Page 44 of The Heat is On

Some rescue.

“Where are you going?” She ran after him.

“I dropped my pack up the trail—I’ve got a blanket, matches—we gotta get warm.”

“Fine—good, but—” She grabbed his arm. “Tucker. Stop. Listen. Why are you assuming that just because bad things happen that God isn’t on your side?”

Tucker rounded on her. “Because if He was on my side, then…”

“Then life would be perfect?” And her own words found soil. Because she sometimes wondered the same thing. Wondered if God cared at all about her mistakes and rescuing her. Wondered if, when she was in over her head, if He would show up.

Except…Rio.

And his voice in her head.Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me.

“Fine,” Tucker said. “Okay. I get that things happen. But it feels very personal.”

Yes, yes it did. “Troublealwaysfeels personal. But it doesn’t mean that God doesn’t care about you. That He’s out to get you. In fact, the opposite is true. God deliberately put Himself in the way of the ultimate tragedy to save you. That’s what grace is…and frankly, He uses trouble to show you Himself.”

Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.

She didn’t know why the rest of the verse rose to the surface, but…yes. Rio had been a force of protection and comfort.

Helping her stay calm, not panic.

Godhadshown up to protect her. She looked at Tucker. “You gotta get out of the mind-set that God doesn’t want to help you and start believing that ‘goodness and mercy will pursue you all the days of your life.’ Pursue. As in not give up tracking you down. As in relentlessly showing up in your life whether you are a good guy or not.”

He stared at her, almost confused, even as she let the word sink in.Pursue.

Oh, please, really? Except not everyone had the luxury of knowing God’s words. “Psalm twenty-three, New Living Translation. It’s the one I learned at Bible camp. Look it up.”

She curled her arms around herself, picturing March, and even Buttles. “Listen. People are evil. And bodies are frail, and fires happen. Lightning strikes—it just falls from the sky, and yet in the middle of the fire, in the middle of the darkness, God is there. Pursuing us. Because He loves us. Because He wants to rescue us. Because He is a rescuer by His very nature.”

A rescuer. She smiled. “Sorta like a guy I know.”

And maybe she could be one back. Tucker still hadn’t moved, so she touched his arm, met his eyes. “You will never be enough to fight your fires on your own, Tucker. That’s why we have a team. And God is onyourteam.”

He drew in a breath, but the words filled her, like heat to her bones.

God was on her team.

“C’mon. Let’s get that pack,” Skye said. “I’m freezing.”

He nodded and started up the trail.

Good. Because as soon as they warmed up, she was going after Rio in hot pursuit.

Before Buttles found him.

Seven

Rio forced his legs to keep running. Because everything inside him wanted to turn around, flee back to the river, and dive in after Skye.

He couldn’t pry her scream out of his head.

Of course, at the time he’d been face down in the dirt, the world spinning, his jaw burning, wondering how he’d get up.

Her scream had relit the fire inside him.