Ashley Smith and Brian Nichols were together for seven hours. This is Nichols's mug shot. This is Nichols's face after he gave himself up to police Saturday.She the recounts the testimony of Ashley Smith, which includes this passage:
Something changed.
Something happened.
We went to my room. And I asked him if I could read.
He said, "What do you want to read?"
Well, I have a book in my room." So I went and got it. I got my Bible. And I got a book called "The Purpose-Driven Life." I turned it to the chapter that I was on that day. It was Chapter 33. And I started to read the first paragraph of it. After I read it, he said, "Stop, will you read it again?
I said, "Yeah. I'll read it again." So I read it again to him.
It mentioned something about what you thought your purpose in life was. What were you--what talents were you given? What gifts were you given to use?
And I asked him what he thought. And he said, "I think it was to talk to people and tell them about you."
It's an amazing story, and Peggy ads this about the aftermath:
Tuesday evening on the news a "hostage rescue expert" explained that she "negotiated like a pro." Actually what she did is give Christian witness. It wasn't negotiation. It had to do with being human.
It is an amazing and beautiful story. And for all its unlikeliness you know it happened as Smith said. You know she told the truth. It's funny how we all know this.
On CNN on Monday afternoon Kyra Philips focused on the angle of the book, "The Purpose-Given Life," that Ms. Smith had shown Nichols. She had a local preacher on to tell us more about the book, and more about Christianity. It was informative, loving, a beautiful moment of television.
The more the news played the testimony of Ashley Smith, the more each news show came to seem elevated, ennobled. The past few days the TV screen has been filled with some wonderful light.
Ashley Smith is a national hero--a brave, resourceful single mother who has suffered in her life, and who at a series of pivotal moments did the right thing and the kind thing and helped a killer end a killing spree.
Country songs will be written about her. She's going to enter our folk lore.
Some people are unhappy to hear rumors she is going to write a book. This is understandable, but they are wrong. More is needed. I hope Ms. Smith reaches to a writer on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which was rocked by the story and did exceptional work covering it, and produces a book that answers these questions: How did she come to believe in Christ, who helped her know what she knows? How did this knowledge transform her? What did "The Purpose-Driven Life" tell her that she needed to know? Whose Bible was it she kept at home and read--one she bought or one she was given? Which book or part does she find herself going back to? What from the Bible did she read to Brian Nichols?
Is it a matter of happenstance, is it without meaning, that America was taken by this drama at Eastertide, in the days before Palm Sunday, when a wanted man rode by donkey to an appointment at Golgotha?
Is it an accident that a great but troubled country that yearns so to be good is given such instruction at this time?
Maybe we should be thinking: God loves all of us, every one of us most tenderly, even convicts, maybe especially convicts, who know what they are and hang their heads and one of whom, so long ago, looked up, and cried out to the man on the other cross, and received from him a promise of forgiveness and a promise that soon, very soon, they would stand together in a place without pain.
Maybe we should think: This is all quite a mystery, too big to be understood, too beautiful to be ignored.
I just feel like bowing to everyone, all the victims and all the survivors, the good judge, the good guards, the good woman, the reporters, all of whom became part of something big and without borders. The only lesson is love. I feel certain this is true.
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