A/N: See Chapter 1 for Disclaimer.

Chapter 7: Getting Hyacinth's Attention

At seven-thirty that morning, Emmet, Richard, Onslow, and Daisy all sat together at Violet's kitchen table drinking coffee while Hyacinth remained in the master bedroom keeping a watchful eye on Elizabeth and Baby Gloria.

"Permit me to propose a toast, everyone," said Emmet as he held up his cup of coffee. "To my beautiful new niece, Gloria. A little girl as sweet and precious as her mother."

"Hear, hear!" all the others said aloud, and then they clinked their cups together and took a drink of their coffee.

"You know, I don't think I've ever seen so many miracles take place within a single night before," Onslow observed. "Hyacinth actually caring about something more than candlelight suppers. Liz having a baby at her age. Hyacinth delivering the baby and saving her life. It just blows my mind completely."

"I think we're all still stunned by it," Richard agreed.

"So do I," said Daisy. "But I'll tell you one thing. After all the miracles we've seen last night and this morning, I no longer doubt that God exists."

"I don't think I doubt it anymore, either, Dais," Onslow admitted.

"Elizabeth and I both came to faith in Christ when we were children, but I've been pretty distant from the Lord since my divorce, and I think Elizabeth has been, too. Especially after her husband accepted that job transfer several years ago to Saudi Arabia. But after everything God did for us last night and today, I don't think either of us will grow distant from Him ever again."

"I don't think Hyacinth and I will, either," said Richard.

"My grandmother always told Elizabeth and me when we were growing up that we should always be careful not to take God for granted. She always said that human beings have a terrible tendency to overlook everything that God does for us all every single day of our lives, all the blessings that often go completely unnoticed and incognito in our sight, that we don't even see or think about. He's given us this beautiful planet to live on, filled with mountains and oceans and forests and flowers and trees. He's given us all roofs over our heads and food and clothing. He fills our lungs with air every moment of the day. He really does do so much for us that we completely take for granted. But after giving us this precious, glorious baby girl, who has also been incognito for nine months, another remarkable gift God has graciously surprised us with, I'm never taking Jesus for granted ever again."

Onslow nodded and said, "I'll say one thing, Emmet. The Almighty sure knows how to get our attention when He wants it. And He certainly has my attention now."

"Mine too," Daisy admitted. "But now that He does have our attention, what could it be that He expects of us? What does He want us to do? Start going to church more often or something like that?"

Emmet shook his head and responded, "When our grandmother was teaching Liz and me about God and the gospel, she always said that religion was a trap that turned our relationship with the Lord into a dreary list of rules. The truth is, it isn't about rules. It isn't about some list of dos and don'ts. I think, Daisy, that what God wants from all of us the most is our hearts. He doesn't want us to get religious. What He wants is a relationship with all of us. And the only way that can happen is through faith in His only begotten Son; faith in what He accomplished for humanity at the cross. I mean, when you stop to think about it, it actually makes perfect sense that this incredible earth we live on, all the stars and planets and galaxies out there, even the human body itself, was created by a Being so extraordinary, so terrifyingly awesome and holy, that no one with even the tiniest trace of sin in their life could survive in His presence. And it also makes perfect sense that such a remarkable Being would make the ultimate sacrifice – the life of His own Child – to save us and make it possible for humanity to have a relationship with Him again.

"Another terribly important thing she taught us, that tragically, most professing Christians are blind to today, is how vital it is for us to differentiate between salvation and discipleship when explaining the gospel. The vast majority of professing Christians blur the line between the two, without even realizing it most of the time, I think, but it is terribly important to recognize that eternal life and discipleship are not the same thing, and they should not be going around saying, 'Repent of your sins,' and 'Give your life to Christ' to be saved. Because we are not saved or kept saved by going to church every Sunday or reading the Bible every day or donating to charity or by repenting of sins or by anything that we do. Doing all those things is good and right, but it is not what saves us and keeps us saved. The only thing that saves us is repenting of unbelief and putting our faith in Jesus and His shed blood at the cross to pay for all our sins in the eyes of a just and holy God. Jesus told us we had to take up our crosses to be His disciples, and when He talked about discipleship, He told us to count the cost. But there is no cost whatsoever for eternal life. Jesus paid the price for our salvation completely when He cried out, 'It is finished!' After salvation, it's then that you have to decide whether or not you're going to obey Christ's call to spend the rest of your earthly life serving Him in discipleship, putting Him and others ahead of yourself in everything you do, out of love and gratitude for all the suffering He went through on the cross to save you, or if you're going to disobey Him and continue living for yourself and not Him. If you choose the latter, you open yourself up to the possibility of being disciplined by God the Father, just as an earthly father must discipline a disobedient child, and you lose whatever eternal rewards you could have earned in heaven, but you never lose your salvation, because if that were to happen, it would mean that eternal life is an earned reward for your obedience to God, and nothing could be farther from the truth. We can earn rewards in heaven for living Godly lives, but we cannot ever earn our own salvation, because if we could, Jesus never would've had to die to save us on the cross."

After a pause, Onslow said, "You know, I've heard about these things all my life. I've always heard Christians quote John 3:16 in one breath and then tell us to take up our cross and follow Jesus in the next breath, and it all really confused me. But now that you've explained it, Emmet, it all makes perfect sense."

"Elizabeth's and my mother and grandmother always really drilled the truth of the gospel, and especially the difference between salvation and discipleship, into us when we were younger. But even though Liz and I both came to faith in Christ as children, we did get tired of hearing them go on about it so much. But now, I understand why they did, and I'm very grateful to God and to them for it, because understanding the truth about eternal life is even more vital than knowing CPR."

"Right you are, Emmet," Richard agreed. "Right you are. I don't make a big show of it like a lot of professing Christians do, but to be perfectly honest, it's my relationship with the Almighty that's kept me sane all these years with Hyacinth."

Onslow chuckled and said, "Yeah, that's not surprising."

"We've been sitting in here talking about how God has used Elizabeth's incognito baby to get our attention. But I bet He's also been using Baby Gloria to get Hyacinth's attention," said Daisy.

"Well, He's already used little Gloria to get Hyacinth to put her midwife hat back on and show that she has a heart underneath all her snobbery," said Onslow. "I wonder what He's going to do in Hyacinth's life next."

"I don't know, but I can't wait to find out," said Daisy.

Richard smiled then and said, "Neither can I."

And it was indeed true. As they sat there together at Violet's kitchen table that morning, waiting for the ambulance to finally arrive and take Elizabeth and Baby Gloria to hospital, they all knew instinctively that they were not the same people they were just twelve hours ago. There was no doubt that the Holy Spirit was moving and doing a massive work in all their lives, especially Hyacinth's. And they couldn't wait to see what He was going to do in her heart and in her life next, and in all their hearts and lives.