The Hope of Eden

Yesterday

1921
Lynchburg, Virginia

Carmen sat in his office, mindlessly plucking petals off a daisy.

Eden and Rosalie were asleep.

They occupied his thoughts.

It was a bold thing to state, but he loved them.

His love for Rosalie was that of a father, adoring his precious little daughter.

Everything she did was precious, even her attitude problem. It wasn't appropriate, but it showed she was comfortable and safe enough to act out of character.

In a wholesomely strange way, it meant the world to him.

And Eden.

"Die Frau, für die ich gebetet habe." (The woman I have prayed for.) He sighed, dropping the daisy.

She was the woman.

There could be no other.

In truth, if there were another hand selected by God, Carmen would still choose Eden. There was no woman greater or more beautiful than Eden.

"Und so ist es passiert." (And this is how it happened.) He chuckled softly, running his fingers through his pointedly told grey hair.

For forty years, he dreamed of the day he'd meet her.

A light cast from heaven was how he believed it would happen when God first spoke to him at twenty-three.

He was a silly young man.

Though his expectations changed over the years, he was not prepared for the way God actually did it.

A beautiful woman in the grocery store.

He could've missed her.

He could've walked away, ignoring the unction in his heart to help her.

Glory to God, he did not and now understood who she was.

It came to him yesterday as he held her.

God did not yell.

God did not hold an arrow over her head.

God did settle it in his heart.

"Eden is the woman you've prayed for."

It took everything in him not to shout and rejoice, waking Rosalie up and startling the already frazzled Eden in his arms.

Self-control kept him.

And kept he was until he went to the kitchen to make breakfast.

It was something he didn't do often, but in that kitchen, as the eggs cooked, he danced like David.

His heart was relieved.

He wondered at times if there was another woman God had for him, how was he supposed to do away with Eden and Rosalie?

He couldn't find it in himself to love another woman or start anew.

No.

Eden and Rosalie made a home in his heart and turned his lonely house into a loving home.

He was overjoyed in every sense.

Yet, as the day went on and he tended to the mother and daughter he loved, a question startled him.

Will Eden choose me?

Things were getting better between them and she had no qualms against him in any way. She didn't despise him because of his maturity nor his stature.