Chapter 38: A Fast Ride, A Wise Guide, and a Smooth Slide
“And he said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up, and looked, and said, There is nothing. And he said, Go again seven times. And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand.” 1 Kings 18:43-44
Luke soon found out that there were a lotta extra miles to Mexico.
He stumbled on for hours and days, through empty spaces. Famished, he found himself nibbling on grubs, gnawing at shrubs. “If I ever do get back to Hun-Country and start that church,” he vowed, “We’re gonna have a lot of pot-luck dinners! (And if anyone brings grubs, bugs or beetles: Excommunication! ...or at least I’ll make ‘em go stand in the corner),” he relented.
He was a little disappointed, as he traveled, that after so many sudden bus rides, there was now such a great dearth of transportation. Still, God will see me through, Luke told himself. And sure enough, every time Luke’s spirits started to flag, he would see something to lighten his steps. Some children playing, as he passed a small hamlet. An energetic otter cavorting with a sassy raccoon and an eager beaver, as he skirted a lake. A woman singing hymns, as he walked among farms. A dirty brown dog who looked like he had been kicked in the head, run over by some mud, and then told a good joke, laughing in the shade of a tree, as Luke cut through woods. Little gestures of encouragement, but still: “I would prefer a big gesture of encouragement--like a bus!” But there were no buses forthcoming, and Luke trudged on towards Mexico on an empty belly and sore feet.
“Maybe we shouldn’t have swapped shoes,” Luke speculated. It had seemed like Bert’s football shoes almost fit him okay, but just that little bit of rub was adding up over the long haul. It’s one thing to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes, but it’s quite a different thing to try to walk a thousand miles in them.
Finally, Luke felt like he couldn’t take another step. He took another step. After that one he was sure he couldn’t take another. He took another. After carrying on bravely like that for another hour, and still no rides, no relief, finally Luke collapsed, and lay by the roadside. Then he got up and sat. Finally he rolled to his knees. As long as he was there, he thought, why not? A prayer. In the dying light. “Lord, I am very weary. I have been trying very hard to make it to Mexico as instructed. You see me trying. But I don’t know if I can make it on my own. Please, may I have some help? Make my feet not hurt, or send me a Groverskin cape and the power of flight136, or bring me a bless-ed bus. Please and Thank you. Amen.” Then Luke opened his eyes, felt around on his back for a cape, and sighed. His feet still hurt too. “I don’t know what I expected,” Luke admitted. Then he looked down the road and saw, far off in the distance, a cloud dust. It grew nearer and cloudier and dustier, until Luke could make out the shape of a bus. “Ah, that’s what!”
Then he had a moment of fear, as he worried, But would it stop? Not too many lone drivers would pick up a Hun in any event, all alone in the outer reaches, with no one to protect them. Add in ‘a dirty and disheveled, desperate Hun with that lean and hungry look’ and it became even more of a longshot. Given the reputation of the Huns, it seemed like a good way to lose your bus!
But as the bus came closer, it slowed down. It drew abreast, and it crunched to a stop. Luke was still waiting for the driver to recognize him and flee, but instead the door hissed open and the bus waited. Still too startled by this happy turn, Luke didn’t even think to get on the bus until the driver reminded him to “Come aboard!” Football cleats clattered up metal stairs and Luke shook hands with “Dennis the Driver”, and swung himself into a seat, remembering to thank God for yet another gift.137
“You weren’t scared to pick up a Hun?” Luke asked, the slightest bit hurt that his fearsomeness had not been respected. “You’re a brave man.”
“I didn’t see someone dangerous, I saw someone who looked like they could use some help. One ought always to do the right thing, don’t you think? Besides, what was it that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego answered to the king? ‘If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.’ Don’t call me brave: those guys were brave. Completely trusting in God to save them, but willing to serve Him faithfully whether he saved them or not!”
Luke liked this answer. He decided that bus drivers sure knew a lot about life. Maybe because they have to keep their eyes open, he reasoned. In any case, he asked Dennis suspiciously, “Well, can I call you a wise man, then?”
“Sure, why not,” Dennis played along, not really believing it, because that would be vain, but knowing that it was true whether he believed it or not. Then he put his passenger Luke on the spot by returning the question. “What about you, son? Are you wise?”
Surprised, Luke quickly evaluated. “No, not yet. I think not,” he answered. Then he smiled confidently and bragged, “But I am Intense, Condensed, and I have...fifteen cents,” as he pulled his coins from his pocket and counted the leftover convenience store change.
Dennis slightly smiled, in good-natured amusement, for a good rhyme is always a worthwhile creation. But ever the clever one, Dennis replied, with hand gesture accompaniment, “Your second term requires defense: in what sense are you condensed?”
Luke had to think, coz yeah he had just pulled that one out of thin air; but he made a nice save by saying, “Y’know those shorter books, with fewer words than the original? Well I’m not that short, but I am a man of few words.” Then in case this analogy was not satisfactory he added for good measure, “Milk can be Condensed. I drink a lot of milk.”
Dennis just nodded, playfully satisfied, and he turned the heater up a notch, coz Luke still looked kinda cool from the long autumn day.
The ‘fifteen cents’ part had reminded Luke he didn’t have much money. Uncomfortably, he confessed, “I can’t pay you for the ride.” Then he had an idea: “I gave the last driver my hat as a fare, I don’t suppose you’d want this one...” he took the beat-up Tigers cap out of his back pocket.
“Um, kinda dirty, isn’t it? You keep it. You don’t have to pay me, I was going this way anyway, wasn’t I? Delivering the mail to the people in the south.” Luke looked behind and saw the mailbags piled up at the back. After that he felt like less of a burden. ‘Besides, he’ll hardly know I’m here,’ Luke told himself, as he snuggled in to sleep. It might have been polite to make a little conversation first, but Luke figured the guy would still be there when he woke up. Right now he was too tired to talk any more anyway138.
The bus rolled on with few stops, only pausing briefly for Dennis to drop off mailbags with local sheriffs, as Luke nodded through the Kingdom of Kenny and the Princessipality of Meaghanmeagher, as he slept through the Town of Tracytegan and the Country of Caramantha, as he dozed through the Municipality of Mahovlich and the Republic of Ronpaul, and as he slumbered through the Shining City of Santofera and the Rowdy Rasta Regime of Rossanerik (where twin tyrants took turns oppressing one another, and turns writing reggae songs about their suffering.)
At one point, Luke awoke for a brief moment and looked out the window to try to see where they were. He couldn’t tell of course, but he watched the deep blue night and the honey-hearted stars for a moment, surprised by how bright the night seemed. As though it were filled with an invisible light.139 Luke felt again the way he had felt when on the Bus to Glory talking with Mumblesmith. As though he could feel God’s presence around them; as though he could hear his own heart telling secrets! Still couldn’t quite make out what praises, what promises, it was whispering, so he took a guess at it: “What’s that? Go back to sleep you say? Good idea.” And he slept again smiling, in the safety of salvation.
He was even more pleased when he awoke to good smells at dawn. He opened his window to better savor the aromas--popcorn and cotto
n candy, molasses and butterscotch! He stared at the gingerbread houses and wondered whether he was still dreaming. It seemed so, for the bus was awash in color, too: first a bright band of blue, then cool green, happy yellow, wondrous orange, as they drove through a rainbow! Not to mention twinkling, silver-blue pixie-dust vapor trails, an effusive pink horizon, and golden tree-top castles!
Seeing that Luke was awake and puzzled, Dennis the Driver explained, “Welcome to the fairy kingdom of Cinnamon Sands!140 I love it here--sometimes I even have to send them some postcards myself, just so I have an excuse to pass through! (Coz few people believe in elves anymore; and who ever writes them letters?) Wouldn’t want to live here though… Too many ants. You know, what with the ground made of cinnamon sugar and all. But it’s a great place to visit.” Dennis enjoyed a deep draught of the sweet-smelling air, and laughed: “Getting hungry?”
“Starving,” Luke realized.
Dennis nudged his cooler out from under the seat with one foot. “Help yourself,” he offered. “A wise traveler comes prepared,” he remarked--with just a hint of a reprimand for Luke, who hadn’t.
Luke was too polite to dig in Hun-style like he wanted to, and finish off the whole cooler (and all the food in it too), so he just took some blueberries and a peach at first, then when Dennis encouraged him to have more he finished some leftover Mexican food that Dennis had acquired at a drive thru window in the night, as they had passed quickly through the southern town of Rollo Nuevo (and vice versa).
Finally, after that, he was able to talk. Dennis the Driver’s ‘wise traveler’ comment had reminded Luke that he had called Dennis a wise man the night before. So it seemed like picking up where they had left off. “Share your wisdom with me, wise man?”
“Jesus Christ.” Dennis the Driver launched right in with the name! Luke smiled. It seemed like a good way to start the morning, he thought, remembering. Dennis was continuing: “You asked about wisdom. There it is. All that I have. ‘For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.’”
“Been hearing that name a lot lately,” Luke told the driver.Raised eyebrows in return prompted Luke to tell the rest of the story.
“So you know the Lord, then,” Dennis stated afterwards--not quite a question, but Luke answered it, correcting him.
“’Know’ might be too strong a word.” Thinking of his partway prayer on the mountain, Luke clarified, “I believe. When I think about it, it seems to make sense now. And sometimes, I think I’m starting to feel that it’s true, too--feel that God is with us, feel like I am saved. But, sometimes I still have doubts, sometimes I don’t feel so certain. My Christian friends were helping me with that, a little...” he tailed off.
Dennis was going right to the heart of the issue. “Whatever you think...is just a thought. You may change your mind some day. Whatever you feel...is just a feeling. You may feel differently some day. Belief is a good start, but other people have different beliefs--what gives yours authority? But when you have faith, then you form a permanent bond, an eternal covenant, with God himself: we shall be His people, and He shall be our God! We trust in his promises, and He makes them true! Then ‘ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’” Dennis proclaimed. Luke caught the added emphasis and took that word down.
“I guess I don’t have very much faith yet then. A little! a couple of times! But I could probably stand to have more.” Luke owned up sadly.
The Driver cheered him up. “I have plenty of faith. I’ll give you some of mine!”
“Can we just do that? Share it like that? Pass it from one person to another?”
“We can if we both agree to believe that we can,” Dennis pointed out. Then he dug into the pocket of his jeans and brought out a closed fist, which he held outwards towards Luke, palm upward. Then he opened his hand, and Behold!
There was nothing there. Luke looked perplexed. But Dennis simply laughed and scolded Luke, “C’mon son, you’ve got to catch it before it gets away! Faith is an elusive substance; you of all people should realize that! First you must be ready. And then, when I open my hand, you must seize it quickly.”
“But I didn’t see anything,” Luke objected.
“’Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.’” Dennis instructed him. This said, Dennis dug in his other pants pocket, and came out with another fistful of faith. He held it out, and then he suddenly released it. Again Luke made no motion to take it from him, but did lean forward and squint to get a better look--thinking of the line about ‘faith as small as a mustard seed’ perhaps. But still, nothing.
“There’s nothing there,” Luke said in confused frustration, trying to understand just what the Wise Man with the empty pockets was trying to accomplish.
“There Is,” Dennis stubbornly said. “Very definitely is: ‘For the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.’” He smiled, and shook his head at the hardness of Luke’s heart, and he reached above the sun visor and brought out another handful, as though he had a secret supply tucked up there. He offered it to Luke, and then for the third time he opened his fist into empty air. This time at the last moment Luke began to reach out, impulsively, but stopped. He blushed at his own indecision.
“’Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them that draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul,’” Dennis invited him.
So the next time Luke did not draw back. Dennis reached under the seat and wrangled around in his bag for a second, before feeling what he was after. He brought out a fourth fistful, and gave Luke time to get ready this time. Luke put his hand over Dennis’s hand, and when Dennis opened his fingers, Luke closed his. But then, feeling nothing in his own hand, he opened it to look. Then he looked up at the ceiling of the bus, to see if somehow he had missed it, or it had floated out of his grasp. Nothing anywhere. Luke shook his head, Hun-puzzled.
Dennis was puzzled too, by Luke. “’O ye of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?’” Then he rummaged through his glovebox, sighed, and brought out the closed hand a fifth time. Luke looked apologetic, and held out his own hand for the gift once more. This time he snatched it suddenly and held it firm. “I think you’ve got it,” Dennis said hopefully.
“D’ja think?” Luke looked at his own closed fist for a second. He didn’t feel anything, he didn’t see anything, and when he shook it he didn’t hear anything, but somehow he thought he might still have it in there! Finally, he couldn’t resist, and peeked eagerly to make sure. Then he uncurled his fingers, and pouted. “Lost it.”
There was one more thing to fall back on. Dennis reminded him, “ ‘If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given to him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.’”
Luke took the hint, bowed his head and prayed, “Lord, please send me the faith that I need to know You, the wisdom that I need to serve You.” Dennis kind of bowed his head a bit with him, but couldn’t close his eyes. He was the driver, you’ll remember. After seeing Luke pray, he asked, “Ready?” Luke took a deep breath.
This time Dennis lowered his window, and stuck his left hand out into the air. He held it there for a minute, waiting, and then it snapped backwards and snapped shut, as if something had come along f
or him to catch. He held that hand across his body towards Luke, who reached for it reverently. Dennis looked at Luke suspiciously, wondering if he was ready for this great treasure. “This here is the good stuff, sent by God himself. Are you sure about this? I wouldn’t want you to waste it.” Luke’s hand never wavered, and his eyes were saying Yes. Finally Dennis released it cautiously into his care.
This time Luke held fast as though holding a rope in the middle of the ocean. His fingernails dug into his palms, he was squeezing so tightly. Sure that he finally had it at last, he vowed: Never would this faith get away!
Dennis kept glancing back over at Luke to see how he was doing. When, after a few minutes, he saw Luke’s expression start to change, from one of furrowed concentration, to a spreading smile and bright eyes, he knew Luke had it. “You don’t find faith by reaching for it,” he explained. “You reached because you were finding faith. It was inside you all along...” (‘Deep down and close at hand’ Luke could hear the Dragon saying,) “And once you knew you had it, then you had it! Now you just need to remember this: ‘Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown,’” Dennis quoted.
Luke nodded and kept holding it fast. He laughed, and realized Dennis was right, he had believed for some time now: in some sense, perhaps all the time of his search. Like lost keys, you search because you know they are there to be found somewhere. You know they exist. And so in his faithful seeking, Luke had perhaps already known. As Graham Greene says, “He who searches for God has already found him.” Luke wasn’t goin’ to split hairs about when he had first believed. All he needed to know was that right now he knew. And life would go on being perfect and getting even better. For God was with him always!
“How do you feel?” Dennis wondered.
Luke thought about it, and then the smile resumed spreading. “Faithful,” he decided.
Dennis gave a slight smile and nodded wisely. “You did good.”
Luke beamed, and corrected him. “God gives strange gifts.”
“And works glorious miracles,” Dennis responded instantly, like another countersign. Then he smiled and mused, “Ah, so you really do have it! Well, not much more I can do for you now then, except...give you a second helping! Here, from my own personal supply,” Dennis vouched, as he pressed his hand to his heart, and then brought back the hand closed on faith, to offer to Luke a seventh time. Luke took it just as eagerly, and sat there in his seat with two fists clenched. Both fists full of faith. Ready to do battle with the world. Or ready to raise them over his head and give a cheer! Dennis, meanwhile, was justifying the second helping: “‘And the angel of the LORD came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee.’”
The hair stood up on Luke’s neck, as he recognized the same passage that he had been sent out with, all those months ago. He looked at the Driver suspiciously, but Dennis with his black beard and tender eyes was clearly not to be mistaken for the earlier red-bearded, fire-eyed Man of God. Confused, Luke had to ask. “I was sent out on a journey with those same words already, a while ago. But I thought I would be getting close to the end of that journey, by now!”
“I think you are,” Dennis appraised. “But then it will be time to start another one, won’t it? A better one. Not just searching, but serving. You’ll need strength for that too.”
At this point the bus suddenly lost power, and Dennis steered it off to the roadside, checking his gauges. “Alternator,” he diagnosed mutterly. Then he laughed and opened the door: “I guess this means we’re done here. There’s nothing more I can teach you.”
“But do you need help? Is there something I can do?” Luke wondered, hating to leave his friend stranded.
“Oh, and you’re good at fixing buses then?” Luke shook his head, and puffed out his bottom lip with exaggerated sadness. “You go on--finish your journey! I’ll get this bus up and around eventually. It’s not like anyone’s expecting any great haste on the mail delivery,” Dennis cracked. Then he stuck out his hand to shake hands with Luke for good-bye. Luke kept his fists tight, and so passed the test. “Good boy,” said Dennis, and patted Luke on the back.
Once he was away from the bus and walking south, however, Luke raised both hands lightly to his chest, tap tap, and then uncurled his fingers and wiped the sweat from his palms. He knew where the faith really was, now. In his heart, and in his future.
Part 4: Searching by Faith