A few days later, I received a letter, in an envelope decorated with a wash of blue ink and addressed in blue calligraphy. This is what he wrote to me:

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Rebekah,
I miss you and your family very much. When i just now opened the Bible story book to find your address I found a folded paper by the picture of Abraham's servant talking to Rebekah at the well as she watered his camels. It's a beautiful picture. The folded paper was entitled

Dying to Self
When your good is evil spoken of, when your wishes are crossed, your advice disregarded and your opinions ridiculed, but you refuse to let anger rise in your heart, or even defend yourself, but take it all in patient loving silence.

In these last days the spirit of Yahshua wants to bring us to the cross...being made conformable to his death. Then I turned in the Bible to Proverbs 16, "Commend what you do to Yahweh, and what you plan will be acheived."

On the paper route, Sunday morning, your father and I talked and as my wishes were crossed and opinions not taken very seriously, anger rose up in my heart and I gave full vent and defended myself and beliefs.

I'm sorry. I respect your father for putting Raphah in between us all the time. And I do sit much too close to you at the table. I wish you would give him a big hug and tell him thank you for helping Yahweh to bring us together. I don't agree with waiting for a year to take you for my wife. But I won't go against his wishes.

Rebekah, I love you.

I've asked you to marry me and you said that you would. Let's ask Yahweh in the name of his son Yahshua to run before us. If we are to be man and wife then our Creator has already set the day and will let your father know.

I hope we could be together by spring so that we could grow a garden together and share in the beauty and gentleness of the baby lambs and the milk cow and her little calf. But the fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom. And I will wait for his counsel. This is too important for us to act on our own. Didn't He plan a perfet Sabbath for us and the sunshine on your freckles and rosy heeks and Lassie and your kitten and Raphah Rachel and Sarah?

Rebekah, I love you. Let's trust Him to prepare a wedding day as beautiful. I can still see you in your pretty blue dress. Thank you for being my friend. I'll be your friend forever, no matter what happens, Daniel.
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Although I was thankful beyond words to receive a letter from him, and enchanted by his neat, graceful handwriting, I wasn't entirely happy with the content of that letter. I realized that I was impatient, but I really felt that he was giving Dad way too muh control over an area that wasn't, in my opinion, his to decide. Sitting too close together at the table?? Please! Daniel had always been a total gentleman. Even on the rare occasions when we had been overlooked by our chaperones for a minute or two, we hadn't kissed. Ever. Not even on the cheek. Not, the real issue at hand was that Dad couldn't stand the thought of seeing a virgin from his own house taken into the arms of a poor farmer, or in fact, any other man. Why was Daniel so frustratingly persistent about attributing qualities to Dad which he did not possess? I admired his idealism, but in this area, it really wasn't called for. He was always ready to give people the benefit of the doubt whenever he could.

And the sad thing was that these were the things I loved about him, and now these same qualities were the ones that would allow Eliyah to throw a monkey wrench into the happy life we'd planned.

I wrote him back an affectionate letter, careful not to disagree, or only in the gentlest way possible. Mom and Dad proofread the letter and told me to rewrite it. I said "I love you" too often. Didn't I know that when men read those words, it made them get an erection and think dirty thoughts? I had only the faintest concept of what an erection entailed, and just thinking about that made my face flush deep red. I found it hard to believe that reading those words would make him think dirty things about me. After all, so many times already I had spoken them to him, in his arms even, and had never had any hint of dirty thoughts. Sometimes he held me away from himself as though he were waging some internal struggle....but to me that was only proof that he was a good man. I rewrote the letter and rewrote it again. The letter Daniel received was only a faint echo of what I'd wanted to write to him.