who you are, and the unfolding of your life, are seen as something understandable, expected, common, and explainable in human terms, then your life merely points to you. Like Frank Sinatra, you can sing, “I did it my way.” But if the best and perhaps only explanation for your life is God, then you point to Him and your life plays to the lyric, “I did it His way.”

This is the purpose for which you were created. In fact, to be unexplainable apart from God is completely normal for the Christian. This is the way life ought to be. You, and the unfolding of your life, should be unexplainable apart from God.

Perhaps in moments of quiet reflection you’ve wondered, Is this all there is to life? You have a sense within that there must be more to life than you’re experiencing. Though you’re probably busier than you want to be, you can’t figure out why you’re bored. You think there must be more to life than this.

Well, there is!

God is issuing an invitation to each and every one of us to join Him in the realm of the unexplainable. God wants to take your life beyond you. This is the kind of life He created you for, the life He designed you to experience. He wants it to be unexplainable apart from Him, so that you point to Him.

If you accept His invitation, then you join not only Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac, but a host of others, like:

Joseph, who took an unexplainable-apart-from-God journey from a pit to a palace, then extended unexplainable-apart-from-God forgiveness to his brothers for the evil they did to him.

Moses, who arrived unexplainably-apart-from-God at a palace, only to be exiled to the wilderness, where he was unknowingly being prepared to return to that palace–so he could lead God’s people on an unexplainable-apart from-God journey through that wilderness.

David, who was such an unexplainable-apart-from-God choice to be Israel’s next king that he wasn’t even invited along with his brothers to the draft.

Esther, who unexpectedly and unexplainably-apart-from-God “attained royalty for such a time as this,” so that her people, God’s people, could be saved from annihilation.

Joseph and Mary, very common folk who were asked to do the most uncommon thing of all–give birth in an unexplainable-apart-from-God way to the very Son of God.

Peter, James, John, and nine other young men from meager means and education who were chosen unexplainably-apart-from-God by Jesus to lead a movement that changed the world.

A fellow named Saul, better known as Paul, who fought to wipe Christianity from the face of the earth, but unexplainably-apart-from-God ended up becoming Christianity’s greatest ambassador.

The Bible is full of story after story of the “unexplainable apart from God.” So true is this that skeptics have labeled the Bible as largely fairy tale and myth. They ask, “How can these things be?” God answers them as did Abraham: “Is anything too difficult for the LORD?”

For Superstars Only?

At this point you may be thinking, But the Bible tells the stories of the superstars of the faith, and I’m no superstar. While this is certainly a common perception, a closer look reveals that the vast majority of the Bible’s primary figures were very common and ordinary folk. They were shepherds, like Moses and David, or ranchers like Abraham, or fishermen like Peter, James, and John, or carpenters like Joseph in the New Testament. They were slaves like the Old Testament Joseph and Daniel, or tax collectors like Matthew and Zacchaeus. Some were even prostitutes like Rahab, and social outcasts like Elijah, Jeremiah, and John the Baptist.

These people lived extraordinary lives, becoming the “Superstars” we perceive them to be only as a result of following God’s leading into the realm of the unexplainable. And this is what God desires to do with you as well. Common people become everything but common when God gets involved.

In most cases and on most days, the results of following God’s guidance will not be dramatic. While we tend to focus on Daniel’s dramatic rescue one night in the lion’s den, what’s even far more unexplainable is how Daniel chose earlier to continue “kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously” (Dan. 6:10), despite the king’s edict that made such prayer a capital offense.

While we focus on David’s unexplainable ability with a slingshot, it’s even more unexplainable that for ten years he served faithfully under Saul, a king gone mad who even tried to kill David on numerous occasions. When the tables turned, and David had a chance to kill Saul, he refused to do so–a decision explainable only by God’s influence in David’s life.

Then there’s Joseph, revered as the dreamer who rose from a pit to a palace. While his ascent is clearly unexplainable apart from God, it was Joseph’s ability to forgive his brothers and to care abundantly for them and their families that truly defies the common and begs for explanation.

Following God into the realm of the unexplainable may produce some dramatic moments, like those experienced by Daniel, David, and Joseph. In most cases, however, you’ll find yourself living the unexplainable in the midst of very common circumstances and ordinary days. To embrace life in God, to experience His presence, and to follow His lead will inevitably place you in the realm of the unexplainable. You’ll find yourself feeling, thinking, speaking, acting, and relating in ways leading unquestionably to the conclusion that “God did it.” This is how it should be in every Christian’s life.

Still True Today

Consider a couple who are friends of mine. They spent two years designing and building their dream home on five acres in a prestigious area, only to sell it four years after moving in because they felt led by God to give more of their resources to the cause of Christ and the poor in particular. Or another friend, a very successful executive, who took early retirement, thereby forfeiting significant financial gain, so he could follow God’s leading into volunteer work with several ministries.

In both these cases, some asked, “What are you doing? Have you lost your mind? Your decision makes no sense.” But these friends would tell you today that their decisions made total sense.

God may lead you to stay at a job in spite of a demanding and unreasonable boss–a decision that seems unexplainable when fellow employees are jumping ship.

God may lead you to pass up a promotion and all the perks that go with it, because of the additional hours and responsibilities that would negatively impact your family and current ministry involvements.

You may be led by God to write a check that will be unexplainable to your financial planner. This is exactly what the Macedonian Christians did, as Paul tells us: “For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability they gave of their own accord” (2 Cor. 8:3).

You may feel unexplainably prompted to share your faith in Jesus with a total stranger or with someone who previously made it clear he or she had no interest in God.

You may feel unexplainably compelled to befriend and express love to someone whom most others choose to avoid.

In other situations, God may choose to do the unexplainable on your behalf–like send His healing power upon your body to do what medical science has been unable to do, or bring reconciliation to a relationship you thought was beyond repair, or provide unexpected resources that ease your financial burden, or open a door to a job that’s even better than the one you were hoping and praying for, or anoint a ministry involvement that ends up bearing more fruit than you thought possible.

Whatever it is, God wants to lead you into this realm of the “unexplainable apart from Him”–so your life points to Him.

Paul describes this new realm in these words: “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9). Wow! Count me in!

But How?

The question then becomes, How do I get there?

For this to happen, you’ll need to see and approach life differently. Paul makes this truth abundantly clear when he commands our complete makeover in thought and behavior: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:2). Living in conformity to the world can’t get you into this new realm. You’ll need to undergo a transformation–one that begins with the “renewing of your mind,” and results in conformity to the will of God.

This transformation from explainable to unexplainable is what this book is about. Specifically, I want to encourage and challenge you to make three major shifts in the way you see and approach life. I call them lifeshifts. They’re the sort of thing I believe Paul had in mind when he told us to “not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” These lifeshifts will dramatically alter the way we seek to fulfill three of the deepest longings of the human heart–contentment, success, and significance.

The first lifeshift is from outside-in to inside-out–and it opens the door to experiencing the kind of contentment that is unattainable and unexplainable apart from God.

So, if you’re ready, turn the page … and begin your journey into the realm of the unexplainable.

Discussion Questions

What’s your initial reaction to this book’s fundamental premise– that you and the unfolding of your life should be in some ways unexplainable apart from God?

To what degree do you want your life to be unexplainable apart from God? (Answer not at all, somewhat, or to a great degree.) What do you find appealing or unappealing about experiencing the “unexplainable?”

Can you think of any ways in which you as a person or the unfolding events of your life to date are unexplainable apart from God?

Have you ever made a decision that appeared to make little or no sense to others, but clearly reflected God’s leading in your life? Explain what occurred and how you were motivated to follow through with such a decision.

Has God ever done something in or through your life for which the only logical explanation is “God did it”? If so, describe this experience. Also describe anything like this that may have occurred recently in the life of someone you know.

How did the experiences you just described in response to the previous question enable you or someone you know to point to God?

What would you like to see God do in you personally that would qualify as “unexplainable apart from God”? (Some examples: Helping you overcome a bad habit, or be able to truly forgive someone who has wronged you, or to change your attitude concerning something or someone, or to change something else about you).

In what current circumstance or situation do you need God to do something that only He can do? (Examples: Healing a relationship that seems broken beyond repair, meeting a financial need, bringing physical healing, or bringing some sort of resolution to a current conflict or trial.)