In the Beginning there was Love by Onwubiko Okem Precious
I walked into the mall hiding a 9mm R17 Glock in the folds of my leather jacket and for the umpteenth time, I silently berated myself for what was undoubtedly a colossally moronic choice but I really didn’t have any other, did I? Jenny was sick and the doctors wouldn’t operate on her unless I paid the required deposit. I was not going to let my baby girl die. I knew what to do, I’d rob a store.
I had been casing the joint for about a few days and had devised somewhat of a masterplan to get in, grab the goods and get away from there as fast as possible. It was a very busy district so I was fairly certain that I could seamlessly blend into oncoming traffic and escape before anyone was none the wiser. I knew where all the cameras were, and how long it would take the police to get there. The security guarding the mall was not equipped to handle an armed assailant. I had a gun in my hand and purpose in my heart. My target was a store on the second floor that sold a variety of very expensive jewelry which I hoped to fence with a black market dealer. He had promised me a premium if I could get the items to him before evening. I didn’t want to do this but I really did not see any other way out of my predicament. Jenny was all I had in this sad world and I would do absolutely everything in my power to protect that little girl, such is a father’s love.
The mall was family owned and from what I’d heard about them, almost everyone working there was related to one another in one way or the other. It made me truly sick to my stomach that there were families on earth that could afford to live such grand lives while others scrapped and begged for a morsel of bread to eat daily. Just thinking about it set my blood on fire and I clutched the weapon hidden in my jacket ever tighter. I was angry, so angry at everything that was happening. Why did my baby girl have to be sick? Why couldn’t her daddy have enough money to save her? Why was my wife taken away from me?
There was so much hurt and anger just brewing beneath my chest that I wanted to draw out my weapon and gun down every man, woman and child in my path. I wanted them to feel an iota of the storm that wanted to swallow me whole, the raging thunder that threatened to obliterate my existence and make it as if I never existed. But I needed to keep it all together. For the sake of Jenny.
I got to my destination and everything went as planned till it was time to grab the cash in the register. That was definitely not part of the plan but I thought to myself, “a few extra dollars wouldn’t hurt anyone.” That was when everything that could go wrong, actually did go wrong. The mall staff had been very cooperative with me through the entire ordeal. They even had smiles on their faces as I robbed them blind and didn’t make one move to hinder me. Initially, I thought they were paralyzed with fear, I later understood that they cared more about preventing the loss of precious lives than the loss of a few precious stones.
A customer on the other hand fancied himself a modern-day Rambo and he rushed me, I reacted without thinking and it was over before I even knew what was happening. I had shot in his direction, twice. It was no longer armed robbery, I had committed murder. I would hang if I ever got caught so I ran. I ran like my life depended on it, because it did. I threw away the gun and ski mask that I had used in the assault and made for the exit but somehow news of what I’d done had already circulated around the mall and an angry mob had formed. They demanded blood and the next thing I knew, I was being beaten for everything that I was worth and at that moment, I knew that I wouldn’t make it out alive. I was getting ready to draw my last breath when it suddenly stopped.
I looked up from my curled position on the floor to see the mall owner standing off to the side. She was held at gunpoint by a man wearing a mask, holding the same gun that I had discarded just a few moments ago. I had a reprieve for a few seconds as the attention of the crowd was drawn to the new assailant. I thought about running away but I was too weak to stand up anyway. I knew I was going to die there and every single regret that I had, came rushing to the forefront of my mind. My biggest regret was leaving Jenny on her own. Who would care for her?
Without notice, the new assailant took off in the opposite direction and the angry mob that had threatened to snuff the life out of me just a few minutes before took off after him in hot pursuit.
The manager had been watching everything from hidden cameras in her office, I had not been as careful as I had thought I was. The man I had killed was an off-duty cop who also was the son of the owner of the mall. The mysterious owner approached me and I knew within me that she knew I was the one that just committed the heinous crime. She was probably going to hand me over to the cops next, I could already hear their sirens. She gently walked over to me and I could see the finely refined grace with which she moved, like royalty. She looked like she’d be more at ease at a majestic palace, but somehow, just somehow, she still managed to fit in perfectly in this brightly lit mall.
She walked over to me, placed her hands on my shoulder and smiled at me. It was the brightest smile that I had ever seen in my entire life. For someone that had just had a gun pointed to her head, she seemed completely unfazed, surreal even.
Her smile was one of those rare smiles. It focused on you and understood you in your entirety. It understood your fears, your desires, your pain and it accepted you for that and all that you were. It offered you comfort and an all-encompassing compassion that was beyond understanding. I thought to myself “this is what love must feel like”. It was like she could see straight into my soul and somehow I knew that she could. I felt energized by her and suddenly I could stand again, I could walk, I was born again.
She explained what had happened to me. Her first son had been with her when I killed her other son and she’d asked him to take the fall for me and he agreed. I couldn’t fathom what she explained. I asked her, “how could you stand to let something like that happen to your son, what kind of a mother are you?”
I stood up and walked right out of there. I was furious. She was a bad mother and I wouldn’t let something like that happen to my Jenny. I got to the hospital and was told that Jenny had been wheeled into the theatre for the operation. The nurse gave me a note and written on it were the words “Paid in Full” with an appointment letter. She had offered me a job, after all the chaos that I had invited to her doorstep.
I returned the next day and I asked her, “Why, why did you let him take the fall”?
Her answer was simple. “Because I love you”.
“But he is your son,” I replied.
“And now you are too,” she countered.
“He will die,” I continued
“He will rise,” she said.
She handed me a name tag and now I could see that next to my name was the last name of the family that owned the mall. He had bought me with his blood and I had not only been absolved of my crime, I now had ownership rights to the mall too.
And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering (Romans 8:17).
I am not perfect, far from that, I am flawed but I am not ashamed to say that I believe in Jesus Christ, his sacrifice and my hope of glory. That is my salvation story.
I am a Christian.