Dark Well of Decision
I took notice of the fact that my granddaughter, thirteen year old Zoe spent a great deal of her time thinking lately, more now than she ever has. Growing up sometimes frightened her. How could she make sense of it all? Even things she never would have thought to question before came under scrutiny, including God. Was the Bible true? Did God even exist? If so, did He care about her?
Exploring an ancient well one summer morning was the beginning of her adventure. Here is how it began as told to me, Grandma...
The well's stone top was quite hot from the sun and burned my bare legs as I lay on my stomach trying to position the flashlight just right. Carefully holding the light so it shone sideways into the hole, it illuminated the sides of the well. My eyes took several moments to adjust from the brightness of the sun, but from the darkness color soon took form, a reddish brown color. Bricks, intricately laid together in the continuous, round wall, perfect in their condition.
After a thorough inspection of the well's cavity, nothing was left but to look toward the bottom to see if I could determine its depth. Nothing but solid blackness!
Disappointed the beam of light was too weak to penetrate the darkness, I started to turn off the flashlight. That's when my eye caught a faint reflection of light shining off the water-very faint indeed, as though the well were extraordinarily deep. A shiver skittered up my spine.
A strange feeling washed over me in one big wave, engulfing me, giving me the distinct impression of floating in an invisible ocean instead of lying on the top of the well.
Disconneccted from my surroundings, my mind struggled to grasp the situation and find an explanation. Surely, I must have gotten over-heated lying in the glaring sun on that hot stone and my imagination was doing nothing more than playing tricks on me.
My better judgment told me to go inside and get something cool to drink. But when I tried to move, my body froze in place, not allowing me any control of my actions or movements. A loud ringing began in my ears. Even shaking my head wouldn't stop the noise. Everything felt quite surreal-some strange force was sucking me down, down into the deep, black hole. With my heart slamming against my chest, I opened my mought and tried with all my might to yell for you Grandma. Nothing came out but a tiny squeak.
The familiar things around me-the bright sun, the grape arbor and the big tree-began to get fuzzier and fuzzier until they disappeared altogether. Suddenly, I found myself in total darkness, falling and falling, down-ward into the well for what seemed like a very long time.
