A lump rose in my throat. “Thank you,” I said.
Tears filled my eyes, unbidden. I wasn’t sure why I suddenly felt such overwhelming emotion. I wasn’t even sure how to define them. I can only say that my tears came from a very deep well, and I seemed to have no power over them.
My shoulders began to shake. I pressed my face into his shoulder, weeping silently and with growing intensity beyond my control.
“The angels kneel in honor to one as beautiful as you, my dear.”
With those words, I lost myself completely. Why? Because I’m human. Beyond that I don’t know.
“The world weeps with gratitude.”
All that I can say is that a lifetime of suppressed relief and longing and joy and sorrow and love and peace, all rolled into one unspoken emotion, bubbled out of me.
It felt like a new kind of baptism.
“Welcome home, my dear water walker,” he whispered in my ear. “Welcome home.”
And I was. There, in his arms. There, in Louisiana. There, on the earth, in a girl named Eden . . .
I was home.
Acknowledgments
A massive shout-out to my friend and long-time partner in awakening, Kevin Kaiser. Together we take a journey through life, together we concoct wild scenarios that find their way into these stories, and together we imagine and commune with the tribe of Outlaws who gather in the world of story both on paper and in cyberspace.
I can’t adequately convey my gratitude for your partnership and bottomless creativity, so I’ll just go with thank you. The Outlaw Chronicles would not be what they are without you. Neither would my life.
About the Author
TED DEKKER is the Top 10 New York Times best-selling author of more than forty novels. The son of missionaries, he was raised among the headhunter tribes of Indonesia and there learned the transformative power of storytelling. Today, he’s known as one of the world’s most prolific and thought-provoking authors, and has won numerous awards, including being named among the Top 50 best thriller writers of all time on NPR.
Find Ted Dekker online:
www.TedDekker.com