Salvage

Beth couldn't believe how blessed she was. Just 12 months ago, she had been struggling to make ends meet, working multiple jobs and barely scraping by. But then, somehow, she had won the lottery and with her winnings, had been able to move to the other side of the world. She had always dreamed of living in France, and now she was not only living there but had bought her castle.

Though it was the smallest castle in Europe, it was her paradise. She had spent months restoring and fixing it up, and now, as she walked through the 60-room masterpiece, she felt a surge of joy and gratitude for all her efforts.

As she woke and gazed upon her beautiful room, the first room she restored, she had a sense of overwhelming emotion.

How God had blessed her. She was overjoyed but she started to cry, thinking to herself, "Have I stewarded his blessings properly? Have I heard him correctly in how to use this treasure?"

She had always dreamed of grandeur, living in a place, most imagined about. As a small child, she would talk about this castle, her master bedroom.

God had been so specific in the design. The pale blue and green shades and earthy tones. Mixed and light and bright colours with rose gold and pink accents.

She could see it as a child. The colour scheme was that which emulated the wildflowers in the countryside and nodded to the green mountains and bubbling brook that ran around the castle.

This earthy, pastel, yet touches of bright pinks and royal colours, which on paper could not work. But the combination had an extremely humble tone to the royal and striking colours. Beth always felt, for her that was God's personality. Humble but the most bright and amazing thing to feast your eyes on.

The windows when open captured the sound of the waterfall just outside her master bedroom, with countless birds singing in the tree.

Being so close to the waterfall, with the building nestled into the mountain itself, some days the fine mist would be picked up by the wind and Beth, could feel the light spray that would touch her face as she stepped towards the window.

So perfectly designed that the mist would touch her cheeks but never make it inside to cause mold or issues. She felt the room in her dreams, she saw it, she was in the room.

She would describe her grand piano set up in the corner of the room, and her smallest, but her favourite painting easel and paints set up in the other corner near the window where the waterfall was. At times while painting with her back to the room facing the magnificent view, and the oversized watercolour pad was dry, the mist would appear and just settle onto the page, being the perfect amount of dampness to need to dip her brush into the water jar beside her.

It was heaven.

She had often seen this room.

But she saw it so often as a child, that she spoke about it, to her family, who would scoff and torment her for her delusional dreams. "you can't have a building that close to a waterfall, it is impossible. Get your head out of the clouds and stop being such a stupid lazy child, do your homework or your chores." Her mother would constantly snap at her. Not word for word each time, but something that hinted at her stupidity. The dream separated her from her family. Beth's mother resented her child for imagination. Born into a working-class family, in an outback town in Australia, this dream was that, an unrealistic dream.

Her mother was a cruel woman, who resented her children. She always said I could have been someone, without you all burdening me.

Beth's mother had 5 children Beth was the middle child.

But as the years passed the dream never went away. Recurring for Beth over and over again.

Eventually, her mother kicked her out of the home at 14, to do life by herself. She found a motel, started working there as a cleaner, and slowly had worked and put herself threw school.

But now as she sat up admiring her dream come true, she wanted to share her good fortune with others. Her spirit became warm and she smiled not only was the dream real,

But today, she was opening up her home to lost orphan children. Beth knew what it was like to feel lost and alone, and she wanted to give these children a chance to experience the beauty and magic of her castle. But also love and acceptance, someone to care for them. She too, although born with parents had been cast aside like trash.

After she had been thrown out and had struggled, she had been devastated when her family home caught on fire and her family had perished. Due to her mother's alcoholism, she had been drinking, left the gas stove on after dinner, then gotten up to pour more whiskey, and out of her mind lit a cigarette.

Although she was older when she was orphaned. There was a level of grief, first to be constantly cast aside, then to lose what little family you had, she could never explain. But she pushed the covers back and stretched, she spoke to God of the day. She saw him show her, the children. A vision of how the day would happen. The right words to say them.

In the vision as the children arrived and Beth welcomed them with open arms, with the right words of love she knew that this was just the beginning of the new, fulfilling chapter in her life, and those of God's children.