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Jesus answered. “Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female,” and said, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined with his wife, and the two shall be one flesh?” “So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” Matthew 19:5-6 _______________________ TO THE minister, this couple really appeared to be both young and smart. At least they were the words used to describe them by those who had known each. Opal had been a model student during her high school years. She’d only missed being valedictorian by a few grade points. And yet today, many in her family still defend this minor shortfall. They claimed the lower grade in math came about because of the sudden onslaught of her physical ailment. Diabetes came on with surprising swiftness during her senior year in high school. She’d collapsed during the band’s formation a mere two minutes before half-time was to be called on the football field. It was sudden! Her closest friends stood close by as Opal piped to check the reed in her clarinet. One minute she stood next to them practicing a riff and rill written by Sousa, and in the next second she dropped to the ground with a thud. Rendered unconscious by the fall it was thought, she lay very still. But then, without even knowing her fate was at issue, she met Pony. Pony, a tall and husky boy, was standing alongside the forty-five |
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yard line when he saw her fall. Somehow. . , possibly by the way her slight body crumpled to the ground, the defensive linebacker knew it was not normal. What he saw was not a silly school prank. He dropped his football helmet from his hand and ran the twenty or more yards to where she lay crumpled. His volunteer fire company training then took over. Quick assessment and action helped to preserve the young woman’s life. Soon he knelt next to her as she began to revive, supporting her head as the ambulance crew came to help. As they |
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loaded her into the ambulance, it’s told, Pony had wiped the blood from a cut on her cheek. The cut had been made by the chin strap of her royal blue-colored band helmet. He stood there for a few moments, as the siren then whined its lament across the valley as she was hospital bound. Her family has told this story over the years, several times to their minister in fact. Since that incident, the story goes. . , Opal and Pony became friends while yet in their high school senior year. They met over lunch in the cafeteria. Pony had introduced himself and asked to sit with her. She said she couldn’t eat very much because of her new diet, therefore, she wouldn’t be staying long. Pony offered to share his peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with her, all four of them. So they did. After careful surgery that would make her math teacher proud, she ate the peanut |
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Opal and the Pony... |
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“Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24) |
