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to stop by the house so Mom can finish packing, then we’ll be on the way. An hour and a half and we’ll be there.”
    â€œMore like two hours,” Caroline replied, thinking about the traffic already building, “but soon. I’ll start dinner and have it waiting for you.”
    â€œWhat are you going to fix?”
    â€œYour favorite, Italian beef.”
    â€œAwesome! I’m already starved. See you soon.”
    â€œLove ya, Benjamin.”
    Caroline glanced at the time as she set down the cordless phone. 3:50. Sharon and Benjamin should easily be here before six. Mark was out at a construction site for a new home he had designed and promised to be here by seven.
    Caroline bowed her head before beginning her meal. Jesus, You understand what I’m feeling in this place, not quite belonging, just a little out of my element. Thank You for sending Sharon a wonderful husband and Benjamin a great father. Please handle the details of this weekend so I can look back on this time and be glad I came. She lifted her head.
    Caroline picked up her sandwich. She’d enjoy the weekend for all the uncertainty. She would smile at Luke and wait for him to start the conversation. It worked every time.
    After eating, Caroline settled in the living room and turned her attention to her schoolwork. Teaching at a Christian school allowed her to have a Bible class, and it was one of her favorite subjects.
    She started the school year by giving her students a week to answer an essay question, one that tried to make the Bible personal to each student. Last year the essay question had been God loves you unconditionally. How does that impact your life?
    Caroline drew circles on the page as she thought about this year’s essay question:
    Jesus taught that a firm foundation based on living what He taught would allow a person to survive great trouble in life. What did you learn from the Sermon on the Mount that will change how you live?
    Before the weekend was over, she would take up pen and paper and write her own answer to the essay question, for tradition dictated she share her own perspective with the class.
    She picked up her Bible from the floor, the cover worn and the pages stuffed with notes she used in her class. She found the summary passage for the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7:24–29 and read it again.
    â€œEvery one then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And every one who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great was the fall of it.”
    She had chosen the essay question partly because of the events she had lived through last fall—the phone calls, notes, and flowers from an unknown sender. They had arrived as a sudden storm of trouble and had rocked her life hard. She’d come through the experience with a damaged sense of her own security. God was still her rock; unfortunately she’d just made the mistake of putting some of her trust in things that had shown themselves to be sand. Hopefully she’d learned that lesson.
    The timer in the kitchen sounded, interrupting her work. Caroline set aside her notebook and headed to the kitchen, pausing only long enough to turn on the TV and increase the volume so she could catch the start of the local evening news.
    As she stirred the Italian beef, the news headlined a murder investigation. That poor lady. The motel and interchange mentioned—she’d passed it on her drive into town. She leaned around to see the TV. She studied the photo of the murder suspect.
    She added more water to the Crock-Pot and, since dinner was close to done, turned the