So We Got Married - Episode 8

 

I drove in circles around town. I did not want to go home to that empty house. I had tried calling his phone but it went straight to voice mail. I thought after yesterday something would be different but as it turned out i was wrong. It felt like I was the only one in pain as i watched people walking on the sidewalks. I could see couples smiling as they went on with their business, some hugging it out while others pushing baby strollers as they moved on . This was loneliness indeed.

Going round the round-about, i finally switched to the path that was to bring me home. After moving out of traffic i scaled towards home at a very high speed, only slowing down when i noticed zebra crossing up ahead. Home was less than five minutes away. As I branch to the street that would eventually take me to my estate. There I distinctively heard some choir training in a church i used to pass everyday as i went to work. The singing was so melodious and for some reason it touched my grieving heart. I packed my car and crossed over. The front door was partially closed. I pushed it slightly and entered the church.

Nobody noticed that i was there because they were all facing the pulpit. Their trainer sat by the piano and from where I chose to sit at the extreme back he couldn’t see me. I felt a pull wanting me to stay there and listen to the beautiful sound being produced by these amazing people i knew nothing about

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. I believed in God, but i had never really taken religion seriously. I believed i was a good person and by that only, i would get a direct ticket into heaven.

I placed my head on the pew in front of me with my hands around it.

“God if you are real, please save my marriage.” I prayed.

The choir continued with the song.

Amazing grace how sweet that sound,
That saved a wretch like me,
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind but now i see.

I felt like that song spoke to me. I needed a savior.

I sang along when the next one came. It was a verse we used to sing a lot in high school.

Just as i am without one plea, 
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And though it bid me come to Thee,
O lamp of God i come, i come.

I sang along and i found myself drifting into series of my life events from the time i was a kid, playing in my mama’s cradle. First time at pre-school, campus until the time I met Uri. How complete i had felt when he proposed to me in-front of his family and my brother. Then we started our journey in marriage. It had been blissful at first then Abigael died and we drifted apart. Now he wanted a divorce. If there was meaning to all of this i wanted to know. I sobbed silently.
The choir practice ended and they left the church. I continued in my thoughts with my head bowed down. They must have assumed I was a believer who had come to offer her prayers to God. In a way they were right.

I felt someone lightly tapping my shoulder. 

“Excuse me miss.”

I lifted my head to be met by a man whom i approximated be in his late fifties.

“I have been watching you, you have stayed here for quite a while.”

I smiled not knowing what to say.

“I hope whatever you seek God will grant it to you.”

“Amen.” I responded.

“Do you go to church here? I have never seen you among my flock.”

“No Pastor, it’s my first time here.”

“I see.”

“Everything okay at home?”

I shook my head.

“Well good… you came to the right place. 

Without invitation he went on to sit beside me.

“Divorce?”

I nodded.

“It’s all my fault.” I added.

“With God it doesn’t matter, He will help you nevertheless.”

“I want us to pray together, is that okay?” 

I nodded.

He prayed for me and for the first time in two weeks I felt like it was going to get better.

He gave me a small pocket bible that had all two testaments in it. That night i read the whole of the new-testament. It felt like i was going to school for the first time and was re-learning about everything i thought i knew about life. My divorce and loss of my only child Abigael paled to the comparison of the fact that i was headed for eternal destruction because of my sins. I had led my life like i was the god of my universe and failed to put Him to be the God of my universe. I had broken all His commandment and failed to acknowledge the work of His son Jesus equally God with Him, who died for me on the cross. All the things i hold dear were now meaningless and I needed Him more than anything.

The story of the woman at the well stuck out the most for me the most.

Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever that drinks from the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.

Read " Imagine Mountains " by the same author ( DORSILA ANYANGO )

. John 4:13-14. 

A foot note was attached at the end of that chapter referring to Jeremiah 2:13.

For my people have committed two evils: They have forsaken me the living waters and hewn themselves cisterns- broken cisterns that can hold no water.

I thought about all that i had read and meditated over everything. I believed. I believed in everything that it said and more than anything i wanted to become a disciple.

I did not sleep a wink. The next morning, i bathed and left early for church. It was open but there was no one inside. I waited up to about 8:20 am.

The pastor was surprised to see me early in church.

“I read everything.” I told him

“Everything?”

“Yes everything in the new-testament.”

“Wow Ella that’s so good.”

“Yeah, I believe and I want to be baptized.”

“Now?”

“Yes now, I don’t think I can wait any longer.”

“Yes of course, Sister. Grace! We have a new sheep for the flock.” He called out.

An equally elderly woman appeared and i later learnt she was the head deaconess. I had never seen such joy in any one’s eyes. It glowed with so much love. Grace was even crying! On a Tuesday in the month of October I got baptized and it was one of the best decisions that I ever made and it changed my life to the best course it could ever take.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

GOD IS THE CREATOR OF THIS UNIVERSE BUT HE GIVE US THE CHOICE TO CALL HIM FATHER. WHAT YOU DO FOR HIM NOW, HE WILL REMEMBER FOR ALL ETERNITY.

TODA,

DORSILA.