Nadine Brandes Quotes

Don't strive to belong, Parvin. Your effort is much better placed elsewhere.

This isn't how it should be, God.

Thousands of graves marking thousands of lives--so much focus on death. Did the gravediggers spend their lives just serving the dead? How many Numbers ticked away for the sake of carving headstones no one would read?

As I stare at this scene, I decide I don't want a headstone when I die. I don't even want to be buried. I want to disappear--save that chunk of earth for people to live on. This land I stand on is worthless now. No one can build a house here. No one can plant gardens or start a new village. Is that what the people buried beneath me would have wanted?

Earth wasn't intended to hold only dead bodies.

I stand. God, I need to live.

Romanov.
For that name alone, bound to my blood like a Bolshevik is bound to the Russian Revolution, I am destined to die.
Because not even royal blood can stop bullets.

But my task wasn't over yet. Now I'd been equipped to do what I must.

We need to fight for truth. Your beliefs can be misguided.

And hope never abandoned us - only we could abandon it.

Because someday, Parvin Blackwater, I want you to marry me.

Amazing that, amidst such beauty, He would decide to even look at me, let alone call me to join Him in a quest for shalom. This journey will not fail. It cannot fail when He is the leader.

The best place to hide an item was on your person. But when you couldn't manage that, the next best place was to hie it in plain view. People searched there last.

Don't think about me."

"I always think about you.

Why won't you die?"
"because I have a story I was meant to live. And not even you can unwrite it.

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I might have had the stone eye, but you are the blind one.

I know," my lips said.
I know, my head said.
I want him, my heart said.

Maybe that's what God means every time He tells us to rise up. To rise above the small things, the small struggles that chip away our identity and leave us lost.

You shouldn't be placing hope in our lives, Parvin. That's my point. I don't know the answers of the future, but your confidence and hope need to be in God.

I squeezed his hand, so tight it likely pained him. But sometimes comfort needed to sting more than the sorrow for it to break into the grief.

She was fire and life.

She was awe and starlight.

Everyone deserves a chance to make right

But rest assured I'll win. Because I'm going to kill you...
... with kindness.
And it's going to feel really weird for both of us.

Revenge would have shattered us both. But you've given us the opportunity to be strong. To mend our hearts instead of break them further.

I'd been a coward once already that day.
No longer

A whisper loud enough to rise above the world's roar. That is my God. Working through us flawed, impulsive humans.

But light could not be so swiftly overcome by darkness. Not when that light rested in a person's soul.

blowing up three hundred Parliament members and the king of England wasn't restoration. It was death with no phoenix to rise out of it.

But a man can be both soft and strong, maintaining a hope for the world.

God will never instruct me to be afraid, so I might as well get used to reminding myself to fear not.

Take a breath, Thomas. There has always been fear. There will always be fear. It's up to us to stand tall, even when the fear demands we bow to it.

It is those who dream of the impossible who end up defying the very world.

Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. I don't think He wants us to keep asking and dwelling on His specific plan or will. He wants us to dwell on and seek Him. Then our decisions will be made from our love for and relationship with Him. We are free to take action in whatever means we want as long as we seek Him and allow Him to guide us.

The bond of our hearts spans miles, memory, and time.

Peace, quiet, and safety are all well. But community and relationships are what truly fill a person's life.

But labels, names, or skin colour don't matter ... we're children of Christ.

I breathed in the safety that came from a hidden secret.

You find joy in so many little things. For once... I want to see joy find you. Surprise you. You deserve it.

I saved you for a reason.

I've come so far with Him... and yet I still remain so far from what I could be.

to a High City with him . . . alone. And those who know he lives in the

All my life I was driven by the loyalty of caring for the people I loved...I was taught that nothing was more important than such care. But your family showed me differently. You cared equally as much about those you loved-you would do anything for them. But you also allowed yourselves to love...more. You loved your enemies. You loved your friends.

My culture had affected my thinking without my consent. How many other things had it shaped without my knowing it? It made me want to examine things - to seek the heart of matters. Of skin color, of Keepers, of Igniters, of White Light, of all my assumptions.

How many of us acted and spoke out and fought for beliefs that we held because our environment told us to? As much as I wanted to blame my England, I knew the blame sat with me. I hadn't trained myself to discern. To examine. To seek the source.

That was about to change.

You sound like a woman."

I swept into a bow, the sword point pricking my sternum.

"Why, thank you.

Numbers, letters, lines ... math. That's worse than fish.
No notes. No explanation, just math scribbles.

Me. I can't be shaken because I'm God's. I like the idea of Him shaking the world to see what's left standing, and all that remains is shalom.

You've had one moment of clarity and now you think you have all the answers." She gave a grim smile. "Take a breath, Thomas. There has always been fear. There will always be fear. It's up to us to stand tall, even when the fear demands we bow down to it.

A coward I might be, but at least I was a free one.

They had something worth dying for. Ah, but you have something they don't.
And what's that?
Something worth living for.

You're Missing a hand."
And you're missing a brain!

With his mask and my sword, we could subdue even the shadows.

Healing. Forgiveness. Shared story. The promise of walking life with someone who knew my bloodied past. A hand willing to touch the skin of a Romanov and feel only joy.

The promise of uncertainty changes how I live. It urges me to live... more, as if the very seconds prior to every sunset will be my last. That's the way it's suppose to be.

That was how we sisters worked. When one was weak, another picked up the strength.