The Cross in the Picture

About a month after arriving at prison camp, I asked my mother to send me some photographs.

She sent eight pictures. One of them had been taken months earlier while Carlee and I were in

Jamaica.

I taped the pictures to the ceiling above my bunk so I could look at them.

One night as I was studying them, I felt drawn to the photo from Jamaica.

The Spirit said to me:

“There is something for you in this picture.”

At first I couldn’t see anything unusual.

Then the Spirit said again:

“Look closer.”

When I examined the image more carefully, I noticed something I had not seen before.

In the sky above me was the shape of a cross.

In the water below was the reflection of a rainbow.

My eyes filled with tears.

I realized something profound: the cross represented salvation, and the rainbow represented

God’s covenant.

Even more astonishing was the realization that the photograph had been taken months earlier—

before I had begun writing the book.

The Spirit then revealed something to me:

“This picture will be the cover of your book.”

God had already provided the image before I had even begun writing the story.

What seemed like an ordinary vacation photo had become part of the larger plan unfolding in my

life