Steve Walton was exhausted after his long flight from Singapore. When his butler informed him that Pastor Morris had come to visit, Steve wasn’t pleased. He wasn’t in the mood for another request or lecture from the pastor about community support. Begrudgingly, he had the pastor shown in, making it clear he wanted to get straight to the point.
The pastor, however, delivered unexpected news. He had seen Steve’s daughter, Susan, who had left home nearly fifteen years ago and hadn’t been heard from since. Steve’s heart nearly stopped when he heard her name, overwhelmed with a mix of anxiety and hope.
Pastor Morris explained that Susan wasn’t doing well—she was homeless, living in a car with her four children. Steve was stunned. He had never imagined his daughter, whom he hadn’t stopped thinking about, would be living on the streets. He immediately wanted to know more—what had happened to her husband, the man Steve had despised so much?
The pastor shared that Susan’s husband had passed away three years earlier. Though Steve was angry, Susan had refused to come home, not wanting to subject her children to a place where their father was hated.
Steve remembered the argument all too well. Susan had defied him at sixteen, declaring her love for their gardener and refusing to have an abortion. Despite Steve’s fury and ultimatum—marry him and leave or stay and end the relationship—Susan chose love and walked out of her father’s life.
Now, Steve was filled with regret. He asked Pastor Morris to accompany him to Los Angeles, desperate to find his daughter and bring her home. They flew down in Steve’s private jet, and Pastor Morris directed him to a parking lot where Susan and her children had been living in an old pickup truck.
As they approached the truck, Steve could hear the laughter of children. Two kids, a teenage girl and a young boy, emerged from the back of the truck, surprised by the strangers. When they called for their mother, Susan appeared, shocked to see her father standing there.
She barely resembled the daughter Steve remembered. At only thirty-one, Susan looked much older, worn down by years of struggle and hardship. Steve was overcome with emotion and grief, realizing how much his daughter had endured. He blamed her late husband for the poverty she now lived in, but Susan, still defiant, explained that despite the hardships, her husband had given her love and four beautiful children. She reminded her father that she had always loved him too, despite everything.
Overcome with guilt, Steve broke down, asking Susan for forgiveness. He begged her to come home with him and let him take care of her and her children. Holding his daughter as she cried, Steve realized they could still repair their broken relationship.
Susan introduced her children to their grandfather, three girls and a boy, the youngest named Stevie, after her father. Steve was shocked and moved by this gesture. Despite all that had happened, Susan had named her son after the man who had turned his back on her.
That same day, Steve took Susan and her children back home to Texas, where they could finally start a new chapter. It was the beginning of a better life for all of them.
4o