“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.”
Lauren sent Marcus a text message: “Dr. Pulau 2:15.” Marcus called her back. “Okay, 2:15. Where do I turn off Beckham?” “It’s left off Beckham as you go south, right after the Golden Panda.” “Right, I remember now, see you there, I love you.” “I love you too Marcus.”
But that was later today. Marcus was at work at his new job: Full Time Job-Seeker. He had leads, but they led to dead ends. So he called Colby, his former boss, and asked if he knew anything. Colby sent him to Athens to talk to a guy at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center. They needed a guy to monitor conditions in the aquariums and take care of the grounds. If he did well there, he might go for a little training and he could work in the hatchery where they raise bass. It wasn’t ideal in the long term but it would do for now. He liked being outside and he fished the lakes in East Texas all his life. Maybe this would work until he got something long term.
He prayed as he headed back to Tyler on 31, casting his anxieties on the Lord. Anxieties about finding a job, Lauren’s anxieties about work, anxieties about a healthy baby. He finished with “I trust you Lord” and turned on his iPod. He scrolled through to a series on prayer he downloaded from a preacher in Duluth, Minnesota. He listened to a sermon on praying according to God’s will as he cruised back into Tyler, very careful to slow down through Brownsboro. They have a speed trap set up there don’t you know.
He met Lauren in the waiting room at 2:16. He sat down next to her and held her hand. She asked him how the interview went in Athens. He told her the hatchery produces 3 to 4 million Florida largemouth bass fingerlings every year and they need a babysitter. She laughed. Kind of a forced, nervous laugh. Marcus squeezed her hand. “Everything’s okay. I prayed on the way up here.” Lauren gave a half smile and looked down at her abdomen and squeezed his hand in return. What they weren’t talking about was Lauren’s mom who had three miscarriages before Eddie was born. And Lauren was thinking that girls take after their moms. And this was their first baby…
The door opened and the nurse called out, “Lauren Redding.” Marcus stood up and took her hand and they went on back. She was nervous. They took her blood pressure twice. They went over the fundamentals: folic acid, weight gain, emotional changes. Lauren was good about exercise. At lunch she walked around the TJC campus with three other girls. The nurse took them to a room. Lauren jumped up on the table. Marcus jumped up next to her. They waited. They talked about work. It was going well for her, as usual. Today the nursing department was in a teleconference and they lost their connection midway through. They called Lauren. She had it fixed in five minutes. Marcus shook his head in admiration, “Everything you touch turns to gold.”
Dr. Pulau knocked on the door. Pleasant chitchat. He asked questions. Lauren gave the right answers. Then he told her to ease on back and he got out the heart monitor. He warmed the ultrasound jelly in his hands and spread it on her belly. He pressed the wand against her side. He rolled it back and forth. They heard static. After a long thirty seconds, a heartbeat. The doctor looked at them and smiled. Tears.
Marcus squeezed Lauren’s hand. She whispered to him, “Psalm 139.”
More about Marcus Redding’s journey of faith next week.
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