PART 46
“NWALA: THE BITTERSWEET STORY”
©️ Opeyemi Akintunde.
As Inspired by the LIVING WORD.
“I know you love her, everyone can see it” Bishop said as he patted him on the back
“I do not love her anymore, and I want a divorce. I have been wanting to divorce her for months but I couldn’t bear to do it. Daddy, Beauty cheated on me and has a child for him”
“Hmm…” Bishop said
Reuben noticed his father’s unsurprised response.
” You knew?” Reuben asked
Bishop nodded in the positive.
“That means everyone knows, that means it is so Obvious.” Reuben said
“Well, Amos doesn’t exactly look like either of you, so it only makes sense for people to query his birth”
“Dad, I made the biggest mistake of my life. I married a Spiritual baby. I guess I was smitten by her beauty. I saw the signs before marriage, I thought if I showed her love in marriage she would grow.”
“If there is no seed in the ground, you can’t grow anything. ” Bishop said
I wept where I sat watching. Back when I was single, I didn’t have the seed of Christianity in me, I was just a Christian because my mom was.
“Am I not permitted to divorce her on the basis of adultery, at least the Bible gives that allowance?” Reuben asked
“Sure you can, but that means you have a hardened heart , an unforgiving heart? That means if you hear my story, you will deny me as your father?” Bishop said
” Your story?”
I watched as Bishop recounted his story to Reuben.
“As I speak, I live in regret daily. I wished I never followed my friend to that place, but I thank God for He is a God whose heart is not hardened, He forgave me when I ran to him for Mercy.”
Reuben was no longer in tears, he was looking at his father in total shock and he asked his father the question I didn’t have the boldness to ask him…
“Truthfully Dad, who can you say gave you the power you are using?”
“I believe it is the Power of the Most High, and that’s why I have never given them the blood of humans they ask yearly from me. Reuben, yours is clearer, one child is yours and the other is for the other man. Do not punish or separate yourself from your wife because of her mistake. God has accepted me even with my ugly past, it is just a scar of regret I live with.
Reuben, what if Beauty was a single mom when you met her, you would have had to love Amos like he is yours. So forgive her and accept her scar of regret.”
Reuben wept again…
“Beauty has grown spiritually, your separation from her has made her grow, I can tell you for a fact that Beauty is now the Woman you should have married back then. You shouldn’t have married her back then in a rush, you should have waited for her to become her own woman before making her your own woman.”
“So I should own Amos like my own?”
“He is a part of your wife, so if you are to accept her back, you have to accept her with her son.”
Reuben wept!!!
“Reuben , I know you are in the dry and hot season of your marriage, but you can bring out something good out of it . I know you both are sweaty and do not want to come close to each other, the sun of infidelity has burnt you, but I want you both to take a refreshing bath under the fountain of the living water. Go there, you will be refreshed. After your refreshment, you can come out, make good use of this hot and dry season to have a good time; a picnic in life. Take this take to dry your wet clothes “
I couldn’t watch any longer, I wept…
I was lying on the bed I slept on as a spinster. I wished the girl who slept on that bed years back had been wise and discerning.
It began to make sense to me why Reuben spoke to me the way he did earlier at the hospital. He had called Amos His son!
Did it mean he had forgiven me?
I slept off.
To be continued..
