Chapter 10: I Do
Karen knew she should have never suggested a wedding so soon! Now it was the day before and all kinds of thoughts flew through her mind! What if it didn't last? What if he changed completely after marriage? What if she changed? So many questions and no answers. But it was too late to be thinking those thoughts, she knew. In a matter of twelve short hours, she would be wed to Jack Williams.
And as her digital clock changed to 10:01, she knew that if she didn't get some rest, she wouldn't last through the wedding the next day.
But as she lay on her bed, sleep refused to come. Karen tried to get her mind off of Jack by thinking about other things. Like how Ann had just found out that she's pregnant. Or maybe how the new schoolhouse would be opened up at the beginning of the week. Or maybe even how she didn't feel so empty without Pastor Brown around as she thought she would.
But in light of her upcoming wedding, her thoughts seemed to migrate from her own wedding to another 'wedding'.
"'Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.' Revelation 19:7."
With a scowl she scoffed at her thoughts, but she wasn't able to escape them.
"This mindset is what drove Jesus Christ, nearly 2,000 years ago, to endure the word from which excruciating comes: crucifixion. From mockery to the beatings to the nails, he endured so much for our sakes. We being His Bride."
Karen's scowl grew deeper. Why was she remembering all of this now—weeks later?
"Now, I won't go into the gruesome details of crucifixion; that's another sermon in itself. Let's just say that it being the root word of excruciating fits… very well. Only one truly head over heels in love would be willing to endure that kind of torture for another. And Jesus did all that and so much more."
She squinted her eyes shut and begged sleep to come, but she was just too alert for it.
"My brothers and sisters in Christ, the time of the Bride and Bridegroom comes soon!"
Deciding to go for a walk, she got dressed in some sweats and walked out of her house and into the warm air of the summer.
The vineyard was dark. The grape vines were merely silhouettes in the distance.
Not too far away, she could Jack's own dark farm, full of nearly ripe corn and tomatoes. The lowing of his cows and bulls filled Karen's ears and she felt such an excitement about making that farm her home as well. She could hardly keep all the pent up feelings inside her. She so desired to run to Jack now, to embrace him tightly and to kiss him sweetly. She loved this man. More than she loved anyone or anything else. And that alone, she knew, would keep them together. There would be no drastic changes in either of them after marriage. Nothing strong enough to pull their intertwined hearts apart. She would be with Jack until the day she died.
And with that comforting thought, she walked back into her house and up to her room, where she fell asleep quickly.
To say that Jack was nervous was an understatement. To say he was a wreck would be an understatement too! His palms were sweating and he knew his suit was sticking to his skin. The church felt twenty degrees hotter than it actually was and Jack was sure he could see the waves of heat in the air… then again, he knew it was probably his imagination.
He had taken off his trademark blue cap and ended up combing his hair back, holding it in place with a mixture of moose, gel, and hairspray. He had enough gunk in his hair that if there was a match lit halfway across the room, his head would be a blackened crisp in seconds!
The suit he was wearing was an ordinary black one. A little too small at that, in his opinion anyway. The person who had tailored it had said that it was just fine and he knew that was right; it just clung to his form, slightly showing off his toned muscle beneath. But because it was so tight, Jack only felt the heat rising.
Cliff, his best man, laid a hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him some, but Jack ended up jumping visibly at the soft touch. Some laughter erupted from the crowd that had gathered but it was dismissed by a glare from Cliff.
"What's taking so long…?" Jack whispered to Cliff, who stood behind him.
"It's only been thirty seconds!"
"It sure feels a lot long—" He was cut off as the familiar sound of organ music rang through the church building. The doors at the far end of the sanctuary opened slowly and there stood Karen with her arm in Gotz's.
She was dressed in a sparkling white dress that reached down to just above her ankles. Her sleeves cut off at her elbows and a strip of the dress went up and wrapped around the back of her neck and back down, leaving her cream colored shoulders bare. She had dyed her hair back to her original brown and blonde combo and had obviously put painstakingly long hours into making it perfect.
As the daughter and father walked slowly (too slowly, in Jack's opinion), Jack could easily see that Karen was a little uncomfortable having her arm linked with Gotz's. "Old memories die hard." She had told Jack once before concerning her father.
Then as slow as they walked, they were to the point where Jack walked down from the altar and Gotz passed Karen's hand onto his own. When their hands clasped, it was like electricity. For a moment, everything stopped and Jack just stared at their intertwined hands. His was callous with the years of farm work and hers was soft and smooth. Perfect.
Just like everything else about her. Jack told himself as a smile slowly appeared on his face. All except… no, I'm not going to worry about that now. Leave that one up to God to work on.
He began walking back towards Pastor Carter with Karen beside him. Finally, they stood before him, hands clasped, and he started the ceremony: "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today…"
Three years… I was gone three years. Karen's thoughts were a jumble in her head. And he never gave up. He always hoped… prayed that I'd find my way back here.
Karen wondered why Jack would stay so devoted to her. Even after everything she had done, from the coldness of their first meeting to the time she had lied about her memories returning.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Carter's mouth moving and she could read on his lips what he was saying; yet she heard something completely different in her mind.
"This mindset is what drove Jesus Christ, nearly 2,000 years ago, to endure the word from which excruciating comes: crucifixion. From mockery to the beatings to the nails, he endured so much for our sakes. We being His Bride."
She resisted the urge to shake her head in annoyance. Why did she have to start remembering that one service now?
"…holy matrimony." She heard Carter say.
"Please, don't hold back any more. Jesus desires so much to call you His bride!" Karen gritted her teeth as his lips moved once more and she heard a memory of that church service.
"I do." Jack said while looking at her with a quizzical look. He could easily see that something was bothering her.
"And do you, Karen, take Jesus to be your spiritually wedded husband?" Karen's eyes widened slightly as she heard Carter's voice.
What is he… She soon realized that what she had heard was actually nothing but something her mind had made up. She was now hearing Carter normally and she was hearing the right words to the ceremony.
"Through better or for worse…"
There was a bright flash and now Karen stood at the base of a small hill. It wasn't very large and special looking, but there was a crowds of thousands pressing all around.
Looking around, she saw that they people were all dressed in grubby robes made of fleece and other materials. Some even wore strange robes made of a course material—sackcloth.
In the distance she could see a large temple of some sort. It rose above a large city, one that looked very old. There were no cars or highways. The roads were strictly made of dirt and some made of loose rocks. It seemed the mode of transportation was mostly made on mules or on foot. Wherever she was, it sure wasn't Flowerbud Village!
A murmur arose from the crowd and a path was made through it. Everybody around Karen moved aside as some soldiers dressed in old Roman uniforms moved past. They flanked a muscular man with long brown hair that covered most of his face. That man, he carried a huge cross on his back—a back that Karen could see was a bloody mess. She couldn't even see any skin beneath the blood and—she shuddered—exposed muscle.
"No!" Somebody cried out. The person ran out to the soldiers but was immediately pushed back by one of them. The person—Karen could see that she was an older woman—ended up on her rear at the foot of the parted crowd.
Laughter erupted from them all and a few pointed accusing fingers at her. "Maybe we should crucify her next!"
"Crucify?" Karen wondered aloud.
There was a loud thud and she turned her attention back to the man carrying the cross. He had tripped and fallen. The cross now lay heavily on his back and even from the ten to twenty feet between them, Karen could see he was in plain agony.
It was then that she noticed the large crown upon his head. It was made of some sort of vine. Her interest peaked and she moved a bit closer. Gasping, she realized that the vine had very long thorns jutting out from its surface. Those very thorns dug into the man's scalp, causing more blood to flow into his matted hair.
"Get up!" One of the soldiers, the leader Karen guessed, yelled as he delivered a swift kick to the man's side. The man only cried out in pain and then a moan escaped his lips.
"Get up!" The leader yelled once more. After the man didn't reply, he growled softly and walked towards the wall of people that surrounded them.
He found one man and pointed to the cross while talking to him. The man in the crowd shook his head and said something back. In anger, the soldier grabbed him by the collar and roughly pushed him towards the fallen man. "Carry it for him!"
Hesitantly, the man grabbed the cross and, with a soft groan, hefted it up. He began walking down the path that they had been walking before, all the while dragging the rugged cross.
The soldiers kicked the fallen man once more and finally brought him to his feet. They pushed him forward, following the man carrying the cross.
For the first time, she saw his face. It was a blue and purple mess. His entire face was terribly swollen. His eyes were nearly covered by the swollen eyebrows. Someone had beat this man and beat him badly… she could guess who too.
The next events flew by quickly for Karen. She watched in horror as long nails were driven into his wrists, nailing him to the wooden cross. She flinched at every time the heavy hammer clanked loudly against the nail.
Then the soldiers moved on to his feet. Pulling out an even longer nail, they placed one foot on the other and laid the nail, point down, on his feet. Bringing the hammer back, the soldier drove it forward, a resounding CLANK echoing through the air. Karen was forced to turn away and cover her ears as they repeated the process until his feet were securely nailed to the cross.
Then the soldiers all walked around to behind the cross that was lying on the ground and began lifting it up. After lifting it to a vertical position, a ladder was brought over and one of the soldiers climbed up and began hammering the cross into the soft ground while the others held it in place.
After that was finished, a sign was nailed to the cross as well. The wording on it was in a few languages that Karen didn't know, but she already knew exactly what it said: "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews".
All of a sudden, Karen realized what this was. It was the crucifixion of Jesus.
"Karen Roberts, will you marry me?" Suddenly, with a flash, her mind was replaying that fateful time when Jack had proposed only with a twist… it wasn't Jack.
Instead it was Jesus who kneeled in the sand and pulled out the blue feather. It was from his mouth and voice did the words come from. It was from his eyes did Karen see the love in them.
"I don't…" She said softly. Tears threatened to pour over her eyes and she fought to keep them back. She had just seen this man nailed to a cross. She saw his agony and pain. "I can't…"
"I did it all for you." She froze as he spoke. "I endured the torture and beatings and mockery and the crucifixion all for you. I died for you. I gave up everything and came to this earth to die… for you. I love you that much."
She began shaking as the first sob hit her hard. "H-how can you love me so much? After everything…"
"Do I need a reason to love? From the beginning of time, I've had my eye on you. I created you, not because I had to but because I wanted to. I loved you even before the world and everything in it was created."
She was crying harder now. It wasn't possible, she told herself. No one could be so loving.
"Why does your fiancée love you?" Jesus asked softly, staring piercingly into her eyes.
"I don't… I don't know…"
"Because he just does. There doesn't have to be a reason to love. Love has no reason. It's just there. A blessing straight from Heaven."
"I don't understand…" Karen said between sobs.
"You will in time. Now, will you marry me?"
And then, with a flash, Karen was standing at the altar with Jack again. She wasn't sobbing, but a crystalline tear rolled down her cheek.
"…until death do you part?" Carter finished, looking expectantly at Karen.
And at that moment, as Karen stared into Jack's eyes, she found her answer. At that very moment, she finally understood… and believed.
With a smile, she said loud enough for only Jack and Carter to hear, "Until death do us part…" And then louder, "I do."
The End