To my daughter Elise Salinas of San Antonio Texas.
She is a member of the Philadelphia Church of God of Edmond Ok.
Their "leader" Gerald Flurry has a NO CONTACT RULE that will not allow members to have contact with former members of the group. I have not seen my daughter in over 14 years. Now she has children that I have never seen.
A song I made for Elise and Nathan
Here is the song I made for this story
The Calls She Did Not Answer
The daughter opened her eyes in the resurrection.
She stood before Christ, with the days of her life laid bare. At first she thought of all the years she had spent among people who spoke His name. She had listened to their teachers, followed their rules, and believed she was being faithful.
Then she remembered her father.
She saw his name on her phone and watched herself let it ring. She remembered the letters she had left unopened. When her children asked about their grandfather, she told them they could not visit him. Once, the youngest had asked, “Does Grandpa miss us?”
“Yes,” she had said.
She had known the answer all along.
The leaders of her church had told her that keeping her distance showed loyalty to God. She had accepted their judgment and stopped listening to her father. Even when she saw how the separation hurt him and her children, she had called it obedience.
Now she remembered the commandment she had known since childhood: Honor your father and your mother.
“I was told to stay away,” she said to Christ. “I thought I was obeying You.”
“You heard My command,” Christ answered. “You chose theirs.”
She thought of the years she could not give back. Her father had grown older without seeing his grandchildren. Her children had grown up with only fragments of his story. She had been the one who kept them apart.
“I called You my Master,” she whispered.
Christ looked at her, and she heard the words she had never imagined hearing from Him:
“I never knew you. Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.”
The Book of Life was opened. Her name was not there.
Ahead of her, the lake of fire burned. She stared at it, understanding that she would be cast into it and destroyed. She began to weep. Her teeth clenched as she tried to speak, but no defense came.
She wished she could answer one of her father’s calls. She wished she could let her children run into his arms. She wished she had questioned the voices that told her love was disobedience.
The flame was before her. The years in which she could have chosen differently were behind her.
Exodus 20:12, Mark 7:9–13, Matthew 7:21–23, Matthew 13:40–42, and Revelation 20:11–15.
A song I wrote to Elise and Nathan
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