I cringed and yelped as I shivered. But the bizarrest thing was that I was still alive, I was shot yet I felt no pain. I felt sweat rivulets exude my face, I was still wallowing in my confusion when I heard someone yell in a gruff and firm voice-
“Put your hands up! You’re under arrest!”
I was startled and my eye lids flipped open spontaneously.
The makeshift doctor was on the floor groaning. Policemen were in the ward and Bro Fred’s jaw dropped as he placed his hands on his head. He uttered something unintelligible. My confusion deepened.
I watched the policemen manacle Bro Fred and the doctor bewilderedly. The supposed doctor was shot on his right shoulder.
***
The unraveling of things stunned me. At the police station, the CIDs ferreted every needed information out of them (Fred, the doctor and the hospital manager).
Bro Fred confessed that he was initiated about six months earlier, when he was caught in what he referred to as a very tight corner by the vickins. He went on to explain that their capon, Roy gave him the assignment to perfect my execution. They had stormed my room the previous night, but I wasn’t in.
We were still on the matter when Roy was pushed in.
He didn’t stress the policemen. He just went straight to the point.
“Na this Dele fault! The other day I carry babe ooh, him come talk wetin I no sabi to her. Naso she no gree turn up ooh. Plus say I bin don warn am before. Na im I decide to show am say levels dey.”
‘Jesus!’
‘So Bro Fred had come to hear from me yesterday..’
‘So he wasn’t inspired by the holy spirit like I presumed.’
‘So the whole hospital issh was staged…’
‘So I would have just played into the enemy’s hands and even endangered the Edwards if I hadn’t obeyed the nudges of the Holy Spirit.’
‘Heavenly Lord!!’
I wanted to scream. I wanted to lift Bro Fred by the collar. I wanted to slap him. But I just sat there and with my chin cupped in my palm I stared at the humans before me.
The hospital manager on the other hand was a vickins loyalist and so using his hospital wasn’t a hard task. I was at the station with Daddy Edward, he had an ambiguous expression on his face, shock, irritation and joy.
“Fred, so you sold your salvation for convenience and you became a tool in the devil’s hands under the disguise of a believer.
What corner could be as tight as the one Daniel and his friends found themselves in? Or even Joseph. Were you faced with death?!
Were you faced with being jailed?!
Even if you were, couldn’t you hold on? Couldn’t you say like Daniel and his friends that ‘My God can deliver me and even if he chooses not to I won’t bow?!’ ”
He paused to wipe his face. He cleared his throat and continued.
“We called you Bro Fred for goodness sake! But you were just about to take a fellow brothers life! You just brought shame to the body of Christ! You disappointed heaven!” Dad spoke frankly and passionately while Fred wept bitterly with his head bent in shame.
Dad turned to me.
“Dele, I just thank God for his holy spirit and your obedience. Just a single disobedience could have cost you, your life. This morning when I felt led to call the commissioner of police, I didn’t understand why. But thank God I harkened.”
I sighed as the reality of how close I was to the other side of life stood before me.
Roy kept staring. He stared at us in amazement and at Fred with disgust.
“How come?! No one has ever escaped a blood seal.” He uttered, breaking the silence as his gaze stayed fixed on me.
“There’s a blood seal that doesn’t just escape but overrules any other! The blood of Jesus is the seal on me. And that makes me different!” I replied peering right back into his eyes.
“The blood that speaks better things than that of Abel.” Fred muttered.
Silence.
Roy turned sharply to Fred and pointing his fore finger at him he spoke in a shaky and husky voice..
“Fred you be fool! So you had this kind of love from God yet you dropped him!”
I saw tears well up in his eyes. My eyes dilated then my heart stopped. He continued.
“If only I had someone to love me, if only I had a heart that cared. I wouldn’t be here. I wou-” He burst out weeping.
He turned to us and sank to his knees..
“Dele, you said I was heavily laden, yes I am. You said I needed rest, yes I do. Dele, I’m empty! Totally empty on the inside.”
He was looking down and weeping on his clenched fists that were bound by a handcuff.
“Dele, is it too late for Jesus?”
‘Lord, God! What on earth could turn a lion into vegetables?
Nothing!
Nothing on earth could do this. This is God. God is at work!’
I just stared on in utter shock. Tears cascaded down my face.
We led Roy to Christ and Fred was reconciled back to Christ.
The whole event left me with two major and unforgettable lessons..
-If we obey God only we understand why, we don’t trust him.
-God is always willing to move mightily, but he needs to come through our utmost and unconditional obedience.
***
“Obedience is better than sacrifice and to hearken than fats of rams. 1 Samuel 15:22
2017-01-25