jmgoyder

During my bout of ‘Godiness’ yesterday I was reminded of the days when I first met Anthony and Inna and my shock at what I then thought was their secularism. You see, as a 17, nearly 18-year-old I had never really met people who didn’t go to church and I was appalled! I had been brought up in an extremely evangelical household with church twice on Sundays, prayer and Bible studies once a week and, as a kid, I used to wear ‘Jesus Loves You‘ badges and hand out tracts to perfect strangers. I was a staunch and very narrow minded Christian.

I spoke easily and confidently of my faith to Anthony and Inna much to their amusement and, when I look back, I both cringe and laugh at how I tried to ‘convert’ them to my particular brand of Christianity with the Bible-bashing zeal of my youth and limited experience of life’s ups and downs. Anthony and I would have heated arguments about God which usually culminated in him roaring with laughter at what he described as my naivety. So I would pray every night that he would see the light (with a PS. for him to fall in love with me – haha!)

Inna humoured me and when I said things like “I am praying for you to feel better”, she would smile twinkingly and say, “Well, that’s nice, darling,” and pat my hand soothingly as if I were the one who was elderly and ill. My self-righteousness at the time amazes me; after all Inna was very good friends with the Anglican bishop, donated generously to the church, and attended when she was well enough.

Today, in the hospital, waiting with Anthony for three hours before he was taken in to surgery,  I remembered all of these long-ago events and conversations. At one point, he dozed and then woke up with a start and looked at me piercingly. “Are you Jules?”

“Of course I’m Jules, you idiot, you haven’t even had any sedation yet and you’re already loopy!” I got the giggles.

He reached for my hand and his voice grinned as he said, “We are so crazy about each other aren’t we!”

I said “Yeah, yeah, now shut up and let me read my magazine.”

“I love you too,” he said, closing his eyes.

So I guess you could say that my PS prayer was answered!

He’s still in surgery so let’s hope the rest of the day is smooth sailing.