Tears flowed down Flint's face as he nodded in bitter acceptance of the truth that God's will does not always line up with what we want it to be.
"His will be done." Flint said.
I didn't think I'd ever seen Flint more afraid before than he was right now. I put an arm around him and gripped him tightly.
It wasn't the swirling horde of invading demons that gave him fear, but rather the thought of what might be required of him. I knew full well how the story of Job and the loss of his children was even now emblazoning its way across his consciousness. Actually I didn't. I'd never been a father so I didn't truly know what a father might be feeling right now.
"Ask for your heart's desires according to God's will and it shall be done. But it has to be God's will."
Flint nodded, as his forehead pressed against the pillar even as he gripped it as Sampson would've had with all his strength.
I turned away praying inside that Flint walked away from this night with not only what he had entered it with, but far more as well. It was in God's hands either to bless or curse. To build up or tear down.
I stepped out into the middle of the courtyard, as I was surrounded by the jabbering horde of darkness that flowed in from every side. I wanted to let anger reign in me and scream at them, but that was not how it was done.
"What is your authority in assailing a righteous man's house this night? Who among you will give voice to the answer that I seek?"
"We are many! So many! We hunger!!!" Came the response of a horde.
Anger did come out of me then, "So get a group discount and go feed on a herd of pigs somewhere! I command by the power of the living Savior that you state your reason for being here now or forever hold your peace and be gone!"
The jabbering silenced and in another section of the courtyard not far from me a dark cloud coalesced into the shape of a woman. Laughter split the night air in a hedonistically ribald fashion that only left me chilled.
"Elon, Elon calm down! One would begin to think you had begun to lose your nerve. Are you Elon? Are you losing it after all these many years?" The voice was feminine in its form of liquid seductive influence and I searched my memory for where I'd heard it before.
"Has it come to you yet honey?" Soothed the voice as the form of a woman stepped forward toward me sashaying in an erotic fashion that only repulsed me for I knew what it was and I was not deceived by my eyes into believing it was one of the most beautiful women the world had ever known. Beauty can ever be deceiving.