Today's Reading
"I will join my prayers to yours that the Lord will answer your prayers." It was time to make her escape from this impossible conversation. As she started to turn away, he caught her arm.
"But can you not believe you already are that answer?" His gaze didn't waver. "I have no doubt the Lord led us both here on this day. At this very moment. The children need you."
He didn't grip her arm, merely touched it, but his words froze her in place. She did feel a tug at her heart. Not for the man staring at her, but for the children he mentioned. Children with no teacher. The force of his calling seemed to go from his hand to her heart.
"I barely know you."
Her head was spinning. If not for his hand on her arm, she might have swooned. She never swooned, but now it seemed his touch was all that kept her grounded. Or perhaps not him. Perhaps his talk of the Lord. Yes, that was what she should cling to. His mission for the Lord. A mission he was inviting her to join.
When he didn't say anything, she added, "You barely know me."
"The Lord knows us both and he knows the need. A need you and I can fill in Sourwood. You wouldn't be a teacher hired by the county. Ours would be a mission school with our own rules for the position of teacher. A teacher chosen by the Lord." Now he did tighten his fingers on her arm the slightest bit. "I think you feel the calling too. Think of the children you will help."
"I already teach here in Louisville."
"City children have many teachers. In Sourwood they have none, but we have faith the Lord will provide the perfect teacher for the schoolhouse we're building." He leaned closer to her. "And here you are."
She felt captured, not only by his hand, but by his mission. "The need for a teacher doesn't explain your—" She hesitated before continuing. "Your proposal. You do know that teachers are required to be single."
A flicker of a frown tightened his face, but only for a moment. "A foolish policy, in my opinion. Don't you agree?"
"I-I have never considered it, as I knew it would not apply to me."
"You never thought of marriage?"
"Not after Edward died." Even now, years later, simply saying the words made her heart clench with sorrow.
"I was sorry to hear of his passing. A good man lost to the world." His face softened as though he understood her grief.
"So much lost," she murmured. This man could not know how much. The emptiness, the barren feeling that settled deep within her.
"But the Lord has another plan for you now. Come to the mountains with me. As my wife. The mountaineers will accept you sooner that way and trust their children to your instruction."
"I can't marry you. I don't love you." She looked directly into his eyes. "You don't love me."
"But I love the Lord. You love the Lord. I believe He will honor that love, and with a common mission in both our hearts, the Lord will grow love between us as he did so many of those he brought together in the Bible."
"We are not people in the Bible."
For the first time since he'd pulled her aside, he smiled fully to transform his face. He looked more like the boy she remembered from school, someone everyone liked. She felt her own lips turning up in an answering smile despite the complete disarray of her thoughts.
"We are not, but I believe the Lord still works through people in our day the same as Bible times. He knows the plans He has for us and He opens up paths to let us accomplish his purpose. He sent me to the mountains to minister to the people there. Could you have ever believed that possible when you knew me years ago?"
How could she answer him? At that time, she could have never imagined him becoming a preacher. "I don't know. I suppose I could have if I had considered the possibility."
He waved away her words with a laugh. "Now, now, Miss Dean, I think you do know. You can be honest with me. Honesty is important, even vital, in a marital relationship."
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