“Let me do it.”
Daddy entered the room and kissed me on the usual spot on top of my head. Despite Mama’s words about the present and future, his simple gesture of past love overwhelmed me. Tears suddenly stung my eyes.
“What did I do wrong?” he asked.
Mama shooed him toward his seat at the kitchen table.
“Nothing,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s one of the many things you do right.”
I wiped my eyes and helped Mama cook breakfast. Forty-five minutes later the kitchen was alive with conversation as Kyle, Bobby, Ellie, Emma, Daddy, Mama, and I gathered around the long white table and took our customary seats.
“I want to pray,” Bobby piped up before we bowed our heads.
“All right,” Daddy replied.
I saw Ellie and Emma exchange a questioning look. Daddy almost always prayed before meals. We held hands and closed our eyes. Bobby began to pray. He didn’t stop at thanking the Lord for our meal but also prayed a blessing over all that was going to happen later in the day. At one point I peeked to see if he was reading from a sheet of paper, but his eyes were squeezed shut.
“Amen,” he said.
“That was a fine prayer, Bobby,” Daddy said.
“But it won’t keep these biscuits hot,” Kyle said, reaching for a crusty brown one on top of the pile.
I glanced at Bobby, my eyes shining with thanks. He was going to sing an original song at the wedding. I’d not heard it, but Mama claimed it was the best thing he’d ever written.
Kyle held a biscuit in the air like a glass of champagne.
“May your house be filled with the smell of fresh biscuits as you’re surrounded by a family that loves one another as much as we love you.”
“Thanks.” I smiled.
“It’s a biscuit toast,” Ellie blurted out, then laughed at the odd combination of words.
After clearing the table and cleaning the dishes, Mama and I went into the sewing room for a last check of my wedding gown.
“I ate too much breakfast,” I said as I prepared to step into the long, white dress. “What if it’s too tight?”
“Then you won’t eat lunch.”
Mama zipped up the gown as I held in my stomach.
“That’s not necessary, Tammy Lynn.”
I exhaled. The dress was snug but in a perfect way. I looked at myself in the long mirror on the wall near the sewing machine. I’d bought the dress in Savannah. Julie went with me to the bridal shop and peppered the lady who assisted me with suggestions about style, material, and especially how much skin to expose. In the end, I didn’t compromise on modesty, and Julie was forced to admit that the dress, with its graceful drape from my shoulders, had a classic look. Mama straightened the sleeves that rustled slightly under the touch of her fingers.
“I fixed the left sleeve before I went to bed last night,” she said.
“It’s fine,” I replied, bending my arm slightly. “But is it too showy for our church?”
“It’s too late to worry about that,” Mama answered confidently. “And I don’t think you should. The beauty of the bride is one of the great images of Scripture.”
“What time do you think I should wash my hair?” I asked, running my fingers through my long, dark locks.
“Not till you finish your chores.”
“Chores?”
“Nothing around here, but do you need to go to the church to make sure everything is ready?”
“Only if you think I should. Hasn’t Mrs. Holcomb planned a couple of hundred weddings?”
“At least.”
“I don’t want to go there until it’s time to get ready. Everything looked fine at the rehearsal last night.”
The wedding rehearsal had caused goose bumps to involuntarily prick my flesh several times. Zach saw them on my arm at one point and teased me that I had skin like a basketball. I challenged him to a game of one on one upon our return to Savannah.
“You’re calmer about it than I am,” Mama answered, rubbing her forehead. “The flowers should be there by ten this morning, but I want to make sure the different arrangements are put in the right spots.”
“Then you should go to the church. I’m going to stay here.”
“And spend some time alone?”
“Yes, ma’am. At the pond.”
Mama smiled and nodded. “I can’t think of a better chore.”
Upstairs, the twins were straightening up the bedroom we’d shared since they’d slept in matching cribs.
“Are you going to help us?” Emma asked me when I entered.
“No,” Ellie quickly cut in. “Tammy Lynn can’t spend her morning getting your dirty socks out from underneath the bed. She has to spend the day thinking about Zach and God, but not necessarily in that order. God always comes first.”
Emma dropped to the floor and scooted under the edge of the lower bunk bed. In a few seconds, she threw out three dingy, white socks.
“These are your, Ellie,” she said from her position on the floor. “You should be thinking about socks and God, in that order.”
“I’m going to walk over to Putnam’s Pond,” I said.
“Can we go with you?” Ellie asked excitedly.
Emma scooted out from beneath the bed and sat up on the floor.
“No, because she has to think about Zach and God.”
“Emma’s right,” I said. “I want some time alone.”
Ellie shook her head. “Alone for the last time. Can you imagine being around the same person all day, every day?”
Emma threw one of the dirty socks at Ellie’s head. “I know exactly what it’s like.”
Zach had been with me the last time I’d visited the pond. We’d gone during a gentle snowfall and admired the pure splendor of the white landscape. Today, the trees displayed a different beauty, the promise of new life revealed in tender, pale green leaves. I walked slowly and came out of the woods at the edge of the pond. At first sight, the water appeared still, but as I stepped closer I could see tiny lines left by long legged water striders skating across the surface.
I went around the pond to the twisted kneeling tree, the place of my childhood daydreams. It was the place where Zach fulfilled one of those dreams when he gave me the sparkling diamond ring that still surprised me when I saw it on my finger. Without Zach to sweep me into the crook of the tree in his strong arms I scrambled up on my own. My feet dangled a yard above the ground. I rested my hands against the solid trunk and closed my eyes. I breathed in the clean mountain air.
After a few moments of silence, a Bible passage long ago committed to memory rose to the surface of my mind as gently as a fish swimming to the top of the nearby pond.
But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and
female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be
joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh, so then they are
no longer two, but one flesh.
I let the meaning of the scriptures sink in. Zach and I would be one. Not because a preacher said so, or the words printed on a marriage license, or even the solemn vows we made to each other. We would be one because God decreed it. What stronger bond of unity could there be?
Before I could finish savoring the impact of this truth, another passage scrolled across my mind’s eye.
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not
love, I have become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though
I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,
and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but
have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed
the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it
profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy, love
does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not
seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity,
but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all
things, endures all things. Love never fails.
Some might consider the Bible a dusty, boring book. But in that moment the words from 1 Corinthians 13 were filled with liquid fire that burned with divine life. In marriage and family I would have the chance to experience a love unknown apart from God’s grace. The realization made me feel vulnerable, yet strangely powerful.
A breeze brushed across my cheeks. I looked across the pond in the direction of the house that would no longer be my only home. More words came.
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their
labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him
who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up. Again, if
two lie down together, they will keep warm; but how can one be warm
alone? Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand
him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
The Lord would wrap himself around Zach and me, making secure the unity he established. Jesus, Zach and I would be the three-fold cord.
I remembered the day Sister Dabney applied those words to Maggie, Julie, and me. The fiery woman preacher wouldn’t be at my wedding. She was getting ready for the heavenly one Mama mentioned while I was trying on my dress. To my surprise, no tears welled up in my eyes at the thought of Sister Dabney. But she wouldn’t want me to cry. Her cry had always been for me to be an overcomer, a woman who would become all God intended.
I stood at the back of the church with my arm nestled against Daddy’s side. He leaned over and planted one last kiss on the top of my head. I squeezed his arm tighter. The organist struck the introductory notes of the processional. We stepped forward.
To the left, I saw Mrs. Fairmont standing with Julie, Maggie, and Jessie. They’d positioned the elderly woman on the aisle. Mrs. Fairmont’s aristocratic, carefully coiffed head and gracious smile filled me with gratitude that she’d lived to see this day. Beside her, Jessie’s mouth was open in amazement. I quickly prayed that in due time she’d walk down a church aisle to unite with the man God chose for her.
Other beaming faces from my past and present swam past my vision as we made our way to the front of the church. When I reached the section reserved for my immediate family, I wanted to stop and give the twins a last hug. They were about to explode with excitement. Kyle was sitting with Mama. Mama’s face showed none of the tension I’d seen earlier in the day. Replacing it was a serenity that made me feel stronger and more confident. I was her daughter. Not a duplicate, but a child in whom she’d poured every good thing I’d let her impart. Seeing Mama made me fight back tears.
Then I saw Zach.
And when our eyes met, every one else in the room was banished to the shadow lands. His eyes shone with a love I could trust. Daddy’s voice giving me away sounded far away. I faced Zach, my hands held by his.
I heard Pastor Vick’s message, answered the questions, and repeated the vows with one foot in the church and the other across the threshold of heaven. The reality of what God was doing between us overshadowed the human ceremony, bathing it in holy glory. I could see the reflection of what I sensed in Zach’s eyes. He was in that place with me. God was joining us together.
“You may now kiss the bride,” Pastor Vick said when the last prayer was prayed.
Zach leaned over and our lips met for the first time. The kiss lasted so long that I heard a ripple of laughter from the congregation. God’s glory is great, but earth has its blessings, too. Zach and I parted and faced the congregation with beaming smiles on our faces.
M
ANY THANKS TO
A
LLEN
A
RNOLD,
A
MI
M
C
C
ONNELL,
N
ATALIE
Hanemann, and Deborah Wiseman, my faithful partners at Thomas Nelson Publishing. Your advice and counsel at all stages of the writing process is greatly appreciated.
And to my wife, Kathy. For you more than anyone else, I want to show greater love.
1. Do you think it’s reasonable to think Tami will be able to avoid working on cases that defend people who commit acts that go against her value system?
2. Psalm 100 reads: “Shout for joy to the L
ORD
, all the earth. Worship the L
ORD
with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the L
ORD
is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the L
ORD
is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations” (
NIV
). Tami’s hope is to make each courtroom a place of praise. Imagine if you adopted this approach in your occupation. Discuss what it might look like.
3. Over the course of the Tides of Truth novels, did you ever change your mind about which man Tami should court—Vince or Zach? If so, what made you change your mind?
4. Tami isn’t a typical young woman. Not a typical summer clerk or a typical practicing lawyer. She’s not like most twenty-somethings. Tami is thoughtful, reasonable, submits to authority, is not afraid to defend her beliefs. Have you ever known someone like Tami? What did you most admire about her? Can you imagine what difficulties you might encounter in a friendship with her?
5. It’s common to feel like God isn’t answering our prayers. Several incidences occur in the novel where prayer makes a clear and certain path for a supernatural occurrence. Did seeing the fruits of those prayers inspire you to pray more? Or perhaps pray differently?
6. Tami’s approach to tackling a large problem is to separate it into manageable parts. It’s similar to the adage “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” Think of a time in your life when you did this—or wish you’d done this. Share with the group.
7. Supernatural events occur a few times in this series. When Zach prays over Mr. Callahan. When Sister Dabney gives various prophecies. When Tami prays for Vince during the bar exams. Discuss a time when something supernatural happened to you or someone you love.