Redemption

Chapter 8

Austin

"God?" I question. Uncle Joe only nods, searching for something before lifting up a thick book he brought with him.

"Do you know about God, son? Aside from our mentioning Him every now and then, that is,"

"I've heard people talk about Him,"

"I'd guess not in the way we're going to talk about Him now," it's Friday night and just as I've been doing for the past three months now, I'll be sleeping over for the weekend. At first, I thought I'd just visit Auntie's house every now and then, but now I practically live here. Uncle Joe comes by often, a few times a week. As someone who was lonely, I understand why he comes by so often; this house is a home and that's not something we have right now. 

Rose sits right beside me as Ty sits on my right and Nova settles onto the armrest of the couch we're on. Aunty sits beside Uncle Joe on a two-sitter adjacent to us.

My eyebrows scrunch up and I'm confused as to what he means talking about God. What can you say except He's floating up there somewhere?

Uncle Joe looks at me for a couple beats more before looking at Rose who then jumps up all of a sudden. She runs upstairs before flying back down, a thick book in her hand as well. Except this one has gold trimmings and it's got a brown leather cover. I eye the mysterious thing, noting how beautiful it looks.

Suddenly, Rose hands it to me, a smile on her face.

"We got this for you, Austin; it's a Bible," I note the familiar word, not able to say as to where I heard of it before. My eyebrows rise in pleasant surprise and I gingerly take the Bible from her.

"Thank you, I appreciate it," I say truthfully, looking at each person before looking back at the book.

I run my hand over the outside, noting the few words on the front as well as the side. Holy Bible.

"Holy...like holy smokes?" I inquire curiously and turn back to Uncle Joe. His eyebrows jump as if not expecting the question.

"Uh, not quite. It means something different. In this case, it means something sacred. The Bible is sacred. It's precious to believers because of what it contains." I frown, glancing at this sacred Book before ever so carefully opening it. The pages are so thin I feel like it's a little baby. It's so delicate.

"Believers? Of what?"

"Believers, in this case, is another title for Christians. To be a Christian means to be a Christ-follower." my frown only deepens with the unfamiliar waters I'm treading. "I see this is new for you, Austin. Don't worry about that, we just wanted to presented the Word of God to you and give you the chance to learn about it. Grace and I mention matters of our faith in passing, but I didn't want it to merely be in passing anymore." Uncle Joe glances at Aunty who looks back at him earnestly. He pauses before sitting forward in his seat.

"Since we're not your parents, I want to be careful in overstepping any boundaries. As such, I personally want to ask if you'd be interested in knowing about God,"

I glance at Aunty who looks at me with a steady gaze. Indeed she's been vocal about this faith of theirs, mentioning Jesus and God in a thankful way. In a way I'm not familiar with. But with her joyful and loving nature, I've begun to think it has something to do with God. Even Ty and Nova mention God like He's someone just around the corner. He's close and real to them. That makes me curious. Who is He to them? And who is He in general?

My eyes naturally find Rose's and I notice how she glows. She always gets like this when He's mentioned. She speaks about Him like He's a great friend.

Everything had me curious, but that joy on Rose's face really had me saying yes. If this was something that made her this happy, I wanted to know about it too.

Even at the age of twelve I knew that every encounter I had with all of them paved the way for something bigger. It started with Nova innocently introducing herself and continued with me being welcomed in a way I never saw coming. I knew that I had friends then, and I had a warm place to come home to. I didn't realize that even more important than all of these things was the very thing Uncle Joe introduced to me: faith.