Best Friends Forever by Kimberla Lawson Roby

in Celine to throw on the first pieces of clothing she saw. Celine had never been a depressed kind of person, but for the last twenty-four hours, that was exactly the way she’d felt. And it wasn’t getting any better. Maybe if she could make sense of all that was happening, things wouldn’t be so bad, but truth was, she couldn’t. She had no understanding of why she was enduring so much emotional pain, and she wondered what she’d done to deserve it. She was well aware that everyone reaped what they sowed, but this sure did seem like a lot.
    Kassie looked around the sanctuary and then at her mom, smiling. She was such a good child who had an amazing sweet spirit, and she deserved to have her mother here for as long as possible. Celine knew it was selfish to think that way—particularly since she knew only God had the ability to decide how long anyone could be here—but the human side of her wanted to remain with her daughter for as long as possible. Celine wanted to celebrate each of Kassie’s birthday milestones—her twelfth, sixteenth, eighteenth, twenty-first, twenty-fifth, thirtieth, fortieth, and fiftieth. She knew forty more years was a lot to ask for, but she couldn’t help wanting every last bit of it. She also looked forward to seeing her daughter graduating high school and college and then getting married to a man who would love and cherish her until death. Celine certainly couldn’t wait to have grandchildren one day.
    She wanted all this and more, except her faith had diminished to an all-time low. There were days when she easily trusted and believed that everything would work out, but then there were days like today when she knew for sure that her marriage would end in divorce and that she had only a matter of months to live. She knew her thinking was irrational, what with her not having a final diagnosis, but for some reason she couldn’t control her pessimism. Since discovering the lump in her breast, she’d been terrified and she couldn’t get past it.
    When the choir finished singing their first selection of the morning, one of Deliverance Outreach’s male soloists walked over to the microphone. As soon as he sang the first line of “I Need You Now,” water filled Celine’s eyes. Then, when she heard the words “I need you right away,” tears rolled down her face nonstop. Lauren passed her a handkerchief and placed her arm around her. Kassie reached and held her mom’s hand. Celine cried because she truly did need God right now. She needed Him to fix things. Make her whole again.
    When the soloist finished the song, Pastor Curtis Black walked up the steps and stood at the glass podium. “This is the day the Lord hath made, so let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
    “Amen,” the congregation said.
    “As always, it’s good to be in the house of the Lord. It’s great to have yet one more opportunity to worship and praise Him. It’s an honor and a blessing to have Him in our lives.”
    Amen s rang throughout the sanctuary.
    Pastor Black looked across the sanctuary. “It just feels good to know Him. It feels good to know that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ loved us so much that He was willing to die for us. He was willing to trust and believe His Father no matter what. Of course, we all know that when Jesus went into the Garden of Gethsemane to pray, temptation and fear tried to overtake Him, but in the end, He trusted God. Almost just as quickly as He asked His Father if there was some way that this cup could pass from Him, He prayed a second time, saying that if it wasn’t possible, then let Thy will be done. This is the part that still sends chills through me every single time I read Matthew twenty-six. You see, Jesus knew that what He was about to go through was going to be hard and painful. But no matter what, He knew that obeying God’s Word meant everything. He believed wholeheartedly in what His Father had promised Him—He believed that all would be well. And it