Short Stories
At quarter past ten, Kyle thought about mail. Though the Saturday delivery usually brought only junk mail, it was well past time for the mail person to have made her rounds and Kyle saw this as an opportunity to take a well-deserved break from lawn care.
His assumptions regarding the junk nature of the mail turned out to be correct for the most part and he tossed a number of ads in the trashcan as he returned to the rear of the house. But a small, heavy envelope that was addressed to Miss Madeline Trumbauer engaged his curiosity. He stepped out of his shoes and into the kitchen without a sound. He quietly advanced on the living room and watched Maddie running a dust cloth over lamps and end tables.
"Shouldn't you be doing something?" Maddie asked with a smile when she spotted him observing.
"Right now I'm delivering mail. You should find this interesting," he said and handed her the envelope.
Slightly taken aback by her maiden name, she concentrated on the return address. Who did she know named Aldgate?
"You could always just open it," Kyle suggested.
"Right, but I should know who this is. Aldgate, Aldgate ... Taylor!"
"So who's Taylor Aldgate?"
"He was the groundskeeper at High Point Camp when I was a kid and then in my later teens when I was a student counselor there," Maddie said making reference to a church camp South of Reading that had been a large part of her summers growing up.
"That's right, you spent your college freshman and sophomore summers working at the camp. Who was this guy?"
"He was just a quiet little man who pulled weeds, mowed lawns and every once in a while would engage some of the staff in conversation. Whenever I got the chance to speak with him, I always felt that I was in the presence of a man of great spiritual strength. He never overwhelmed people with his theological insight or knowledge of the Bible, but regardless, he struck me as a very powerful individual."
"Was he an older gentleman?"
"I thought so at the time, but he was probably only in his thirties."
"Did you ever learn where this strength you sensed came from?"
"As a matter of fact I did. One afternoon following a horseback ride around the mountain with some ten year olds I ran into Taylor on the way back to my cabin..."
"Good afternoon, Miss Madeline. How's old Clover doing?" Taylor asked in reference to the horse Maddie had befriended as a child and now paid special attention to in his old age.
"He's favoring his right hind leg on the steeper parts of the trail, so I've asked Hazel to have the vet check it out later in the week."
"I'm sure he'll be fine."
"Mr. Aldgate, would you have time for some coffee at the snack shop?"
"I'm in no hurry, so why not?"
As they entered the shop and placed their orders, Maddie apologized to Taylor for never taking the time to really talk with him over the years.
"I always looked at you as one of the constants around this place, like the dock in the lake or the deck around the outside of the dining hall and it's troubled me lately that I never bothered to do more than toss a casual greeting your way."
"My function here is to take care of things that need to be done in a way that doesn't distract the campers. Kids have a short enough attention span without me disturbing them with the sound of a lawn mower. Besides, your job requires that you concentrate on the kids, not on your co-workers."
"But that doesn't keep me from taking notice of my co-workers. And I've noticed that though you never say much, whenever you do speak you tend to say something filled with wisdom. I find myself wanting to tell you my secret fears in the hope that you'll say something to dispel them. I feel I could safely confess sin to you and find you to be an excellent counselor. You strike me as a spiritually powerful man and I've never so much as heard you give a blessing over a meal. I'd like to know why."
Taylor wondered if he really had it in him to discuss this with someone. Knowing he couldn't avoid the subject forever, he decided this might be a good way to ease into it.
"A few years ago my wife came to me and said that she hadn't loved me for a long time. For the sake of the kids, she was not going to ask for a divorce; but she did not want to live with me anymore and wanted to separate. I admitted that I'd fallen short as a spouse, told her that I still loved her very much and asked her to help me be a better husband to her. She wanted nothing to do with that sort of arrangement and insisted on separating.
"I was understandably devastated. I had invested everything I had into this relationship and she just threw it in my face. I found myself moving between two extremes. In one breath, I was angry with her for doing this to me. I felt like I had been involved in a lie rather than a marriage. But in the next breath, I was filled with sorrow for her and I knew that I could not simply stop loving her. Do you believe in coincidences?"
"Depends. When events come together and there is no purpose connected with the intersection, then I'd say yes, it's chance that things fell together like they did. But when the coincidence has some measure of meaning to someone who experiences it, then it is something more than a random confluence of events."
"Then you wouldn't think it coincidental that the following Sunday's sermon dealt with the story of Hosea."
Maddie thought for a moment, recalled the particulars of the story and was stunned by the timing of events.
"God told Hosea to take a wife of harlotry. Did that mean to marry an actual prostitute? And that certainly wasn't the situation in your case, was it?"
"No it wasn't and while it's still a matter of debate at what point and in what way Gomer became a prostitute, it was obvious from the story that she didn't respect the relationship she had with Hosea. At first, I took the story at face value, of a wife inflicting tremendous emotional pain on her spouse. Then I saw it for the picture God was painting.
"Israel had been an unfaithful partner in the covenant relationship it had entered into at Sinai. At one point early on in the relationship, God was ready to be done with the agreement and destroy the nation. In the story of Hosea, God fluctuated between harsh pronouncements of judgment and words of tenderness inviting Israel back into the relationship. Do you know what the valley of Achor was?"
"Do I remember that from when Israel was taking possession of Canaan?"
"Yes you do. After the victory at Jericho, a man named Achan kept some of the booty for himself when God had mandated that all the spoil from Jericho was to wind up in the temple treasury. When Israel went up against Ai, a much weaker city than Jericho, they expected an easy win. Instead, they came out of the fight with their noses bloodied. Joshua searched out the transgressor who was responsible for their defeat, found Achan and his family, who had obviously aided in the cover up, and they were stoned in the valley of Achor. After dealing with the sin of greed, Israel was able to go on to conquer Ai.
"One of the times God spoke to Hosea he told him that he would call Israel into the wilderness and that the valley of Achor would be to them as a door of hope. Israel would recall Achor only as a symbol of defeat. It could only become a door of hope if they relearned the lesson the story taught, and that was God would work with us when and if we disclose the worst in ourselves to him. And this is right where I found myself."
"But could that really be considered your fault?"
"I don't know that it was but I'm sure I wasn't the husband God wanted me to be. So I dealt with the situation by admitting on a daily basis that I was a mess, that I really needed God's guidance through this wilderness that had been forced upon me. And as I lived my life daily at the foot of the cross, I found myself loving my wife in ways I never thought I could. I would drive to her apartment and pray over her car, in the hopes that she would have safety as she traveled. I'd watch her apartment until the lights went out and would pray that she would get a good night's sleep."
"And God restored her to you?" Maddie asked, assuming the best from the situation Taylor was presenting.
"No, eighteen months later she asked for a divorce. But even though she said she didn't love me, she was grateful that I continued to love her. And I couldn't believe it. I thought that if I just obeyed God's call to continue to love her he would return her to me.
"Then to make matters worse, folks at church would try and fix me up, as the saying goes. But I have remained faithful to my wife, I think in large part due to the example of love God shows us in Hosea. I confess my desire for emotional closeness to another person and God responds with his own example. When Israel was a faithless lover, God remained faithful. He seems to be asking me, 'do you really want to behave towards her in a way that I would never behave towards you?'"
"So how long has it been now?"
"Another two years. And I continue to pray for my wife and hope for reconciliation. But if you want to know some secret to spiritual strength, I don't know of one," Taylor said and absently played with the contents of the lost and found box sitting at the end of the snack bar. "Unless it is to say that spiritual strength is not something you can have in large quantities like a full pantry ready to serve when a busload of relatives arrives. I'd have to say it's more like one of these."
"A Mickey Mouse Pez dispenser?"
"Yes, but a Pez dispenser that always has only one piece of candy in it. Like manna in the morning or Elijah and the widow of Zarephath's flour and oil. God's provision is there on an as-we-need-it basis. I've always found that grace pours out at that moment when it is required. So never be afraid or ashamed to go to God and tell him that you are in need, regardless of the nature of the need. There's bound to be another Pez in the dispenser."
"Wow. So what happened with Taylor and his wife?"
"I don't know. That was my last summer at High Point," Maddie said as she tore open the envelope.
As she read the embossed card, Kyle noted the smile and the welling of tears.
"It's an invitation to a wedding that happened two years ago. 'Brenda and Donald invite you to share in the joy of the reuniting in marriage of their parents Taylor and Leslie at' a time and a place. Gifts were not required; a reception followed in the church fellowship hall. Then there's a quote from Isaiah 25- 'And it will be said in that day, "Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation."' "
"Is there something written on the back of the invitation?" Kyle asked as he rubbed his eyes in as nonchalant a fashion as he could manage.
"Yes there is," Maddie said. " 'Miss Madeline, I apologize if I've used the wrong last name but the folks who diligently update addresses of old staff members at High Point aren't nearly as meticulous when it comes to the updating of name changes resulting from marriage. Leslie and I will be passing through your area this coming weekend on our way to visit our son and daughter in law in upstate New York and were wondering if we might take you to lunch.'"
"Not this weekend, I hope."
"No, the date indicates next weekend."
"Well you should give him a call. I think it would be nice for you to see how things turned out."
"But..."
"What?"
"I don't think I'm going to like her. And I don't know if I can fake congeniality."
"You've always been diplomatic in tense situations. I have faith in you."
Seven days and six hours later, they were assessing their lunch at The Meritage Restaurant. Kyle had gone the seafood route again while Maddie had done the soup and salad, both comfortable with the ruts they were in.
"You were surprised by Leslie, weren't you?" Kyle asked.
"Yes, I'll admit that I was stunned. I went prepared at the very least to dislike her and I ended up loving her. She was simply enchanting. But why should I have expected any different? For close to ten years Taylor prayed and fasted on her account and thereby exposed her to every resource of grace that God makes available to us all. How could she be anything less than what she was?"
"Quite true. And I fully understand what you meant about the sense of strength Taylor gives off. I could see in him the joy and the life that exists on the other side of the cross. I think I'll always look at trials differently now."
"How do you know that wasn't just him glowing over news of a grandchild?"
"I'm sure that was part of it. And I think that's a look we should put on your parent's faces sometime soon."
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The joy and life that exsists on the other side of the cross, what faith ! What an amazing article, i enjoyed this so much!
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