Spirit hesitated in the doorway.
Mishalariah looked up at him, her eyes pleading. "I have to know. What are the five boxes? Are they five businesses? Five career changes?" She pouted. "When will you tell me?"
Spirit entered the chamber and sat down in the blue velvet chair. "I'll tell you now," he said, leaning forward. "Your dream is similar to Pharaoh's dream, the one I gave to Joseph. Do you remember that interpretation?"
Mishalariah nodded. "Seven skinny cows ate seven fat cows. And seven scrawny grains devoured seven healthy grains." Her eyes lit up. "Years. The seven cows and seven grains represented seven years. The interpretation was that there would be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine."
Spirit leaned back and smiled. "The five boxes are five years, Mishalariah"
"Five years starting when?" she asked. "Now?"
"Not until the beginning of the year 5775."
Mishalariah furrowed her brow. "But it's 2014—"
"On the Hebrew calendar, the year 5775 begins this fall." Spirit leaned forward and grasped Mishalariah's hands. "Count the years with me, Mishalariah. Let us assess them together, each new year—at the end of Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles."
Mishalariah nodded.
Spirit squeezed her hands. "Do you know what we will be assessing?"
"The yearly outcomes?"
Spirit nodded. "The first four years will have 'nice' outcomes. Nothing overwhelming, but fruitful none the less."
"And the fifth year?"
"The fifth year will be a struggle, but you will prevail because I will be with you."
Mishalariah tensed. "And the outcome of the fifth year?"
"The outcome of the fifth year will change your life completely." Spirit gazed intently into her eyes. "You may not want to, but you will leave your software engineering career and follow the Father's call into a new ministry that he has planned for you."
Mishalariah’s shoulders sagged. “Why does this have to happen?"
Spirit leaned back and smiled. "Because you dove in."
"I see,” Mishalariah said. “Diving in means getting back into the business game." She rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Every time we try to do business, we get hurt. The multi-level marketing failure. The business competition failure. The NeighborNetwork failure. The MedEzer failure—"
"So, why did you dive in?"
Her chin lifted in semi-darkness. "You told us to."
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