The Ultimate Salvation

Shannon sat down on the floor and began to cry. Her tears kept rolling down her cheeks no matter how many times she wiped them. Mom was calling from downstairs for dinner but she didn’t care, nor does she want to respond. “Shann! Come down for dinner, would you?” Finally, she got up and walked out of the room. She moaned because she knew her parents would ask her what happened and she didn’t want to tell. “What’s going on? How many times you want me to call you for dinner, huh?” Mom was furious but Shannon didn’t reply instead she ate her food and immediately ran up to room after dinner.
Shannon is the only child in the family so her parents always tend to control whatever she did. Dad wasn’t at home most of the time, he worked long hours in the office. But every time he came back, he would only talk to Shannon about school. Mom would sometimes drop by at the office and visit Dad to talk about the latest condition of the family and financial stuffs. Shannon didn’t like that, she thought her family is too commercial, there’s no sharing or excitement at all. The topics finance, work and school were always brought up in their conversations.
Her mom wouldn’t be able to share her problem because every time Mom would give not so encouraging advice. Today was really a bad day for her. She failed most of her subjects miserably in the final exam. She wasn’t too determined to study because she felt that no one ever appreciates her and she felt no use of doing things that nobody cares. Even though she had friends, but they
was just the kind of friends to have fun and not to be there for her when she needs them. She continued crying and she could hear Mom complaining to Dad about her bad manners.
She can hear Dad coming up the stairs and then knocked on her door. “Shann, open the door. What are you doing?” Shannon sighed and went straight to bed. She didn’t want to reply her dad. Dad kept knocking and was very angry when there was no reply from Shannon. “Bring the room key!”
Shannon’s eyes widened, she knew her dad would shout at her. Dad opened the door. “Are you really asleep or are you just being bad?” He switched on the light and pulled her from the bed. He saw her red and swollen eyes. “Have you been crying? Are you hiding something from us?”
“There are lots of things I’ve been hiding because you don’t understand me at all!” Dad kept
quiet for a moment and then replied “What do you mean I don’t understand you? I did everything for your sake and for you to have a good living! Now you’re telling me these?” Shannon looked at her dad straight in the eyes and then turned away. She cried even more. “What’s the use? You worked hard to gain money for a good living, but money didn’t mean love and care for me! Nobody appreciated me and nobody is there for me when I need somebody! Now I’m torn, it’s your entire fault!”
She tried to run away but her dad held her back. She managed to slip from his hands and ran as quickly as she could. Mom was shocked, she stood there in the living room and didn’t have chance to grab Shannon. “Shann! Where are you going? Come back!” Then Mom and Dad ran outside but she was nowhere to be seen. They searched the entire neighborhood and even called up her friends but in vain. Mom spoke up “What have you said to her? Why did she run away? What is going to happen to her now? Why didn’t you console her properly?” Dad didn’t know what to say but he was furious and worried at the same time. “Are you saying now it’s my fault? You didn’t care much about her either when she was here!”
Mom was surprised. “What are you talking about? I’ve been there all along for her! But you only cared about your work!” They argued for the night and finally stopped when the phone rang. Mom picked up the phone, it was Shannon “I never want to come back again! Have you really cared for me, Mom?” Mom began to cry “Shann, what is it now? I gave you everything you wanted” Shannon began to cry too “No, what you gave me means nothing at all to me! I felt lonely all the time and I did badly at all things in school because you weren’t there for me when I was down! One thing that I never received before was LOVE!!!” She shut down the phone.
Mom cried uncontrollably and said to Dad “Was she right? That we didn’t care about what she felt? And that we put work and money first before her?” Dad kept his head low and began to give a thought about what Shannon said. “She’s right; I worked almost 24 hours a day and didn’t have the time to share life with her. All we did was talk about school” Both of them sat silently and was in each other’s arms. The next morning, they called up the police and the press. They posted their daughter’s loss in the papers and asked her to come back. A week passed and still there were no news from Shannon. She didn’t go to school either nor did friends and relatives saw her.
Dad didn’t go to work and stayed at home with Mom. Both of them were very worried of their daughter’s condition. “What are we to do now? Will we lose her forever?” Mom began crying again.
Dad kept quiet. Mom shouted at him “Why didn’t you answer me? You don’t care at all!” Dad hugged her and said softly “Don’t worry, okay? We both care about her, you know that. When she comes back, we’ll apologize and this time we’ll do it the right way.” Mom nodded “We’ll love her” The next day, one of Mom’s friends; Carrie came to pay a visit to the family. She asked how they were doing and was kind enough to pray for them and their daughter. So they prayed together.
She told them not to worry and that God will bring Shannon back to them. Carrie then invited them to church for tomorrow’s service. At first, they had doubts of going because they rather stay at home and wait for news. Carrie said this before she left “All things come from God, my dear friends”
She came again tomorrow morning and they agreed to go to church with her. They stayed at the church until the end of the service and wanted to leave because the police had called them earlier to talk about this case. But Carrie stopped them from leaving and said that the church would like to pray for them. They were determined to leave but because Carrie insisted, they stayed.
So the church prayed for them and after the prayer, Dad saw that it was late and was in a rush to go home. Just as they were walking out of the door, Mom saw a girl with her clothes torn and she was in a very bad condition. The girl looked up and Mom saw that she was Shannon! Dad saw her too and all of them started to cry. Shannon didn’t run away but instead she ran into her parents and hugged them. They too hugged her warmly. “You’re a miracle to us, Shannon. Dad and Mom are sorry for what we had done to you. Will you let us love you now?” Shannon smiled graciously and replied “I am sorry too, I love you both!” Carrie came to them “God had shown kindness to your family, share this love of God” On the very day itself, the family accepted Christ and was saved. And in the holy church of God and His great grace unites this family. Amen.