The Adventures of Starmonia

Chapter Six: The Talk

Cloudy hurried around the corner of her house, ignoring the temptation to stop and smell the tantalizing scent of the roses, and went to the back. There, her back to the brick wall, sat Wylanda. Her face was buried in her hands and she sat, motionless. No one else was in sight.

Cloudy started to approach Wylanda but hesitated. She had no clue how Wylanda would react after Eloise’s thoughtless words, but Cloudy couldn’t let a little thing like that stop her from helping Wylanda.

Cloudy cleared her throat. “Wylanda?”

Wylanda raised her head and glared at the puppy. “Well, what do you want? I’m not exactly in a talkative mood right now.”

“I just wanted to see how you were,” Cloudy explained.

Wylanda’s baleful look gave way to one of blankness. Slowly she put her right hand in her dress pocket and withdrew a kitchen knife. Cloudy’s eyes grew wide as saucers. Did Wylanda intend to stab her?

“What are you doing with that?” Cloudy quickly asked, backing away. She recognized the knife as one of her own family’s.

Wylanda sighed and set the knife on the ground, much to Cloudy’s relief. “I snagged it when I first arrived here and had to use the restroom.”

“Why?” Cloudy asked, bewildered.

Wylanda scowled, her face a mask of anger. “Why do I need to tell you that? You’re a little kid; you wouldn’t understand.”

Cloudy was ready with her answer. “Little kids understand a whole lot more than most think they do.”

Wylanda blinked, astonished at the reply. Then she shook her head and sighed again. “Okay, I guess I might as well tell you.” She crossed her arms. “I was going to stab myself.”

“You were going to do what?!” Cloudy gasped. Wylanda’s words sent a shock wave throughout her body. “W-Why would you ever dream of doing such an awful thing to yourself?!”

Wylanda’s dark eyes snapped. “Look, I hate my life. I hate my parents. I hate my school. And I hate you. So back off and leave me to do what I came here to do.” She reached for the knife.

Quick as a flash of lightning, Cloudy leaped forward and grabbed the knife handle in her teeth. “No,” she said sternly, shaking her head vigorously. “I can’t let you do this to yourself.”

“Oh, quit messing with me. Give me the knife.”

“No” Cloudy repeated.

“Give it to me!”

“No!”

Wylanda stood up and attempted to snatch the knife, but Cloudy backpedaled and Wylanda tripped, falling facefirst on the ground. She shook her head as she sat up, her eyes blank.

“Wylanda,” Cloudy said in a more gentle tone, “why would you want to kill yourself just because you hate everything about your life? And how can you hate everything anyway? What about your fancy belongings and everything?”

Wylanda sighed and brushed the dirt off her clothes. “Can’t you see, Cloudy?”

“See what?”

“You’re so gullible you actually fell for what I said,” Wylanda said, misery overshadowing her face. Cloudy raised an eyebrow, not understanding. “I lied, Cloudy. I don’t have jewels or live in a big mansion, nor am I rich. My parents use every cent of their savings in order to help me pay for therapy and school.”

“You lied?” Cloudy was astonished. She had never known Wylanda to admit anything like that. “But why?”

“Because I was jealous of you,” Wylanda went on. “You have a happy home, wonderful parents who love you and care for you, and good friends and an amazing school. But I, the lone jerk, didn’t want you to make fun of me because I was poor, so I pretended I had more than you did.”

Cloudy sat down and laid the knife on the ground, keeping one paw on the flat on the blade. “Wylanda, I would never have judged you. Miriam is poor too, and I don’t judge her.”

“Why not?” Wylanda asked, searching Cloudy’s eyes. “Don’t you care about having friends of your social status?”

Cloudy became angry. “Okay, you listen here, Wylanda Coven. I don’t care about my friends’ social statuses any more than I care about watering my rosebushes. All I care about is if my friends are right with God. The heart is what matters. And I’m sick of people rejecting others who are supposedly beneath them or not up to their standards. Have you not heard that God created each person equal and with tremendous value?”

Wylanda was briefly startled by Cloudy’s strong response, but relaxed and answered, “Yeah, I’ve heard it.”

“Do you believe it?” the puppy challenged.

Wylanda cast her gaze to the ground. “Well. . .I don’t. . .I don’t really know. I guess?”

“Do you think I have tremendous value in the eyes of God?”

Wylanda kept her eyes on the grass for the longest time. When she finally looked up, Cloudy saw tears in her eyes. “How can I?” she whispered. “I came from a bad family.”

“Came?” Cloudy repeated. “You mean you had a different family before your current one?”

“Mother and Father Coven are my foster parents,” Wylanda explained. “They adopted me after my parents abandoned me on the sidewalk after I was born.”

Cloudy was aghast. “W-Why on earth?”

“They didn’t want a girl.”

“Well, that’s a dumb reason to abandon a helpless baby on the sidewalk,” Cloudy exclaimed. “It’s obvious they didn’t care for you.”

“When I was two, Mother and Father Coven came to the orphanage to adopt a child because they couldn’t have children of their own,” Wylanda continued just as if Cloudy hadn’t spoken. “They fell in love with me and later adopted me, and they’ve cared for me ever since and wanted me to have the best life possible. But to me, it seems worse than my first life.”

Cloudy shook her head in distress. “Wylanda, your parents loved you enough to do that for you. Their love is the reason you’re not dead on that sidewalk right now. If you kill yourself, it will be a real blow to them.” She looked Wylanda right in the eye. “Don’t you know that?”

Wylanda looked miserable, but she nodded.

“Then how can you do this to yourself?!” Cloudy wailed. “Do you seriously want to hurt your parents the way your biological parents did to you?”

Wylanda’s face crumpled and she burst into a torrent of sobs. “I don’t know,” she sobbed. “I don’t know anything anymore. All I know is that I feel so miserable and alone.”

“That’s because you don’t have God in your life,” Cloudy insisted. “Oh, Wylanda, if you would just run to Him!”

“How can I?” Wylanda demanded. “I’m so poor and I have a terrible background! Imagine God wanting someone like me!”

“But he does want you,” Cloudy declared. “He loves you so much He died for you!”

Wylanda frowned angrily and her eyes seemed to be flaming. “I know that,” she said in disgust. “I know He died! But I don’t believe He was ever resurrected!”

“Why not?” Cloudy asked.

“Several reasons,” Wylanda said in the manner of a teacher. “One, the resurrection violates natural laws. No one can come back to life. My public school teachers even said so. It’s impossible!”

“Then how do you explain the biblical account of Jesus rising from the dead?” Cloudy demanded. “It literally say right in the Bible that Christ is alive!”

Wylanda smiled, but it seemed like a half-smile. “My teachers told me there were several theories regarding that. One is the swoon theory, in which Jesus never actually died but only fainted and later revived in the tomb. The second is the theft theory, or the fact that the disciples stole the body. And thirdly, there’s the hallucination theory, in which the disciples only imagined seeing Jesus.”

Cloudy took a deep breath and looked to the sky. She remembered her parents teaching her about these theories and giving several points to disprove each of them. She was going to have to tackle these theories one at a time.

“The swoon theory doesn’t work,” Cloudy began.

“Yeah? And why not?” Wylanda asked.

“Well, for one, if Jesus wasn’t actually dead, then why would the Roman executioners have skipped breaking His legs on the cross? Second, the Sanhedrin leaders wanted the body of Jesus taken off the cross before the Sabbath. If Jesus were not actually dead, they would not have allowed this. Third, Jesus’ tombstone was heavy and weighed as much as 4,000 pounds and was rolled into a sloped groove. Jesus would not have been able to get to the stone’s edges in order to roll it back and get out. Fourth, Jesus appeared in a healthy, glorified body with only nail scars. If He had survived the crucifixion and was not actually dead to start with, He would have been weak, bleeding, and in need of medical aid, but that’s not how we see the Bible describe Him. And finally, there are many well-known medical scholars who have disproved the swoon theory because it’s medically, historically, and logically impossible.”

Wylanda’s mouth dropped in shock as she stared at Cloudy. How could a little girl like Cloudy have provided so big a mound of evidence? “Who taught you all that?!”

“My parents!” Cloudy exclaimed.

Wylanda smoothed out her dress, lost in thought. All of Cloudy’s evidence made her public school teachers’ words seem vain and untruthful. She was beginning to wonder if perhaps Cloudy was right about the resurrection. “I’m impressed,” she said finally. “And those proofs do make the swoon theory seem less, uh, true.”

“It’s not true,” Cloudy said quietly. “God raised Jesus from the dead.”

Wylanda shrugged, not certain what to say. “Okay, then. What about the theft theory?”

“The theft theory?” Cloudy thought a few seconds before answering. “Okay, yes. The theft theory is implausible for several reasons, but I’ll only give a few because there’s too many.
“One, the linen wrappings found in the tomb were neatly folded, with the head cloth folded separately from the other cloths. If the disciples had truly taken Jesus’ body, they wouldn’t have bothered to carefully remove and neatly fold the garments. Plus, the orderliness of the wrappings indicated the body vanished without being handled physically, which is a sign of resurrection and not theft.
“Two, if the body had truly been stolen, why did nobody ever expose the fraud? The Jewish leaders, the Romans, or even the disciples ever admitted or recanted the lie. And besides, the disciples suffered mightily at the hands of their persecutors but were steadfast in their faith. If the disciples had truly stolen the body, they would never have endured such persecution for what they knew to be a fraud.”
“Three, the body has never been found anywhere. No one has ever found credible proof of Jesus’ body. If the disciples had stolen the body, they would have hidden it somewhere, but it would have been discovered sooner or later. But that’s not the case. Those are only a few out of many proofs, but I think you’re beginning to see the problem with the theft theory.”

“Yeah, I am,” Wylanda admitted. “You know, Cloudy, your words—I actually find myself believing them. All the evidence you’re professing is so—overwhelming. I never felt like that with anything my public school teachers or friends told me.”

Cloudy grinned. “I think the Lord is working in your heart, Wylanda.” She cleared her throat and attempted to look formal. “And now for the final theory—the hallucination theory.”

“Yeah?” Wylanda looked curious. “How is that implausible?”

“The hallucination theory is implausible because, for one, group hallucinations are just weird, not to mention medically impossible. There is no documented case of a group hallucination anywhere in medical history. Over five hundred people saw the risen Christ, and I seriously doubt all five hundred saw the same hallucination. That’s just not possible, nor is it scientifically logical.
“Two, if the disciples were really just hallucinating, the Romans or the Jewish leaders could have simply produced Jesus’ body and that would have been the end of it. But no, that’s not what happened. No one ever produced the body, not even when the disciples preached the resurrection messages all over Jerusalem.
“Three, the transformation in the disciples also rules out the hallucination theory. They went from fearful, hiding cowards to bold witness men who preached the resurrection, even while facing persecution and martyrdom. No hallucinations could spark such bold, life-changing commitment—especially among a group who had no prior expectation of Jesus’ resurrection.”

Wylanda placed her palms together and gave Cloudy an admiring kook. “You’re good,” she confessed. “You make my public school teachers look like the most uneducated individuals on this planet!”

Cloudy smiled, knowing it was a compliment. She hoped she could convince Wylanda of Jesus’ resurrection, as well as His love for her. “Are there any other reasons you don’t believe in the resurrection?” Cloudy asked.

Wylanda put her chin in her hand and thought a minute, then answered, “Yes, there are. Another reason I don’t believe—or not really believe—in the resurrection is that it goes against what I believe about the Bible.”

“Which is what?” Cloudy asked, puzzled.

“I don’t believe everything in the Bible was meant to be take literally,” Wylanda explained. “My public school teachers said we have to choose which parts make sense and which parts don’t. They said the parts we choose will vary from person to person. . .”

“But if it varies so much,” Cloudy said, “how can you ever know which parts are true and which parts aren’t if everybody has different views?”

Wylanda didn’t know how to answer. “I don’t know,” she admitted, folding her hands and looking at some dried mortar stuck on the outside of the brick wall. “I guess the more I think about it, the less sense it makes.”

Cloudy nodded understandingly. “Any more reasons you don’t believe in the resurrection, or is that it?”

“No, there’s one more, and I believe it’s the most important.” Wylanda looked Cloudy straight in the eye. “If God is truly alive, why isn’t He taking care of His creation?”

“He is,” Cloudy said, knitting her brow.

“But how can He be? There’s so much suffering and evil in the world, and I thought God loved all. If He does, then why won’t He stop the evil?”

Cloudy sighed. “This question’s been bothering you for some time, hasn’t it? I can tell.”

“Yeah, it has,” Wylanda admitted.

Cloudy frowned, suddenly looking sorrowful. “Is that why you’re so opposed to God? Because of what happened to you?”

Wylanda bit her lip and nodded. “I’m afraid so.”

Cloudy sighed and dropped her head. “Then I will answer your question as openly as possible, Wylanda. But I have never been in your shoes, so it will be hard to relate these concepts from my viewpoint, okay?”

“Okay,” Wylanda said, settling back onto the grass to listen.

“God allows evil in the world because he highly values free will and genuine love, which require the ability to choose. And that includes making the choice to do evil.”

Wylanda frowned slightly. “But God hates evil, doesn’t He?”

“Yes, and that’s why He will one day restore the heavens and earth to perfection. But we’ll get to that in a minute.” Cloudy scratched her ear with her hind leg, then went on, “God’s nature is agape love. Do you know what that is?”

Wylanda nodded. “Yes. Agape love is a selfless, sacrificial, unconditional love and is not based on feelings or personal gain. Rather, it’s a deliberate choice to seek the highest good of others even when they are unlovable or ungrateful. This divine gift is possible only through the work of the Holy Spirit.”

“Yes,” Cloudy said. “But back to your question. Since God’s nature is agape, which means it’s not coercive or controlling, God gave us the choice to choose right or wrong. He gave us free will. That includes having the freedom to either choose Him or reject Him. If God stopped evil by force, He would make us robots, forced to do what He wanted, thus overriding our free will. He would be acting against His own nature, in other words, and thus love and relationship would be impossible because they require authentic choice. God cannot force anyone to love Him, for if He did, He would not truly be loving us.
“God cannot stop evil singlehandedly without violating our freedom, so instead He uses the Holy Spirit to convict others of sin and bring them to Christ. We are stewards of this world, and our choices have consequences. Those consequences affect the world, depending on if they are good or bad.
“God is consistently limiting evil. Just look in the Bible. God restrained Satan in Job and confused the languages of the people at Babel when they disobeyed Him after He commanded them to spread out across the world. He also uses evil to bring about something good, such as Joseph’s betrayal by his brothers leading to salvation and Jesus’ crucifixion bringing us redemption. Romans 8:28 says, ‘And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.’
“Evil’s existence also allows for the ultimate glory of God—His justice, mercy, and great power over sin and death. Jesus’ death on the cross shows us all that God endured such suffering to defeat evil through love and sacrifice, not force. One day the universe will be restored to perfection and evil will be no more, but until that time, God is working through us all to bring light, hope, healing, and transformation to a dark world desperately in need of a wonderful Savior.”

Cloudy inhaled and then exhaled, feeling relieved, though she wasn’t at all sure why. Wylanda hadn’t said a word in all this time. She had only listened with intense rapture and fascination.

“You know,” Wylanda said after a few minutes, startling Cloudy, “Some of what you said sounded an awful lot like what Miriam told me.”

“Miriam?” Cloudy said, astonished. “You mean you talked to Miriam?”

“Yes, today before she returned to you guys and I appeared and—and started acting like a jerk,” Wylanda said, sounding ashamed. She sighed and then launched into a summary of what Miriam had told her. When she finished, Cloudy was nodding.

“What Miriam and I have told you is true,” Cloudy said. “You’ve seen the evidence for yourself, Wylanda. But now you must make a choice—will you accept the evidence and push it away to keep on living as you are right now?”

Wylanda twisted her fingers together, apparently uncomfortable, but she blurted out, “I don’t want to keep living in misery. I want happiness.”

“The only way to obtain true happiness is salvation through Christ,” Cloudy explained. “But this is a personal choice, Wylanda. If you make this commitment, you have to show you’ve made it through your actions and words. It’s not a, ‘Oh, I’m gonna make this commitment and then keep living however I want.’ No, that’s not how this commitment works. You have to show you’re saved and changed and ready to live for Jesus. And yes, others will persecute you and laugh at you for your faith, but Jesus warned us of this. He said in John 15:18–21, ‘If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: “A servant is not greater than his master.” If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.
But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.’
“So remember, Wylanda, that you will face many trials and tribulations in this world, but Jesus has overcome the evils of this world and He will give you strength to face every day.”

Wylanda sat where she was, deep in thought. Her eyes were full of longing and unhappiness, but Cloudy could also see the glimmer of hope in her eyes. Her face seemed to radiate with a strange, unnatural light.

“I want to do it,” Wylanda said suddenly.

“Huh?” Cloudy asked.

“I want to accept Jesus.”

“You do?” Cloudy was astonished; she hadn’t expected her words to have such an impact on Wylanda.

“Yes,” Wylanda said firmly and without hesitation. “God provided the evidence for me, but like a fool, I pushed it away. I refused to bring myself to the feet of my Savior and Lord. But when the Lord sent you to me, He just seemed to speak to my heart more clearly than ever before. I see it all now. I was a blind fool. God is real, He is divine, He has a purpose for everything and everybody, and I know He is alive and working even to this very day. If Christ were not alive, you wouldn’t even be able to speak these wonderful words of truth to me so confidently, Cloudy!”

Cloudy was amazed. The Lord had worked a miracle right before her very eyes! “But why would you say that I wouldn’t be able to say such words of truth so confidently if Christ were not alive, Wylanda?”

“I based that off of 1 Corinthians 15:12-19. That was one of my memory verses in school,” Wylanda explained. “I can’t believe I didn’t remember this before I had this talk with you, but I just remembered. The verse says, ‘Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.’ I guess that solves the entire question: Is Jesus really alive? The answer is: Yes!”

“You’re right,” Cloudy said cheerfully. “And I’m glad you finally realized that.” A misty haze of wonder clouded her eyes. “But are you sure you want to be saved?”

“Yes.”

“This is going to be the most important choice you’ll ever make, Wylanda. Don’t take it lightly.”

“I swear I won’t. But I wish to make this choice once and for all.”

“Then I will leave you to do so. Take your time,” Cloudy said, bowing dramatically to Wylanda and then going around to the front of the house. The Covens and her parents were chatting gaily on the porch. Springtime took a chance during a break in the conversation to wave and smile to Cloudy. Cloudy waved and smiled in return.

“Where’s Wylanda?” Mrs. Coven called down to her.

“Oh, she’ll be out any minute now,” Cloudy said, winking at her mother. Springtime just gave her daughter a puzzled look. “Say, how’s the turkey coming along?”

“It should be ready in ten minutes and then the feast will start in an hour,” Springtime answered. “How are the others?”

Cloudy blanched. “I-I haven’t been back to look at them,” she said. “I was talking to Wylanda.”

“Oh, okay,” Springtime said distractedly, flipping a burger on the grill. “Well, just make sure they’re all okay when you have the time, all right?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Cloudy answered. Suddenly bored, she leaned close to one of the roses and sniffed it, then sneezed. “Oh, excuse me.”

Mrs. Coven smiled and said in a low tone to Springtime, “Cloudy is really polite. How did you raise her to be so well-mannered?”

“We prayed a lot,” Springtime said lightly. Showerstorm nodded in agreement.

While the adults were laughing, Cloudy slipped behind the hose again and almost ran into Wylanda, who was coming around to the front. But this was not the sullen, miserable, rude Wylanda. This was a changed, hopeful, happy, and kind Wylanda whose face radiated with joy and peace.

“Cloudy!” To Cloudy’s shock, Wylanda picked her up and embraced her. “Guess what? I’m Jesus’ daughter now!”

“Hooray!” Cloudy cheered, leaping about with joy. “How do you feel now?”

“Absolutely spectacular!” Wylanda said. Then she starting laughing ruefully.

“What? What’s so funny?” Cloudy wanted to know.

“I was just reminded of something that had to do with my necklace,” Wylanda said,. She grinned and fingered the porcelain rose. “In Dreamland, a rose is a symbol of gratitude, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I found it ironic that not too long ago I was ungrateful and miserable, and yet I was wearing this necklace!” She burst out laughing all over again.

Cloudy laughed too. “Speaking of that necklace,” she said, scrutinizing it, “it’s really pretty. Where’d you get it from?”

“Mother’s Coven’s sister gave it to me when I was five,” Wylanda said. A sober look came over her face. “I never forgot what she told me when she placed it into my hand for the first time.”

“And what was that?”

“She told me, ‘Dear Wylanda, always hold onto and treasure this necklace, for it is a symbol of how much you are truly blessed.’”

“Wow,” Cloudy breathed. “That’s amazing.”

Wylanda continued to look at the rose. Then she looked at the rosebushes and then at the many people who wore dresses or jewelry with roses on it. “Is that why,” she wondered, “so many of these people here are wearing roses?”

“I think so,” Cloudy said. “It’s to show they’re grateful—I guess.” She glanced meaningfully at Wylanda.

Wylanda understood the look. “I know, I know,” she sighed. “I was a jerk, and I’m very sorry. I’ll go apologize to everyone and then to my parents.”

“Do you have the knife?” Cloudy asked.

Wylanda produced it from her dress pocket. “You left it on the ground,” she said. “I picked it up to bring it back to your family.”

“Then let’s go,” Cloudy said.

“Wait,,” Wylanda called to her. She unclasped the necklace and walked over to Cloudy, then placed the chain around the puppy’s neck and secured the clasp. “You have this.”

“Oh, no!” Cloudy protested, shaking her head. “Your aunt told you to hold onto it! I don’t want to take such a treasure from you.”

“I have a treasure—worth far more value than that necklace. You keep it,” she said. Then she ran off toward the tree house to apologize to Cloudy’s friends.

Cloudy watched her go with a bit of dismay. She didn’t want to take such a lovely treasure from Wylanda, but Wylanda seemed willing to give the necklace to her. “Perhaps I’d better keep it,” Cloudy said to herself.

Then she smiled. “And maybe whenever I feel ungrateful, this necklace will remind me to have a thankful heart.”

Note: Wylanda’s actions of trying to commit suicide is not something to be admired, nor am I recommending that anyone do such a thing. The Lord made everyone and does not wish for anyone to perish, but all to be saved. The key to true happiness is not through riches, but through Christ Jesus.

Also, the theories regarding Jesus’ resurrection and the proof given to disregard it is all true. In the Bible, there are several verses that prove Christ is living:

Matthew 28:5–6 – “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.” 

John 20:1 – “Now the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.” 

Romans 6:4 – “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” 

1 Peter 1:3 – “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” 

The Bible is a true Book and is the only Book ever to be line up with the passage of time and history. The Bible is true in every fiber of its being, for it was authored by the One and Only Giver of life–Jesus Christ.