The Revealing by Suzanne Woods Fisher

even more so after her bunion surgery.” She bit her lip. “I don’t suppose you’d consider taking on Tobe when he’s released.”
    Galen’s chin lifted. “Rose, we’ve been through this before. Tobe doesn’t have the temperament for horses. What makes you think he’d even return to Eagle Hill?”
    “This is his home. He can’t keep running forever. I think he’s starting to face up to things—after all, he’s the one who pled guilty to withholding evidence. That’s a step in the right direction, isn’t it?”
    “A step, perhaps.”
    A wave of irritation at Galen came over Rose suddenly. “Couldn’t you even give him a chance? For your sister’s sake?”
    “Naomi?” He looked baffled. “Why would I want Tobe around Naomi?”
    “Galen—you must realize there’s something brewing between the two of them.”
    “Not while he’s in jail, there’s not.”
    “Definitely while he’s in jail. Haven’t you noticed the letters they write to each other? She runs to that mailbox every single day. I’ve seen her! And she walks back slowly, reading that familiar gray envelope.”
    Galen had a skeptical look in his eyes.
    “Before you close your mind to their budding romance, have you even noticed that she hasn’t had a single migraine since Tobe returned last fall? Not one.”
    It wasn’t often that Galen King was confounded, but at that moment, he looked at Rose as if she was speaking another language. She turned her attention back to the colt and let Galen resume training Silver Queen. He didn’t say another word about the subject of Tobe and Naomi. Neither did Rose. She thought she had said enough.

    There was so much Naomi had to thank God for: she hadn’t had a migraine since—well, not since Tobe had returned after he’d gone missing for a year. Naomi had suffered from headaches the doctors could neither diagnose nor cure.
    It seemed trite, a cliché, but happiness had cured Naomiof the headaches. Happiness and love. For she was in love with Tobe Schrock, and he loved her, and soon he would be released from prison and life could start fresh. Love, she had always thought, could do extraordinary things to people. Now she knew it to be true.
    The Lord works in mysterious ways. She had always heard that phrase but never knew what it meant until she saw the miracle God was working in Tobe’s life, even in jail. Especially in jail. For God was everywhere and all around and couldn’t be kept out of any earthly place, not even a federal prison. A prison chaplain led Bible studies in the community area and delivered a Sunday service. Tobe was making strides in his journey of faith. “I feel a weight lift from my shoulders,” he had written to her. And another time: “I’m beginning to realize a lot of things don’t matter anymore. My chest is much less tight, the awful feeling of running down a long corridor gone.” Only God could do this work in Tobe’s life. He had been running for over a year and it took God to force him to stop, to take a breath, to catch up with himself. To be still and to know God was God.
    And that’s exactly what was happening, in a federal prison of all places. The questions Tobe had in his letters, the longings he expressed, the desire to know God, to be a man after God’s own heart—why, Naomi fell in love with him all over again. She used to love what he could be, now she loved who he was becoming.
    She was grateful for these blessings and many others, but she was also troubled, for when she prayed in her room at night, it was as much from worry as from gratitude. She picked up Tobe’s letter that she had received today and re-read it:
Dearest Naomi,
You used to complain that I was too buttoned-up in my letter-writing. Now I wonder if you’ll never write to me again after I pour my heart out to you. But here goes, here’s the full whoosh of the waterfall.
Lately, I’ve thought of little else but your advice to leave Jake Hertzler in God’s hands. The beliefs