Rose Repents

Scanning the small bedroom that had belonged to her for many months, Rose spied something that should have been packed away: Her Bible. She lifted it from the shelf above her bed and brushed off the dust. Then she slipped her hand inside to remove the one item she had planned to leave behind: Paul’s picture. There he was, still refusing to meet her gaze. But why? A tear trickled down Rose’s cheek. “I know why.” She sighed and sat down limply on her bed by the window. “You disapprove of the crowd I’ve been spending time with. You would scorn the future I hope to find in my new career. You would say I’m running after riches, I’m out of my place, I’m living a wild life.”
 
Suddenly a fresh torrent of tears blurred Paul’s image; Rose rubbed her eyes. “This life,” she murmured to the ceiling, “never satisfies.” Then a refreshing thought occurred to her: “What if … I would turn from the way I’ve been going?” … She propped Paul’s picture on the windowsill and opened the Bible her mother had insisted Rose take with her when she left home. For the next few hours, the only sound from Rose’s room was the whisper of turning pages. She sought—and found!—the answer to her emptiness: Christ.
 
Finally Rose determined to call Paul, and then her parents; she would take the bus back home and marry Paul whenever he was ready. She would turn from her old, wild ways to something new. Her new life would embrace the space that God wanted her to fill—in a place called HOME.