Arousing Love, a teen novel (18 page)

She giggled. “I can’t wait ‘til I’m
seventeen.

“I wish we only had to wait ‘til you’re
sixteen.”

She laughed. “I can’t believe my dad’s even
thinking of letting us get married. And betrothed, was that his
idea?”

“Yeah, he surprised me with that, but I like
the idea.”

“Are you as excited about it as me?”

“Yeah! You don’t think seventeen is too young
though?”

“I don’t care if we’re too young. I just
wanna be with you.”

“Me too.”

“Joanna,” her father called, “come sit around
the fire now. It’s getting too dark, we can hardly see you back
there.”

We took our chairs back to the fire. I felt a
little uneasy around her parents, knowing what they’d just been
discussing. I hoped Joanna wouldn’t give away anything we’d
overheard. I gave her a warning look hoping she could read my mind,
but she just smiled at me. She looked so beautiful in the
firelight.

We chatted for a while, and I began to relax
around her parents again. We talked into the night. Joanna sang
some beautiful songs, and I listened enraptured, captivated, in
love.

When I finally said my goodnights, even
Joanna’s mother seemed sorry to see me go. Joanna boldly kissed me
goodnight in front of her parents. I walked home feeling
emotionally warm and happy.
I wish this time didn’t have to end.
I love her parents, I love God, and I love Joanna so much.
I
was so full of love my heart felt huge, and I felt loved by them
all.
They’re such a great family.
I was on an emotional
high, but I knew it wouldn’t last. I was at the top of the
rollercoaster knowing the stomach dropping plunge awaited me. She
was leaving on Saturday morning. But at least we had tomorrow.

That night, as I got into bed, I remembered
what Joanna’s father had said about making sure I was meant to move
to Colorado. Everything came down to whether I moved there or not.
If I go, we’ll be betrothed, if I don’t
. . . .

“God, you know how much I love Joanna. I
can’t bear the thought of losing her, but I need a sign from you to
confirm I’m meant to move to Colorado. If you want us to be
together, help me get into one of those schools I’ve applied to,
but if it’s not your will, keep me from getting in to any of them.
This is the sign I ask for, to show me clearly what your will is
for Joanna and me. I know you love us, and you know what’s best for
us. Your will be done.”

Nine

All I could think about was Joanna leaving
tomorrow, and here I was stuck wasting these precious moments
working instead of being with her. The desire to go see her was so
strong it was driving me crazy.

“Dad, can I have the the day off? It’s
Joanna’s last day, and I—”

My dad shook his head. “You’ve taken too much
time off lately. You’ve gotta learn, Zach, when you’ve got a job to
do, you do it. You can’t slack off whenever you want.”

“I just wanna spend some time with her before
she leaves tomorrow.”

He ignored me and went into the back room,
banging the door shut behind him.

The day dragged on, and I felt my anger turn
to hate, but I knew it was wrong to hate him. I had to forgive him
and let it go.
He thinks he’s doing me some good. He thinks I
need to learn these life lessons the hard way.

Finally it was 5pm, and I got out of there as
fast as I could. Joanna was so happy to see me. I loved seeing her
smile like that, it did something good to my soul.

She danced into my arms. “We just got back
from a drive through the forest.”

“Yes, and Joanna made us hurry back. She
didn’t want to miss even a minute with you.” Her mother teased.

“I know the feeling.”

Joanna’s father smiled as we joined him
around the table. He placed his Bible down beside him. “So, this is
our last night together, we’ll be leaving in the morning as soon as
we’re all packed up.” He gave me a wistful smile.

“Why do we have to go so early, Dad?”

“It’s a long trip back, and I’ve got work on
Monday.”

“How long does it take?” I was curious.

“Well, that depends. We don’t take the
quickest route home, we like the scenic routes—just taking our time
and seeing the sights. Last time we got to see the Grand Canyon,
and the national parks in Utah.”

Joanna rolled her eyes, and I stifled a
laugh.

“I’d like to see the Grand Canyon
sometime.”

“It’s worth seeing, Zach. I love seeing all
the diverse beauty of God’s creation. God has such a great
imagination.”

“Yeah, like us. We’re his most amazing
creation.” Joanna said.

“Yes we are, we’re made in his image, a
trinity of body, soul and spirit, and he gave us the same desire to
create, and to love, and to know.”

“We’re like a little copy of him.” I smiled.
I enjoyed these discussions.

He picked up his Bible again. “I was reading
something I think would make a good Bible study for tonight. It’s
from first Corinthians chapter six.” He began to read. “Do you not
know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then
take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!
Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one
with her in body? For it is said, ‘The two will become one flesh.’
But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in Spirit.
Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are
outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own
body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy
Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not
your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your
body.”

He stopped reading and looked at us. “When we
sin sexually, we make an impure union of flesh that lasts as long
as the flesh remains. That’s why the Bible says ‘Flee from sexual
immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but
he who sins sexually sins against his own body.’ We are meant to be
one flesh with only one person. Anything else is impure.”

“What about people who’ve already had sex?
Can they get married later to someone else, or is that impure?”

“God is merciful, Zach. Through Christ he
redeems us from our old life. We are all sinners when we come to
him, and he makes us new creations, the old is gone and the new has
come. God has given us an ideal for marriage, but he knows we don’t
live in a perfect world, that’s why we need his grace and
forgiveness.”

“Okay, this is probably a dumb question, but
what does it mean to be one flesh? I mean, you don’t become one
person, right?”

“No, that’s a good question.” He smiled. “It
means her body is now yours and your body is now hers, you belong
to each other. It doesn’t mean you become one person.
Here
. . .
” He started flipping
back through the Bible. “This is what the Bible says: “Then the
Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and
he brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my
bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she
was taken out of man.” For this reason a man will leave his father
and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one
flesh.”

He finished reading. “See how it says ‘for
this reason’? It’s saying the way Eve was created from Adam’s flesh
and bone is the reason a man and woman are joined together in
marriage. It is a re-joining of what was separated into two—male
and female, through a covenant relationship of flesh. The Bible
often speaks of the church as being the bride of Christ, and
likening it to a betrothal—Jesus paid the bride price for us with
his blood, and we are spiritually betrothed to him. He has gone to
prepare a place for us, and is coming again for his beautiful
bride. That day is spoken of as the wedding feast of the lamb, and
Paul speaks of it as a great mystery—the spiritual union of the
bride to Christ. Just as the marriage of flesh is a rejoining of
the flesh that was taken from Adam to create Eve, so with Christ it
is a rejoining of his Spirit that was given to create his church,
and we become one in Spirit. How this will be, no one knows, it is
a mystery.”

“That’s pretty cool. So if we get betrothed
we’re being like Christ and the church.”

He nodded. “In the Bible, physical things are
often a shadow of a greater spiritual truth.”

“But what about gay marriage?” I asked.

“Well, obviously, if marriage is a rejoining
of what was separated into two—male and female, as one flesh, that
can’t include gay marriage. Marriage is a covenant of flesh made
before God, not just a legal agreement. If marriage was just
something a government authority gives us—a piece of paper that
says you’re legally married, then let the world marry whoever it
wants to marry. Legal marriage is not the same thing God gave us,
but most people seem to think it is. They think it’s by government
authority that we’re married, and legal divorce dissolves it, even
though Jesus said, ‘what God has joined together let no man
separate.’ So many Christians think we have to protect legal
marriage and fight against things like gay marriage, but we’re not
meant to be fighting for Christian morality in this world, we’re
not meant to be preventing the world from sinning through political
legalism. Our war is for the souls of this world, and we fight with
the truth of the gospel. We’ve been fighting against the people
we’re supposed to be fighting for, making enemies of the ones we’re
supposed to love the most.”

“Yeah, it’s the opposite of what Jesus did,
he loved the sinners and hung out with them.”

“That’s right, Zach. True Christianity is all
about love, not outward righteousness. Love is the source of true
righteousness. It’s a heart transformed by the love of God.”

“But why is homosexuality a sin, if it’s just
something they’re born with?”

“All of nature has been corrupted since sin
came into the world, Zach, we’re all corrupted in different ways.
It’s natural for us to sin, just as it’s natural for us to die.
We’re born selfish and self centered and proud, but Jesus came to
save us from every kind of sin. God let the world go its own way,
and gave mankind over to their sins, but now that Christ has come,
he requires all men everywhere to repent and be saved from their
sins. Some people judge others for certain sins that disgust them,
but every sin grieves God, and yet he loves us all and desires
everyone to be saved. The sins Jesus was most disgusted by were
actually the Pharisee’s, with their self righteousness and
judgementalism, and hypocrisy. We’re not supposed to judge the
world’s sins, we’re supposed to love them by giving them the gospel
that set us free.”

“Yeah.” I nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly
with everything he was saying.

“But why do so many Christians not understand
what marriage is? They think it’s just the legal marriage, not
something spiritual God gave us?” Joanna asked.

Her father nodded. “A lot of man-made
traditions have grown up in the church over the centuries,
including the religious wedding ceremony with vows and priests.
People started believing the ceremony made you married before God,
and they lost the understanding of the sexual union and the part it
plays in making us one flesh. It was no longer celebrated as the
thing that makes us married, it became something shameful and
unmentionable in the culture, feared for its passion and power to
cause people to sin. But it is a covenant of flesh made before God,
which is why its purity is so important to God. Now, of course, our
culture has gone to the other extreme—they’ve separated it from
marriage, and from procreation, and even from love. Now it’s
celebrated in our culture as just a fleshly pleasure. But that’s
the difference between us and animals—they only have the instinct
to mate and procreate, but we have a soul that can love. That’s why
God made it pleasurable for us, he made it a way of expressing love
and enjoying each other physically and intimately as one. God
created everything by his love, and in a small reflection of that,
this expression of love between a man and woman creates the life of
another human being. Love creates. It’s one of the most powerful
things we humans do.”

He paused and looked at Joanna. “I want you
to enjoy this beautiful gift in the way he meant for us to enjoy
it. You’re growing up so quickly, but instead of being afraid of
that, I want to help you remain sexually pure and make wise
decisions. God has given me the responsibility of looking after you
and protecting you, and I’m taking that responsibility
seriously.”

Joanna nodded.

“These days, most parents entrust their
children to the world to go out and find a mate for themselves and
be responsible for their own sexual purity, and look what that’s
done for us—vulnerable girls putting themselves out there like
sexual bait to find love, and boys behaving like sexual predators,
seeking sex without love or commitment. We live in one of the most
sexually impure societies in the world. Our whole culture
encourages sexual immorality. I can’t change the culture we live
in, but I can do what I can for my own daughter.” He smiled at
Joanna for a moment before continuing.

“God gave fathers this responsibility, but
somewhere along the way they gave it up. Now daughters give
themselves away, and often cheaply. They don’t honor their fathers.
They don’t need their father’s permission to marry, they have
permission from the state. There’s still a symbolic nod to the
father in the wedding ceremony, but he isn’t actually giving his
daughter away, the state is.”

He glanced at his wife, then looked again at
Joanna. “At least, if you did get married before you were eighteen,
I’d still be legally responsible for you, and I really would be
giving you away, not just pretending to.”