Arousing Love, a teen novel by M.H. Strom

and gave
her a sly smile as he looked her over.
    I gave Josh a bemused look. “So this is your
new summer job?”
    “Yeah, it’s a good way to meet the babes.” He
grinned. “You’d be surprised, they really go for lifeguards for
some reason.” He looked back at Joanna and gave her a wink. “I
better get back to work, someone might be drowning or somethin’.
You kids have fun.”
    “Nice meeting you, Josh.”
    “Yeah, nice meeting you too Joanne,” he
called over his shoulder as he walked away.
    Joanna slipped her hands around me and
started peeling my wet t-shirt off.
    “Wanna go in the Jacuzzi with me?” She
grinned.
    I laughed. “Alright.”
     
    The large Jacuzzi was set in a gazebo away
from the swimming pool, and we had it all to ourselves. Joanna
turned the jets on, and we eased into the liquid heat.
    “I need to talk to you about something.”
    “Okay?”
    “Umm . . . ”
I wasn’t sure how to start. “Last night I had a dream—”
    “Is this another naked dream about me?” She
giggled.
    “No, this is serious.”
    “Okay.”
    “I had this dream, and when I woke up I could
feel God’s eyes looking right through me, it was really freaky. I
was actually scared.”
    Joanna’s eyes widened. “What was the
dream?”
    I recounted the dream to her. “ . . . then I woke up and I could feel what
all those people in my dream must have been feeling. He’s so holy
and I felt so unclean. I was begging him not to look at me.”
    “Wow.”
    “I didn’t feel his love, just his holiness.
It was scary.”
    “His love is found in Jesus, he saves us from
God’s wrath. He’s the sacrifice for sin, and by his blood you can
have forgiveness and be made clean before God, but you have to
believe in him that he’s paid the price for your sins on the
cross.”
    “I know all that stuff.”
    “But do you believe it?”
    I thought for a moment. “Yeah, I do, but I
don’t feel saved.”
    “Maybe you need to be baptized.”
    “What for?”
    “When I got baptized, they told me it was
being spiritually buried with Jesus and becoming one with him in
his death, so you’re dead to your old life and you’re raised up in
him to new life. My dad knows all about this. We should go talk to
him.”
    “No, I want you to do it.”
    “Do what?”
    “Baptize me.”
    “But my dad knows what to do—”
    “I want you to do it. Please Joanna?”
    Joanna bit her bottom lip. “Right here?”
    I looked around. I could see Josh sitting in
his elevated lifeguard chair.
    “No, not here. How ‘bout the cove?”
    She looked at me for a moment, then
nodded.
     
    We walked down to the beach, neither of us
saying anything. I was nervous. I didn’t know what to
expect—another spiritual experience like last night?
    At the cove, we held hands and walked into
the cold water. When we were in over waist deep, she turned to
me.
    “You sure you wanna do this?” She looked so
unsure herself.
    “Yeah.”
    “Okay.” She pressed her lips together for a
moment.
    “Zach, do you accept Jesus Christ as Lord of
your life?”
    Her question took me by surprise. A phrase
came to mind, ‘Not my will but yours be done.’ I knew it was a big
thing to commit to, but I had to do it.
    “Yes, I do.” I said, full of sincerity.
    “Then I baptize you in the name of Jesus
Christ.”
    I took a deep breath and let her push me
under. I closed my eyes as the water came over me, and in my mind I
immediately saw myself as a little boy playing with wooden blocks
and a train track. The train track was a circle, and I’d built
bridges and buildings all around it. Then I heard a voice say, “At
the end of the day you have to put it away.” I somehow knew
instantly what it meant. In the end, all the things that made up my
life would be put away like toy blocks. Then the bridges and
buildings disappeared, and I saw the train track become a straight
line for a train to travel along, shining its light into the
darkness.
    My head broke the surface