She was from the bad part of London, wherever that is, and in the story, she was seeking a new life, away from her family and the dark spiral of petty crime. In the country-side of World War II England, she was part of the Women’s Land Army, which picked up where the men had left off, plowing fields, driving delivery trucks, and just about everything else.
Murder had been committed on the farm where she was a hand and throughout the story she walked, eyes furtive, always ready to give an explanation for herself. In the end, she was not the one who had killed the owner of the farm, however, another crime had been committed and found out which she was involved in. Illegal and unreported butchering of livestock. When the British Army had come through to claim their livestock that they had allotted to the farms to raise, the owner of the farm had culled certain livestock from the Army stock and he had then secretly butchered it the night he had also been killed.
During the police questioning of the girls of the Women’s Land Army that worked there, this girl said something that stuck out to me.
“I wanted nothing to do with it.” She had stated, “I told him that we would be caught!” At this point she paused and said almost to herself, “You always get caught.”
I recognized immediately the lesson that she had learned early. I also saw in it a mercy. This girl, raised in crime, couldn’t get away with anything. Some in her circle might have referred to her as not having the best of luck, but I see the hand of God. He drew her out of sin by never allowing her to succeed or find any pleasure in it.
I saw myself. I always get caught in my lies, I always have consequences for treating people poorly or disrespectfully, and every single time I am walking in pride, I fall. I have often contrasted my “luck” with the “luck” of others around me.
“They get away with everything.” I have often thought or even said as I watched someone get away with murder.
What I had failed to realize was that a person who succeeds in sin will continue in sin. It is the mercy of God that corrects me immediately.
I remember sitting back, looking up and praying, “Lord, may we always be caught.”
I’m sorry everyone, but I asked God to catch us every time.
Eliza was raised in a family of nine in the farmlands of Pennsylvania and later on the backwoods of Tennessee. Never a very good spectator, she prefers to be in the middle of things, whether that be at home or abroad. She enjoys telling a good yarn and loves using her capers to convey the goodness of God.