They collected plenty of fuel for the Rescue Craft from the hedges and trees along the roadside and packed the fuel tank full of greenery. The sun came out and began to dry their wet clothes. Hugo suggested that they eat the remaining fruit and they put the apple cores and peach stones in the fuel tank too. They did not doubt that the Mission Detector was accurate and that somehow, miraculously, the rescue of Timmy had been accomplished. It just hadn’t happened through them and now they were going to head home and face whatever consequences they must for their impulsive adventure.
Only one problem remained: the Rescue Craft still refused to start.
“I thought it stopped because it was low on fuel,” said Jack, peering with Hugo into the fuel tank. Tufts of grass and leaves and twigs and a jumble of other things were packed to the very top of the tank. There was definitely enough fuel in it now.
“Perhaps I should drive,” suggested Henrietta.
“And how exactly will you do that when we can’t even start the Craft?” retorted Hugo. “That’s not your most sensible suggestion, Henry!”
Henrietta took it in good part. She was basking in the rays of the sun, glad to feel warm again. She was not going to get cross with Hugo now. Hezekiah sat with her on the settee (which had proved to be waterproof and was already dry) at the back of the Craft. He was also basking in the sun, happy that Hugo and Jack could solve their current problems, and more than content that they would soon be heading to Aletheia again.
“Perhaps the Detector machine can tell us why the Rescue Craft won’t start,” suggested Jack.
“Good idea!” said Henrietta. “You know, Hugo, Jack is really a lot smarter than you!”
“Jack was so brave last night,” added Hezekiah.
“Good thinking, Jack,” said Hugo, while Jack went a bit red at all their comments. “See if you can find out what’s wrong on the Detector, Henry.”
Henrietta began to press buttons. “It’s got a whole section about the Rescue Craft Mechanics,” she said. “Mr Weighty is pretty clever if he invented all this stuff! Let me see. I’ll look under ‘Starter Malfunction’. That sounds about right…”
“What does it say?” asked Hugo.
“Wait a minute, nearly there…ah ha! Code CD. Craft Disabled!”
“Disabled!” said Hugo in dismay. “I wonder what that means!”
“I think it means it won’t start,” said Henrietta.
“Well, actually that’s the obvious bit, Henry,” said Hugo.
Hezekiah giggled faintly.
“Someone’s coming,” said Jack. “They might be able to help.”
It seemed too good to be true that anyone would help them in this part of Err. After their experience with Wander Palm, and knowing that the people they were likely to meet here would not necessarily be ‘on their side’, all three of them looked warily down the road towards False Teaching at the two figures that were coming their way. Were they friends or were they foes? At least it wasn’t more Snares, for the figures were those of a big man and a tall boy. They were definitely interested in the Rescue Craft though; they were pointing their way.
Henrietta, with her sharp eyes, was the first to discover the identity of the newcomers. “It’s Barmy!” she shrieked. “And Mr Weighty with him!” and she set off running down the road towards them.
Hugo watched her go. He was pleased, of course. He was very pleased that help was at hand and that they were at last reunited with Timmy. But now they must face the consequences of everything that they had done when they took things into their own hands and set off to rescue the three boys. And they must face Mr Weighty whose wonderful Rescue Craft they had so impulsively ‘borrowed’: and which now lay broken by the side of the road in the middle of Err.
Mr Weighty greeted them all like old friends, not naughty children; he really was a very nice man. There was some initial chaos while greetings were exchanged and Hugo and Henrietta offered red-faced apologies, and then Mr Weighty opened the enormous rucksack he carried on his back and distributed large sandwiches of many varieties – ham and cheese and pickle and eggs and sausages and more besides. He also gave them cool, refreshing Water of Sound Doctrine to drink, and a wonderful toffee cake, specially sealed to keep it from decaying in the air of Err. He didn’t scold Hugo and Henrietta for taking his Rescue Craft without permission; he merely said that there would be plenty of ‘others’ that would point out the error of their ways without him adding to their burdens.
Hugo and Henrietta were well aware of those ‘others’ of course. Their father and mother and their school teachers too would have plenty to say about their foolhardy adventure and they were exceedingly grateful to Mr Weighty for not punishing or lecturing them for what they had done.
“We thought we could manage to rescue Barmy on our own,” said Henrietta.
“I think Mr Weighty knows that now, Henry,” said Hugo.
Mr Weighty chuckled. “And now what do you think?” he asked.
“Well, we didn’t really know how to rescue Barmy,” said Henrietta.
“It takes experience as a Christian and a Rescuer to be properly prepared to go into enemy territory and rescue others,” said Mr Weighty. “There are many enemies and many other dangers that you know nothing about. If you’ve learned anything from your adventure let it be that you need to rely more on God to show you how to grow as a Christian, and less on your own ideas about what you should do!”
“Thanks for trying to rescue me though,” said Timmy. “I mean,” he turned to Mr Weighty, “I know they weren’t right,” he said, “but it was pretty good of them to try and find me, wasn’t it?”
Mr Weighty smiled. “You have good friends with good intentions, Timmy,” he agreed. “But of course you know now that God was always seeking you and longing to save you11. He would never have left you long without help once you started to cry for help to Him.”
Hugo and Henrietta, Jack and Hezekiah stared at Timmy who sat with them in the sunshine on the rug that Mr Weighty had spread over the now dry grass for them to have their picnic. He was Timmy, and yet he was not.
“Are you a Christian now, Barmy?” Hezekiah asked in awe.
Timmy no longer seemed to mind the ‘barmy’ tag from Hezekiah. “Yes,” he said. “I know now that I wasn’t before, but now…” and his eyes filled with tears that the others pretended not to see, “now the Lord Jesus has saved me. Now I know what it means to be a Christian.”
Henrietta dashed away a tear from her eye. “I’m so glad, Barmy,” she said, “so glad!”
Hugo cleared his throat.
Jack was too incredulous to speak at all but it was to him that Timmy turned first.
“I’m sorry,” Timmy said awkwardly, “for everything. I know I’ve been pretty bad to you lot too,” he said, glancing at Hezekiah in particular, “but Jack knows how awful I’ve been back at home and at school.”
“That’s alright,” stuttered Jack. “It’s fine now.”
Mr Weighty clapped Timmy on the back. “A fine start, son,” he said. “It’s a fine start to Christian life when you set out to put right your wrongs! It would be good if we could all remember to do that every day of our lives!”
It did not take long for Mr Weighty to ‘fix’ the malfunction of the Rescue Craft. To their astonishment it transpired that Mr Weighty himself had disabled the Rescue Craft with a remote control which was one of his particularly clever inventions “even if I say so myself!” he said. “The remote control overrides anything anyone else is doing in the Craft. I could even have made it come home again if I wanted to!”
“Then, you could have stopped us at any time!” gasped Henrietta. “You could have stopped us right away!”
“Yes,” said Mr Weighty. “I certainly could have.”
“But why?” asked Hugo. “Why didn’t you just take over and bring us back?”
“You make your own choices, my boy,” said Mr Weighty. “Sometimes you have to learn your lessons the hard way. But I was watching out for you. I wouldn’t have let any harm come to you, I assured your brother Harold of that! I could see your location at every moment on my Master Controller.”
“Where’s Harold?” asked Hugo.
“He should be at my house when we stop there for tea,” said Mr Weighty. “Then he’ll take you all home to Aletheia with him.”
Hugo and Henrietta were silent. It was the thought of facing their oldest brother Harold with the account of their doomed expedition. Harold was training to be a Rescuer and they greatly admired him. They had just never realised how much there was to his work. But face Harold they must, and very soon they were all seated in the Rescue Craft, Hugo and Timmy in the front with Mr Weighty, and Henrietta, Hezekiah and Jack sharing the settee at the back. They clutched onto the sides as Mr Weighty went speeding around the bends and flying down the straights. They were going towards Aletheia once more.
They had plenty of questions of course, and they talked for most of that return journey. How could they have defeated the Snares? What verses from the Bible might have stopped the Snares? How did Mr Weighty find Timmy? How did he rescue him on his own against all those Snares? Why didn’t the stick, which was the prayer weapon Henrietta found in the Rescuer’s Kit, work when they tried it on the Snares?
“We tried one of your prayer sticks against the Snares you see,” Hugo explained to Mr Weighty.
“I threw it at them,” said Henrietta in a small voice.
“But why didn’t it work?” asked Hugo.
“My dear Hugo,” said Mr Weighty, “you might have been throwing prayers for the Lost Ones in the Mountains of Destruction at the Snares of False Teaching! Those prayers have got nothing to do with them! Come to think of it, I did have some prayers collected for Mr Faintnot who is the Outpost Rescuer up near the Mountains of Destruction. I was going to deliver the prayers to him. I think it’s prayers for poor Mr Faintnot that you’ve been throwing at the Snares!”
“It was only one,” said Henrietta, looking thoroughly ashamed.
“Well, it’s done now,” said Mr Weighty, “but since the Snares you met are focussed on keeping people in False Teaching, prayer for people in the Mountains of Destruction wouldn’t have had much effect on them! You have to be specific and targeted in prayer. You can’t just expect to aim any prayer at any problem and get results. One of the secrets of effective prayer is praying specifically like Elijah did in the Bible7. Mr Duffle’s sticks worked wonderfully for Timmy and Jack because he had given the sticks to them; he was praying for them. One of the keys to a successful mission is preparing with prayer and asking people to provide prayer cover that is specific to the problems you’re going to face.”
“I see,” said Hugo.
“I think we have a lot to learn,” said Henrietta.
“I think we already know that, Henry,” said Hugo.
Mr Weighty smiled. “Perhaps you know more than you think,” he said kindly. “Think about the truth of Redemption. You know that when the Lord Jesus died, He paid the ransom12 for the sins of the whole world. But not everyone will be saved. Just as Timmy did recently, people have to choose to accept the payment that the Lord Jesus made on their behalf, and then they are set free from paying the penalty for their sins themselves. Ultimately, the process of redemption is complete when the Lord Jesus takes us home to heaven, and then we are claimed completely by Him.”
“Yes,” said Hugo, “we learned a bit about that at school, remember, Henry? Redemption is being purchased by God instead of being owned by sin; being set free from sin to belong to God instead.”
Henrietta simply nodded. She wished she had paid more attention to the Bible teaching at school. She had trusted in the Lord Jesus and was saved, but she had never really thought how vital these details would be when they faced real enemies and real dangers in the land of Err.
“That’s good, Hugo,” said Mr Weighty.
“Can the Lord Jesus set anyone free from anything? I mean, people who have been really, really bad?” asked Hezekiah.
“Absolutely,” said Mr Weighty. “There is no sin or wrong that has not been already paid for by the Lord Jesus! There is no one too bad to be saved. In fact, the worst sinner has already been saved!”
“Oh, I know who that was,” said Hezekiah. “The Apostle Paul!13”
“Very good!” said Mr Weighty. “So, you do listen at school sometimes!”
“So, what happens to someone who isn’t a Christian who gets taken by Snares?” asked Jack, trying not to look at Timmy too much. “How do they get free?” he still found it amazing that Timmy was really and truly there, safe and sound and somehow miraculously extracted from all those awful Snares.
“Well, it’s like it was with Timmy,” said Mr Weighty. “When Timmy cried out to God to save him and set him free from the Snares of sin that had a hold of him, then they no longer had any authority over him.”
“Did the Snares just let go?” asked Hezekiah.
Mr Weighty nodded. “They had to,” he said. “Because the Lord Jesus paid the price to set Timmy free; and when Timmy turned to Him and asked to be set free, the price the Lord Jesus paid is put to Timmy’s account.”
“Wow,” said Hezekiah.
“It’s the same with anyone who gets saved,” said Mr Weighty. “It happened to all of you too when you trusted in the Lord Jesus. We are all snared by sin. We might not have got taken captive quite like Timmy, but we all needed to be set free. And that’s what happens when we simply trust in the Lord Jesus.”
“So, it’s up to the person who’s been captured to want to be set free?”
“Yes,” Mr Weighty said. “If they continue in sin and don’t want God in their life then of course the Snares can hold them captive. But the moment a person asks to be set free and relies on what the Lord Jesus has done then the victory is won! It’s partly why I wanted to wait until the morning to go after Timmy,” Mr Weighty added. “You see, I knew that there could be no rescue unless Timmy himself wanted to be set free.”
“Oh,” said Henrietta. “We didn’t know that either.”
“We won’t get lost in Err again,” said Hugo earnestly.
But when he glanced at Mr Weighty, it seemed that Mr Weighty was faintly smiling and there was a twinkle in his eye when he said, “I wonder…”
Timmy said the least on that journey back to the Weightys’ home on Apathy Road. He was pale and worn and kept his eyes fixed unwaveringly ahead of him as if he never wanted to look away again.
“What are you thinking, Barmy?” asked Henrietta.
“I’m just looking at the cross,” said Timmy. “I’m thinking about how much it cost the Lord Jesus to set me free.”
And a tear fell down his cheek.