▪▪▪ Abigail - The Prodigal ▪▪▪by Dee Richardson
▪▪▪ Abigail - The Prodigal ▪▪▪
Chapter One - The Dream
Abigail Painter suddenly awoke, still half asleep. She had that strange dream again...
...she was in a dark room that looked like a giant, square box that was perfectly equal on all sides. It was dark because there were no windows, only a very small door that was much too small for her to fit through. The only source of light coming into the square, darkened room came through that very small door.
Abigail would get down on her hands and knees and look out of the little door at the beautiful landscape. The grass was as green as she'd ever seen. There were wild flowers of all colors and varieties parading up and down the cascading hills. She longed to get out there - to enjoy the beauty and the sunshine. She would stick her arm outside the little door and run her fingers through the cool, soft, green grass. Her imagination would run wild at the thought of freedom from the dark, boxy room. There wasn't a stick of furniture, no windows, no life in the room only herself and her thoughts. Abigail would pace in circles around the empty room, saying, "I want out of this box! I want out of this box!" Back down on her hands and knees to run her fingers through the grass again - this time she could hear the faint laughter of little children playing and sounding very happy, although she could see no one.
Abigail sat there on the side of her bed musing over the reoccurring dream, as she had many, many times before, when there was a knock at her bedroom door. It was Abigail's mother, "Gail, get up honey, it's getting late. We have to be at church in an hour." She sighed heavily, "I'm up Mama," came the muffled reply. She made her bed, then quickly glanced around the tiny room. She was always careful to keep everything tidy and in its proper place. She did frequent eye inspections of her space to make sure that nothing was out of sort. If it was she quickly fixed it, even if that meant running a few minutes late. Better to run late than to get another lecture from her mother.
Ever since Abigail could remember, her mother had preached to them that, "Cleanliness is next to godliness." Abigail had one younger brother, John Jr. (they called him JJ). He constantly struggled with keeping his space as clean as their mother liked it. She was always after him to clean his mess up.
Abigail headed to her closet to find a dress appropriate for Sunday morning worship. They went to church several times a week and there was always suitable attire for each occasion. For choir rehearsal, she wore a denim skirt. For Bible Study, she dressed casual. For Praise night, a cross between casual and dressy was more appropriate. Sunday night was fair game. But Sunday morning was reserved for the really dressy outfits. Most of the older women wore big hats with feathers sticking out of them and long-skirted suits decorated with sequins and glitter, including Abigail's mother, Pearl.
Not only was Pearl a stickler for cleanliness, she believed in dressing up everywhere she went, especially on Sunday mornings down to her shoes, handbag, stockings and handkerchief. Everything matching to perfection.
Of course, everything was organized in Abigail's tiny, tidy closet. All the blouses hung together, all the skirts hung together, all the dresses hung together, all the shoes were neatly sorted in shoe caddies and sweaters neatly folded in proper cubicles on the shelf. Another thing that Abigail's mother preached to them often was, "A place for everything and everything in it's place." Pearl loved one-liners. She had a million of them in her store house. Hardly a day ever passed without Pearl Painter's words of wisdom finding their proper place in the conversation.
As always, Abigail dreaded getting dressed to go anywhere. The style of dress that "church girls" had to wear hardly appealed to Abigail's particular taste. For religious reasons, she was not permitted to wear pants and her dresses and skirts had to fall well below the knee. Her parents insisted that wearing a pair of jeans was worldly since the Bible said, "The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth to a man." She thought she'd heard it a million and one times. So there she stood in the tiny, tidy closet amongst all the tasteless skirts and dresses trying to figure out what to wear. Frustrated and breathing a heavy sigh, she decided to shower first then select an outfit.
Less than 45 minutes later she and her family were piling into the car to head over to the church. Abigail's dad, John Sr., was the senior pastor and was also somewhat of a neat freak. He kept his cars clean as a whistle. Ever since she can remember, he's driven nothing but a Caddy.
Abigail had decided to wear her black chiffon jumper because the fabric was soft and flowing and the hem line came just barely below the knee so she could get away with showing off a little leg but still remain within the confines of the biblical dress code. The other thing that she liked about the jumper was that it had a band that went across the front just below the bust line, which she thought accentuated her breasts if she wore her padded bra. Abigail was taller than other girls her age and she walked with poise and confidence. This outfit made her feel like a runway model when she walked down the center aisle in the church. "Man, I got it going on this morning," she thought.
Chapter Two - Do's and Don'ts
One thing Abigail and JJ had learned early on is that being a pastor's kid was a majorly huge sacrifice. Aside from the church girl look there were a million other things they could not do. They could not go to the pep rallies at school, and they could not go to the movies because the Scripture said, "Not to sit in the seat of the scornful." They were not allowed to play sports or play in the school band. Although with some reluctance, her mother did allow her to sing in the school choir. It was a good thing too because Abigail loved to sing and had a great singing voice. They were not allowed to listen to anything except gospel music but sometimes Abigail and her best friend Lily, slipped and did it anyway. She loved Boyz II Men and she couldn't seem to help herself... especially that Shawn. She was in love with Shawn. His voice was silky and smooth. She justified her affection for him by the fact that he once said in a talk show interview that he was a Christian. Although it was very puzzling because he was confessing Christ, yet singing secular music and in her Christian circle, that was a big no-no.
Lily and Abigail had been the best of friends since Lily's family joined the church 10 years earlier. They lived within 5 miles of each other and was in the same grade and attended the same school. They were inseparable. They both loved to sing and was in the church choir and the school choir.
Another church don't that was a problem for both Abigail and Lily was the make-up thing. They were both in high school and their classmates were wearing make-up but Abigail and her mother could not see eye-to-eye on the subject. They had gone around and around about it but Pearl was unmoved. Wearing make-up was out of the question. After all, the Bible said, "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment." Every time Abigail's mother quoted that Scripture, Abigail wanted to ask her, "Then why do you dress to the hills every time you step out the door?" But Abigail did not dare get too far out of line.
The Painters' family home was only 15 minutes from the church and they had arrived before she knew it. Except for the cleanliness thing, JJ didn't seem to be as affected by all the Thou Shalt Nots as Abigail was. There was that time that he wanted to play little league football and it was absolutely forbidden and never spoken of again.
As soon as they pulled into the parking spot specially marked out for Pastor Painter, JJ jumped out of the car and bolted for his Sunday School classroom. Abigail saw Lily and her family pulling into the parking lot so she slowly moved in their direction giving them time to park. Lily's dad was a Caddy man too.
Lily and Abigail would sit next to each other in Sunday School and pass notes back and forth about the cute boy named Charlie. Lily had liked him for a year now and had hoped that he would eventually ask for her phone number but it appeared that he did not know she was even alive. Charlie was quiet and pretty much stayed to himself. His family lived on the other side of town in the housing development. They had joined the church a little over a year ago. Charlie was the oldest of five kids and his dad was an elderly man who had quickly become the head deacon.
When Sunday School was finally over, Abigail and Lily headed beeline to the choir room to dawn their choir robes. This was the part of Sunday services that Abigail actually liked. The choir would assemble in the entrance hall and march up to the choir stand every Sunday singing their opening song. It was usually upbeat and they would rock and sway to the beat. Sometimes Abigail would imagine herself marching down a Soul Train line as she went up the aisle toward the choir stand.
Abigail loved to sing and she often led the choir in song. She was also quite animated when she sang. She always had been. When she was only 7 years old, she led an upbeat song called "Sweeping Through the City". When she came to the part where they said, "We'll go sweeping through that city..." she would sweep her 7 year old hands across as if she was clutching a broomstick and making a sweeping motion. It would always get the audience on their feet. The choir director would smile at her and really pump the choir.
Today, the choir stand was full and everybody was on "one accord". That was a phrase that Abigail heard often in her circle of Christians. Anyway, they were really getting down. They had rehearsed this song only once and everybody seemed to catch on pretty quick. The audience was on their feet. The musicians were pumped. Sister Reynolds was dancing in the aisle as usual. There were several people with tambourines. They were all going at it big time today. Abigail thought this is what it would be like if she ever made it big in her singing career. The audience was going wild and crazy. After their last selection, Abigail's father, Pastor Painter, was standing at the podium to begin his weekly sermon.
Chapter Three - The Prodigal
He said that he felt especially moved by the Holy Ghost to speak on the prodigal son. The prodigal son was one of Jesus' parables about a young man who was opposed to his father's strict rules and asked for his part of the inheritance so that he could move out. The young man had an older brother and his father divided the inheritance between them and the young man set out on his journey to a distant land. There he wasted his entire inheritance on parties and prostitutes. Just about the time all his money was gone, a famine swept over the land, and he began to starve and could find no one to give him anything. He persuaded a local pig farmer to give him a job slopping hogs. The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good enough to eat. When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, "Even the hired servants in my father's house have food enough to spare and here I am dying of hunger! I'll go back home and say to my father, 'I have sinned against both you and heaven and am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please make me one of your hired servants' "
So the young man returned to his father's house. While he was still a great distance up the road, his father saw him coming. He was filled with love and compassion and ran out to meet his son and embraced him and kissed him on his neck. His son said to him, "Father, I have sinned against both you and heaven and am no longer worthy of being called your son." His father shouted to his servant, "Quickly bring the finest robe in the house and put it on my son and a jeweled ring and put it on his finger and good shoes for his feet. Prepare the calf we have in the fattening pen and we will celebrate my son's homecoming. For he was dead and has returned to life. He was lost and is found." So the party began.
Abigail's father was generally an animated preacher but this Sunday, he took his time and carefully delivered a most moving sermon. Abigail felt a stirring inside her that she had never felt before. She had heard her father preach many sermons. Sitting in the choir stand she was overcome with emotions and silently wept at the fate of the young prodigal son and the love and compassion of his father.
Abigail and Lily sang in different sections of the choir and Lily could hardly wait till church was out to find out why Abigail was crying. Abigail wasn't sure herself why she connected with the prodigal son but she did in a most profound way. She knew that she'd had a special encounter with God that Sunday morning that she had never experienced before.
Abigail told Lily about the reoccurring dream that she'd had again last night. It was more troubling this time because the desperation she felt in the dream to escape the dark, boxy room seemed so real. Although confused about it all, she felt this reoccurring dream was somehow related to her father's sermon this morning.
Abigail's parents were oblivious to the weeping episode and said nothing about it, which relieved Abigail. Her brother, JJ, had seen it but said nothing about it. He was not easily moved about things and seemed to take life with a grain of salt. He rarely ever questioned things, he just did what was expected of him and didn't have a contentious bone in his body. Abigail didn't understand him, she was always wanting an explanation for all the church rules. The explanations she got never quite seemed to fully satisfy curiosity. They only generated more questions in her mind.
Chapter Four - A Complicated God
After church, Abigail got quite a few compliments on the black chiffon jumper and was pleased to know she had scored in her selection from the tasteless outfits hanging in her pristine closet. Another thing that went along with being a preacher's kid was the constant scrutiny that people placed them under. Someone was always reporting to their mother, a matter they thought inappropriate for a pastor's kid.
One church member, Mother Bearden, she had gone to heaven 3 years earlier, was always coming up with something. The kids were playing kickball once at a church picnic and she made a big ordeal about her grandson getting hit in the head with the ball from JJ's home run kick. She said that JJ did it on purpose and there was no excuse for the pastor's son to act that way.
Lily had come over for Sunday supper and she and Abigail were setting the dishes on the dining room table. They generally went to each other's house on Sunday during the Sunday morning and Sunday evening services. Today, Abigail was quietly pensive while she thought more on the prodigal son, seems like she couldn't get him off her mind. She had seen people reacting emotionally in church many, many times but it had never hit her like that. What was it about this message that set off the gut wrenching feeling of emotions that she could not seem to turn off? Lily knew that Abigail's silence was on account of what happened. She tried to offer consolation but could see that her explanations did not render comfort to Abigail.
While Abigail and Lily washed the dinner dishes, Abigail asked Lily, "What makes God so complicated?" Lily replied, "I don't know but I remember in Sunday School a few weeks ago how Brother Baits said, 'His ways are far above ours and He is past finding out.' " After about 30 seconds of silence, Lily said, "Gail, you think we could pray and ask God to reveal Himself to you regarding the prodigal son and your dream?" Abigail agreed and right there in the kitchen, they bowed their heads and each said a quick prayer, finished the dishes and headed for Abigail's room to watch TV till church time.
Chapter Five - Mrs. Schrater
Abigail and Lily's school choir was to be in competition with other choirs at some all-state thing. Abigail's teacher, Mrs. Schrater, selected her to lead one of the songs that they were rehearsing. Abigail was so excited, it was an honor to actually lead in an all-state competition. "All the school districts will be represented and all the big wigs would be front row and center," Mrs. Schrater said.
Abigail hurried home to tell her mother hoping that she would let her buy a new outfit for the occasion. At the same time, she was worried about how she was going to work this around the church girl look. But when she broke the exciting news to her mother, she was not as sure about it as Abigail. She asked what kind of song it was, if the rehearsals would interfere with schoolwork, and if the competition was on a church night. On and on the questions barraged her, and after a full debriefing, Pearl agreed to let Abigail participate in the competition. But by this time, she had taken all the wind out of Abigail's sail by giving her the third degree. This was the same scenario they went through when she wanted to join the school choir and she felt that it was no different than singing in the church choir, but Pearl was not convinced.
At choir class the next day, Mrs. Schrater let them listen to the song that they would sing. It was Boyz II Men and Abigail was ecstatic. She decided not to mention it to her mother because she was sure there would be objections, and besides the competition would be out of town. The words to the song moved Abigail, much like the sermon did last Sunday. How could that be? This was not even a gospel song, yet she knew this feeling was another encounter with God. She shared this with Lily after class and Lily reminded her of the prayer they prayed in the kitchen. "Maybe this is part of the answer," Lily said with one eyebrow raised.
The name of the song was "I Will Get There". When Abigail got home she read over the lyrics and listened to the song again on her headphones. Abigail would rehearse the song everyday until competition night arrived.
Mrs. Schrater told the choir to wear black and white so Abigail wore her black chiffon jumper with her padded bra. She stood center stage and sung her heart out. This was different than she had performed the song in any of the rehearsals. She felt the lyrics coming from deep in her soul, and reaching far beyond the walls of the stadium. The entire audience was astonished at how moving the words were and how beautiful her voice was. The choir was in perfect harmony and all their faces were beaming with school pride. By the end of the song, there wasn't a dry eye in the house. Everybody was on their feet. Abigail's school, Piedmont High, held first place trophy.
Mrs. Schrater kissed Abigail on the cheek and whispered in her ear, "You will get there, you will certainly get there Abigail." They embraced and turned to board the bus for home.
That night Abigail had her reoccurring dream again. Only this time...
...as she was pacing in circles around the room, saying, "I want out of this box! I want out of this box!," she was suddenly interrupted by a loud banging coming from outside the little door. She looked down to see a man's sandled feet and the hemline of a white robe standing at the door. Pieces of the wall around the door began to crumble and fall to the ground as the man hammered his way around the perimeter of the door. In a few moments, he had opened a way big enough for Abigail to run out of the room. She ran through the fields of wild flowers. She was free! The laughter of the children that she had heard earlier was coming out of her own mouth... she was waving her hands in the air and running around and laughing uncontrollably. She was free of the empty, dark, boxy, and lifeless room.
Abigail woke up and she heard as clear as day, Mrs. Schrater's voice again, "You will get there, you will certainly get there Abigail."
Part Two coming later.
Abigail's Theme Song
I Will Get There Performed by Joseff McKenneth
www.soundcloud.com/joseffg/i-will-get-th