Mother tells the story of Heinrich the Noble, the family's oldest remembered ancestor. Against the backdrop of the Reformation, Heinrich stands at the Falls of the Rhine and consecrates his life to reform, leaving his homeland to be baptized a grown man and to help build Zion at Münster. His voice and Mother's alternate through the night—the story-within is set apart in italics—while in the present, the children drift to sleep, Henry snuffs the forbidden candle, and Marshall keeps his silent vigil at the window.
9 “The man in this story was your great-great-grandfather Heinrich, many generations back on your father's side,” Mother explained, looking at the children seated before her, and glancing at Marshall's attentive eyes.
10 “He is the oldest ancestor in our family line about whom we still have stories to tell. He traces us back to Western Europe—to Germany and Switzerland.”
11 “Heinrich followed one of the Protestant Reformation movements that prepared the way for the restoration of the gospel in our own time,” she said.
12 None of the children but Jeff had any inkling of where Europe lay, nor any grasp of the plight of the Anabaptist movement—the movement that led Heinrich to break with tradition, to face persecution, and that at last drove his children to flee in search of religious freedom, first to eastern and then to western America.
13 “Heinrich is a noble ancestor, a hero for our family,” Mother said with pride, “for standing up courageously against what he saw as corruption among the Catholics. God prepared him, and other reformers like him.” And she read on.
31 Mother summarized Heinrich's journey: “After that day, Heinrich left his home, stepped aboard a riverboat, and was baptized a grown man in the Rhine at Basel.”
32 “Heinrich's departure from Catholicism marked the beginning of our family's journey into the Reformation of Christianity—paving the way for the later restoration of the true Church of Jesus Christ.”
33 “Like him, you are bound for greatness: to change the world, and to lead it back to God. And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.”
34 Sleep had overtaken the two youngest, their shadowed heads now converged as one.
35 The middle child rose from his seat, reached out, and seized the base of the candle.
36 The room's lit lines tilted, and its dark corners shifted like a storm-tossed boat, as he lifted the light to his lips, careful not to overcorrect and spill more wax over its edge.
37 He drew a breath and snuffed it. An edge collapsed, and a line of molten scent hardened along the candle's side as it ran down.
38 The turbulent shadows vanished and darkness settled in, as he set a glass cover over the smoking wick and watched the curling black smoke spin.
39 The children lay limp and motionless as Marshall lifted them—the older ones merely climbed—and tucked them into bed. With the night's memories pressed into their minds, Cleo prayed she had minted heavenly coinage for their lives by moonlight. After closing the door she continued, with only Marshall, the deaf one, still in earshot; yet she would speak to the ether, to the ripples of air and space, and send the words out even if unheard.
55 As Heinrich sailed on in the tale, Mother's voice carried the story forward—though no children remained awake to receive it.
56 “Heinrich knew that leaving his home meant leaving behind his family, his friends, and everything he had ever known.
57 “But his faith in God was greater than his fear of the unknown,” she said.
58 Henry, the middle child, lay awake in bed, listening to her words as they drifted with the dim moonlight beneath the door into the room he shared. He imagined the riverboat gliding down the Rhine, carrying Heinrich toward his destiny.
59 “Heinrich's faith,” he heard her continue, “was tested many times, but he never gave up. He never lost sight of the mission God had given him.”
60 “He believed that through his faith and his actions he could change the world—just as we are called to do today.” Marshall had returned to the reply-less window.
69 As Heinrich began his work in Münster, spreading the teachings of the Reformation, Mother's voice echoed on into the present day.
70 “Heinrich's journey did not end with his arrival in Münster,” she said, looking toward her husband's back at the window, her eyes full of conviction.
71 “His work continued; and through him, our family's faith was born.”
72 “Each of us has a path to walk, a mission given us by God, just as Heinrich had his. And it is our duty”—my duty, she thought—“to follow it, no matter the cost.”
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