Follow UP

    As soon as we got home from Billings, Reed received a phone call from Tracy's nurse (detox patients can't make phone calls the first three days) saying he wanted to come home. Of course he did. I knew he would. I did when I was inpatient for depression. So why was I so crushed to hear it? Did I really believe that after all that effort God had somehow dropped the ball? This was voluntary, not court ordered treatment, Tracy could leave any time he wanted. We wouldn't pick him up, of course, but he could still hitchhike. I hadn't warned Tracy he would feel like this because it was hard enough to get him in the door. I knew it was coming, but still I felt the icy grip of worry grab my heart.
     I was on the phone telling my sister about the miracle, when I heard Tracy's roommate come in the front door. I heard him talking to Reed, but he was gone before I came out. Good thing. When Reed told me Clint got a DUI and spent the previous night in jail, I couldn't hide my rejoicing. This was perfect! It is exactly what needed to happen. One of my big fears was that Clint was Tracy's best friend, and Clint drank. A lot. He functioned much better than Tracy, but he needed to stop drinking too. A second DUI is a powerful motivator. I had told the Lord when they came to help move furniture a couple weeks earlier, with beer wafting out their pores, that God really had His work cut out for Him. He would have to reach both of them together. The icy hand on my heart was now doing high fives.
    If Saturday night's news lifted my spirits, what happened Sunday was like a boulder rolling off my chest. Our pastor was preaching from John chapter six. As he expounded on verse 44, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up in the last day.", I realized God was drawing my son and that drawing is irresistible. And I no longer had to look to his childhood to see that drawing, I only had to go back to Friday. God does not draw us against our will, but He changes our will. I still worry about the consequences Tracy will suffer for his sin, but I no longer worry that he will not be with the rest of the family in heaven. Tracy will follow where he is drawn and Jesus will raise him up.