NANDI, WILL YOU MARRY ME?

Margaret and Nandi walked out of the Church building after the evening service. Margaret struggled to maintain her stability in her 6-feet high heels.

“O Nan, my feet hurt”, she complained.

“Well, I guess that’s the price for looking pretty, isn’t it?” Nandi responded sarcastically. The girls laughed.

“Thank you for inviting me to Church today”, said Margaret. “I really enjoyed the service”, she continued.

“Oh reallyyyyy?” responded Nandi, tilting her head sideways to give Margaret eye contact. “I had to persuade you for 30 minutes before you agreed to come along. You kept complaining that you were too tired from your journey yesterday….” Nandi continued

“Oh yes, I certainly was. The six-hour flight was exhausting”, Margaret answered, defending herself.

“Okay, so tell me what exactly you loved about the service today”, requested Nandi, eager to hear Margaret’s response.

“Welllllll”, Margaret began, hands in front of her as she pressed her handbag just above her knees, smiling and puckering her lips simultaneously and trying as much as possible to avoid eye contact with Nandi.

“Oh my God!….wait a minute….seriously?” questioned Nandi. “I should have noticed it”, she continued.

“Noticed what?” asked Margaret, a shy look on her face.

“You like Daniel, don’t you?” responded Nandi.

“Oh, Nandi darling… You still ask ridiculous questions, don’t you?” answered Margaret. “Who doesn’t like a handsome, well-built, godly, focused, and successful young man like Daniel? And not to mention how nice he is, with his deep masculine voice, piercing gaze, cute smile…200 yards of husband material right there…”

“Maggie!!!” Nandi interrupted, screaming softly.

“What?” questioned Margaret. “I’m only being honest”, she continued. “Is there any verse of the Bible that says thou shall not admire a handsome Christian brother?” Margaret questioned sarcastically.

Then she paused, turned towards Nandi and said, “Nan, can you look me in the face and tell me you don’t like Daniel?”

“That’s not the point, Maggie. You just met the guy today..”, answered Nandi.

“So smart of you, Nan. I see how you avoided my question”, said Margaret.

“What question?” asked Nandi.

“Do you like Daniel?” questioned Margaret, fixing her gaze on Nandi for the second time since they left the Church.

“Of course I like Daniel, but not in that way”, answered Nandi shyly, clearly uncomfortable with the topic.

“Hahahaha”, Margaret broke out in laughter. Nandi could not tell whether the laughter was genuine or sarcastic. “When we get home, you will tell me how many ways there are to liking a brother”.

There was an awkward silence for the rest of their journey home. Margaret spent the entire 20 minutes on the train scrolling through Daniel’s pictures on Instagram, admiring every inch of them. Nandi sat confused, thoroughly assessing her emotions. Was she protective of Daniel simply because she also had feelings for him? Why wasn’t she excited that Margaret was attracted to Daniel?

Daniel had escorted the two girls to the Church lobby and said goodbye to them. He had never done so previously. Did he do that today simply because of Margaret? Maybe not, she thought to herself. Daniel was just a nice guy and would probably do that for every newcomer to Solid Rock Christian Assembly.

“Nan, let’s go!” screamed Margaret in a hushed tone. The train had arrived at its stop. Nandi tried to hide her emotional confusion as they walked back to her apartment.

They talked about the flowers along the streets, the old lady who walked with her dog, a Siberian Husky, the teenage boy in the yellow hoodie who rode on a scooter – literally anything that would prevent the topic of Daniel from coming up again.

*****

In the apartment, after having dinner, Margaret got ready to sleep. She had applied moisturising cleansing milk on her face and said goodnight to Nandi. Something was a bit off about her, by the way. Ever since the conversation about Daniel Nandi had been a bit withdrawn. Well, it was too late to bring up such a discussion.

She would mention it tomorrow if she remembered. She slid under her blanket, repositioned her pillow, ready to sleep. Just as her head hit the pillow, the events of the evening, especially the service at Solid Rock Christian Assembly, replayed in her mind.

This tall, polite, and well-dressed young man had come to welcome her after the service. He asked for her name and introduced himself as Daniel. Just then, Nandi came along to join the conversation and properly introduced her to Daniel. “Nandi was such a show spoiler”, she thought to herself and smiled softly.

“There seemed to be an instant connection between Daniel and me”, Margaret said to herself – she liked to think aloud sometimes to clarify her thoughts.

“Maybe God led me to this place for me to meet my future husband…” she smiled as she cherished the thought in her heart, scrolling through Daniel’s pictures one more time.

“Omoo… God dey create!! Well, I better not get my hopes up just yet. I’ve been through heartbreak before. I don’t want it to happen again.”

Margaret got down from the bed, went on her knees, clenched her fists, and prayed.

“Father, if Daniel is my husband, please show it to me. If he is not my husband, please show it to me too. I don’t want to be confused or endure the trauma of unfulfilled emotional longing. Please answer me as I sleep tonight in Jesus’ name. Amen”

That night Margaret had a dream. She had walked down a long park with Daniel, hands locked together. It was surreal. She liked the feeling of the warm breeze as it blew on her cheeks. It was just about sunset. Daniel was smartly dressed as usual. He spoke in whispers, and his words were like honey to her heart. Everything about him made something tingle along her back and behind her neck.

Then suddenly, Daniel stooped down on his left knee, eyes locked with hers. He dipped his hand into his pocket and brought out a gold-coloured box. Margaret could not believe her eyes. She covered her mouth in excitement as Daniel, with a warm smile on his face, asked a question:

“Nandi, will you marry me?”

Margaret coughed slightly, laughing and smiling with tears in her eyes at the same time.

“Daniel, don’t be silly. My name is Margaret, not Nandi…and yes, I will marry you”. Just before Daniel put the ring on her finger, she woke up. It was 4.30 am. She couldn’t hold back her smile as she recollected the events in her dream. God had answered her prayer. Daniel was the man for her.

*****

Mrs Naomi sat on her bed, confused and worried. She couldn’t help but ponder the meaning of the desperate message she had received from Margaret.

“Margaret said she would spend three weeks with her childhood friend. Why was she now on her way back after just two days?” she spoke to herself in hushed tones. “And her message was so laden with emotions”, she continued. “Well, the only way to know what’s up is to wait for her to arrive.”

Margaret barged into the well-furnished living room, where Mrs Naomi sat drinking her usual blended “healthy mix” of fruits and vegetables.

“Margaret!” Mrs Naomi screamed, startled.

She couldn’t believe her eyes. Her pretty and lively god-daughter was drenched in tears. Her eyes were swollen, and she was sobbing profusely.

“What is the matter, my dear? What went wrong? Are you okay? Please talk to me?” she asked question upon question while gently placing Margaret’s head on her shoulders, packing her hair away from her face to wipe her tears with the back of her palm.

“It is well, my dear. Stop crying”, said Mrs Naomi as she began to pray and speak the blessings of the Lord upon Margaret. After some minutes, Margaret slept off. It would be about 3 hours before she would wake up to have a proper conversation with Mrs Naomi in her little garden outside the kitchen.

For 30 minutes, Mrs Naomi sat and listened to Margaret as she narrated, in between tears, what sounded like a tragic story.

“So, this young man proposed to your friend Nandi the same day you had that dream?” asked Mrs Naomi rather rhetorically.

“Hmmm”, said Mrs Naomi, sighing deeply as she did so.

“Yes, mum”, replied Margaret. “He sent her a message early that morning inviting her to help him with an unknown function in Church. Apparently, he had planned with other members of the youth group. He managed to propose to her in the lobby of the Church, and she said yes. The video of the proposal was uploaded on Instagram almost immediately, and that was where I saw it. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I couldn’t bear to stand before Nandi, so I packed my things and left before she arrived.”

“I don’t understand this situation, mum. Did God confuse me? I’m not a wayward girl; neither am I a chaser of men. I know my worth in Christ Jesus. But I prayed for God to tell me if Daniel was the man for me. Why did He answer me positively when He knew Daniel was going to propose to my best friend the next day?….” Margaret continued to question, her voice shaky.

“Margaret, listen to me”, Mrs Naomi interrupted. “Marriage is too serious a decision to take simply based on one dream.”

“What does that mean, ma?” Margaret questioned. “Doesn’t God speak through dreams?”

“Yes, He does, but so does the devil, and so can your fleshly desires. You see, my dear, even though the Bible says that people will begin to dream dreams after the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the Bible also mentions that a dream comes out of the business of the heart.”

“Hmmm. I’ve never seen that verse before”, Margaret responded thoughtfully, interrupting Mrs Naomi. “Where was it mentioned in the Bible?”

“Do you have your Bible with you?” asked Mrs Naomi.

“Yes, ma”, responded Margaret.

“Good. So, open to Ecclesiastes 5:3” was the instruction from Mrs Naomi.

For the next 20 minutes, Margaret and her godmother read that verse from different versions of the Bible. Margaret was enlightened, relieved, and embarrassed at the same time as she discovered that her human desires had gotten the best of her.

“This is quite enlightening!” Margaret exclaimed. “So it means that apart from the dreams God gives me, I can also have dreams that come as a result of the thoughts I allowed to linger in my heart?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what that Scripture is saying”, answered Mrs Naomi.

“So does that mean I should ignore any dream I have about the man I may get married to, or that I shouldn’t trust my dreams for fear that my emotions might have been involved?” asked Margaret.

“That’s a very good question”, remarked Mrs Naomi. “Look at it this way: when you took a flight 3 days ago to spend the brief holiday with your friend Nandi, at what time did your plane touch down in her city?”

“It was about 9.15 pm local time”, replied Margaret.

“Okay. How did your Pilot identify the runway at that time of the night?” asked Mrs Naomi.

“Well, there were these really bright lights lined up on both sides of the runway. It was easy to see the outline of the tarmac even from several thousands of feet above the ground”, responded Margaret.

“That’s the secret, my dear”, continued Mrs Naomi. “What do you think? Would the Pilot have identified the tarmac if there was only one light bulb along the tarmac?”

“Errrmmmm..no, I don’t think so. With one light, it would have been impossible for him to know the right width, length, and bearing of the tarmac”, replied Margaret.

“There you go! Right there is a big life lesson you must not overlook. Because the Pilot is responsible for the safe arrival of hundreds of people, He must be careful to land them properly. One mistake from him can end the lives of hundreds and leave their families grieving. Because of the seriousness and potential impact of the Pilot’s position, he is trained not to decide where to land solely based on one tarmac light.

“He can’t even make that decision based on two lights. Two lights may reveal the breath of the tarmac, but they wouldn’t show the length or the bearing. The Pilot is trained to make his calculations based on an array of several lights, well spaced-out and arranged to clearly reveal both the outline, breadth, length and bearing of the tarmac”, replied Mrs Naomi.

“Okay, Nana…thanks for the aviation lesson, but what does that have to do with my marriage?” asked Margaret with a curious look.

Mrs Naomi laughed and continued, “You see, Maggie…the decision of who to marry is probably the most significant decision you will ever make after the decision to accept Jesus into your heart. Your marriage decision will define the rest of your life and even your eternity.

“Because it is so big a decision, it is risky to base it simply on one dream, prophecy, revelation, or desire. For it to be done rightly, what you should look out for is an array of lights (revelations from God, maybe through dreams but preferably from His word, confirmations from more spiritually mature elders who are not as emotionally vested in the young man as you are, and more confirmation of your convictions over a considerable period).”

“Mum, I’m scared because I am getting older by the day, and I don’t have many male friends. I don’t know anyone around me who is likely to be a potential suitor,” Margaret complained with a solemn look.

“That should be the least of your worries, my daughter”, Mrs Naomi replied. “God is the greatest matchmaker. Your future husband may not be somewhere around you. He may be from halfway across the world, but if the Holy Spirit truly leads him, he will know you are his the moment he sets his eyes on you”.

And for the next forty minutes, their mother-daughter bond grew stronger as Mrs Naomi shared her experience, edifying, consoling, and instructing Margaret.

After that discussion with Mrs Naomi, Margaret still decided to keep away from Nandi for some time. She needed time alone to sort out her emotions.

Two months later, she finally decided to reconnect with her childhood friend. Incidentally, Nandi and Daniel had come to her city to visit an orphanage- one of the functions of the office Daniel occupied. So, Margaret planned to meet up with them at a local eatery.

As soon as Nandi saw her childhood friend, she left Daniel and the other young man seated beside him and ran to hug Margaret. The two girls wrapped around each other as each tried to apologise, with none agreeing to accept the apology but willing to be blamed. As the two men watched them, Timothy asked Daniel, “who is that lady?”

“You mean Nandi’s friend”, replied Daniel.

“Yes”, affirmed Timothy.

“Oh, her name is Margaret. She has been friends with Nandi since primary school or so,“ Daniel answered.

“Oh, I see”, continued Timothy. “So, she’s a devoted Christian?”

“Of course she is. She used to attend her Church camp yearly and has volunteered several times for….” Daniel continued but paused suddenly and turned towards his friend Timothy with a very suspicious smile on his face. “Tim, where are all these questions headed?”

“I don’t know, bro”, Timothy answered as he smiled broadly and folded his arms, his eyes still fixed on Margaret from a distance.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” questioned Daniel.

“The moment I set my eyes on her, I felt something move inside my spirit…I think the Lord is pointing me to her”, answered Timothy.

“Awnnnnn, the man of God is finally seeing visions”, Daniel remarked sarcastically but with excitement.

Timothy brought out his smartphone from his pocket, opened his keypad and handed it over to Daniel.

“What do you want? Her phone number?” Daniel asked.

“Of course I do, Dan. Stop asking silly questions”, Timothy responded smilingly.

“Nope”, Daniel responded. “If you want her number, you’ll have to ask her yourself. But Tim, since she’s a perfect stranger, you know you should begin with a casual friendship first, right?”

“What friendship are you talking about?” asked Nandi. Daniel and Timothy had been too engrossed in their conversation that they hadn’t noticed as Nandi and Margaret walked up to them.

The two guys laughed and fumbled with their words as they tried to cover up.

The four friends had a lovely discussion as Nandi sat with Margaret, Daniel, and Timothy at a table. Timothy introduced himself as a childhood friend of Daniel. They were High School classmates, and as teenagers, they used to fast and pray together about their future. They had parted ways after High School as Timothy got a scholarship to pursue his Bachelor’s degree in Toronto. He was now a Chartered Financial Analyst with an Investment Bank in Toronto.

Timothy shared testimonies of how God had helped him maintain his faith and even grow spiritually despite spending several years far away from home. Suddenly, Margaret’s phone rang.

“Oops, sorry”, Margaret apologised as she brought out her phone to answer her call. Mrs Naomi was calling to tell her to return home.

“I’m sorry, I have to go now. Nana needs me at home”, she continued. “It was nice meeting you, Timothy”, she said as she stood up to leave.

“I think Timothy is also going in your direction”, said Daniel. “He can drop you off, can’t you, Timothy?” he said as he turned to Timothy.

“Oh no, please, don’t bother”, insisted Margaret. “I don’t want to put him through any stress.”

“Actually, I was just about to get going myself”, Timothy responded with a smile as he got up, gathered his items into a briefcase and took his car key.

Margaret hugged Nandi and said goodbye as Timothy walked her towards his car to give her a ride home.

Nandi turned towards Daniel, hands on her chin as she asked, “Dan, what was that about?” with a smile of suspicion on her face.

Daniel, trying to hide his smile and avoiding eye contact, responded, “Don’t worry, Nan. You will know when the time comes.”

They both laughed.

THE END.