In Short – Issue 4 (Winter 2026)

January 31, 2026

Image credit: Katherine Matsubara

Jesus Loves the Little Children

By Suzanne Hicks

I couldn’t sleep at night hearing the cows just outside the bedroom window at my grandparents’ house, wondering if something lurked among them. Maybe they sensed a storm coming like the one Grandma told me about, the wind blowing wild, hogs squealing, and she thought the world was ending, but that was before she was born again. Years later, when she asked me if I believed in Jesus Christ, my answer uncertain, she told me, The Lord wants you hot or cold. If you are lukewarm, he will spit you out. And I remembered how on those nights I’d listen wide-eyed, shivering under the covers in summer, worried that maybe it was Satan himself coming to snatch me away.

Suzanne Hicks is a disabled writer living with multiple sclerosis. Her work appears in matchbook, Gooseberry Pie, Stanchion, Bending Genres, Milk Candy Review, and others. Her stories have been selected for Best Microfiction (‘24 and ‘25) and the Wigleaf Top 50 Longlist (‘24 and ‘25). Read more at suzannehickswrites.com.