STEPPINGSTONE TO ETERNITY

PUPPY LOVE: STEPPINGSTONE TO ETERNITY

Callie entered their lives when she was 14. It began as a huge crush on their son Josh, then 16. He enjoyed the friendship but was oblivious to the romantic overtones. She even made friends with Jen, just younger than Josh, all the better to be around him more. Josh finished high school, then was off to college, and left on his mission a year later. Callie graduated from high school that same year and accepted a college scholarship out of town. The relationship had not changed a bit – she being head over heels and hoping, he thinking they were merely good friends. She wrote; he, seeing a golden opportunity to expand the scope of his missionary efforts, wrote back, teaching and bearing witness. That fueled the flicker of her long-lingering hope. He came home; she was right there on the doorstep – still no change on either of their parts. He went back to school; she, disappointed once again, returned to her out of town studies.

Then there she was, during the middle of her junior year, framed by the entrance to Josh’s father’s office. She had transferred back home to the local university. After picking his lower jaw off the floor, they got down to business. She had gone out of state to see her real father for Christmas break. He had not responded to her knock when she arrived, so she had opened the door and found his crumpled remains at the bottom of the stairs, just inside the front door, dead from what turned out to be alcohol poisoning. She was looking for answers, and had come to see Bro. Henderson, Josh’s father, to follow up on the only sweet feelings she had experienced in a long time, those coming from Josh’s missionary letters. She asked Bro. Henderson to sit in with her as she took the missionary discussions. He soon found out one reason why: she had a Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde-type personality, was even better looking than the movie’s star, and one of the missionaries, not yet blessed with eternal perspective, came very close to hitting on her, even in Bro. Henderson’s presence. Despite the imperfections of the primary deliverer of the message, the Spirit kept touching them. As Callie’s circle of fraternity/sorority friends learned about her new interest, opposition kept raising its ugly head. She soon realized she would not be able to continue to be an integral part of her then current social circle if she continued her association with “those Mormons.” She brought the doubts planted by her alleged friends to the discussions. She would voice a concern, and someone there would be blessed with the ability, beyond his natural limits, to help her resolve her concerns; this happened time and again.

Then it happened, at the beginning of a discussion. “You’ll never believe what went on over the week-end,” she began. “We had our sorority girls from the entire state and all of our brother fraternity guys here for a free-for-all at the lake. It lasted all week-end. My roommate and I had ten out of town girls staying with us, sleeping on the floor of our apartment. I got up to go to church, and all I did was trip over these passed-out, drunken bodies as I tried to get ready. Right then it came to me, ‘I’m worried about not being accepted by people like this?! Is this what I think I would miss so much?! C’mon girl – get a grip! I’m leaving this trash dump of a life forever! No more waving in the wind: I’m going to do it [become a baptized member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints].’ This Saturday would be fine, just like you all have been trying to get me to decide to do.”

From then on she attended Institute twice a week; she attended church without fail, and Family Home Evening, and everything else. However, a couple of months later she was back in Bro. Henderson’s office, still not as happy as she had anticipated. It took her awhile, but eventually it came out that her concerns were three-fold: 1) she couldn’t keep her parents from getting a divorce those years ago; 2) she couldn’t keep her father from drinking himself to death; and 3) try as she might for 7 years now, she couldn’t get Bro. Henderson’s son to fall in love with her.

They talked about agency, that it was the operative principle in her case, that if we have done our best to deliver the message, then if the recipient chooses not to respond, we can be at peace (see Ezekiel 3:18-22). Then, concerning Josh, Bro. Henderson said, “Callie, pretty soon you’ll meet a guy, handsome and funny and righteous and worthy to take you to the temple. You’ll get to know him, and before you know it he’ll say, ‘Callie, you are the most beautiful ditz I have ever met! You are crazy! But you’re also the most fun person I have ever known, and smart, and you’re good to the bone. You have a way of making people comfortable around you, like you’re their best friend from the moment they meet you. Am I your friend too? I want to be, forever. I want my children to have you for their mother. Look at those temple spires. Will you go there with me, and become my wife and my forever best friend?”

That embarrassed her; but she liked it, and it rekindled hope in her. She was learning to stop looking back and begin facing forward. She left the minute the semester was over.

Almost to the day, a year after the “forever best friend” conversation, the phone rang in Bro. Henderson’s office around mid-day, startling him from a session of “deep pondering.”

“Bro. Henderson, is that you?”

Cobwebs. He turned his desk name plate around just to make sure. “Uh, yes, who’s this?”

“Callie! Who’d you expect, Mother Nature?”

That got him wide awake. “No, Betty Crocker! Got any coupons on your box top?”

“I have some news! I’ve met him! Oh, Bro. Henderson, I’ve met him! His name is Daren, and we met at the institute here, and he’s 6’7”, and he’s a basketball NUT! I know more about the Lakers now than I ever thought there was to know! He’s going to be a dentist, and guess WHAT! He said EXACTLY what you said he would say, not in the exact words, but the exact same ideas in the exact order! Is that a sign or what! Oh, Bro. Henderson, I’m so happy! It’ll be in the San Diego temple August 17. Those spires – they were part of the proposal just like you said they would be! Since my Dad won’t be able to make it, could you be one of the witnesses in place of my father?”

The sealing room was packed. The ceremony was beautiful. The newlyweds were mobbed, right there in the temple, as soon as it was over. Bro. Henderson sat there in the witness chair for the longest time, looking at her greeting all her well-wishers and thinking, “See, Callie, see what I’ve been trying to tell you? See what the Lord has had in store for you all the time? Do you get it now, can you feel it?” She must have sensed something of what he was feeling and trying to communicate. She looked at him over the shoulder of whoever she was hugging at the moment. Their eyes met, and she mouthed the words, “Thank you.”