After the News
Tuesday, 25 December 2018
| John Kidson
She wouldn't have said she felt sick exactly - just a little unwell.
Excited? Certainly! Right now she was having difficulty untangling her
butterflies from her hormones. Such a big step!
Big step? It was huge!
Pondering over the last few days, she tried to dismiss
the ‘why and what if?’ questions.
So when these came, as they did, with a regular monotony, she simply
steeled herself by tapping into her treasure-trove of traditional thoughts.
She stayed steadfastly to her conviction to speak candidly with Beth.
Trusting in their long friendship, she now needed her as confidant like never before.
It was good that her parents knew Beth - and trusted her judgement.
Yes, she was already super-grateful for Beth's wisdom and expected support.
This would take the edge off her feelings of vulnerability.
They, in her honest moments,
still steadily gnawed away at her heart a little.
‘Well’, she thought, ‘no use staying ‘round here, I'll hurry down to Beth's now!
And I'll show her my poem...’
She rehearsed all the way down the hill:
Hey cousin!
‘News, news, news,
With all my heart out-poured, I praise the Lord,
I'm glad because of God my Saviour.
He's richly blessed, I feel caressed.
He's showing me great favour!...
News! News, news, do I have news for you!’
Elizabeth just stood, smiling, slightly wincing,
hands on her stomach holding an earlier promise.
John Kidson, a former youth worker and uni chaplain, now ministers part-time in the Alstonville parish.