Walk With Me (12 page)

Celeste looked at the man standing beside Peter. He was
dressed all in black and carried the largest guidebook she had ever seen. And he stared at her with an expression that reminded her of Reverend Strict and Reverend Severe.

“His name is Mr. One Verse,” Peter said. “He has all the arguments to change your mind.”

With great ceremony, Mr. One Verse cleared his throat and opened the guidebook. “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the King. For the husband is the head of the wife as the Servant is head of all whom He saved. Now as you submit to the Servant, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.”

Peter looked at Celeste in triumph. “There, you’ve heard it straight from the guidebook. I’m the head and you have to follow me, and I say we’re going down the side marked ‘headship.’”

Celeste thought if Peter was the head, he was a very stuffed head.

“Come,” he commanded, and strode briskly back to the path.

Celeste was so tired and cold that she didn’t know what else to do, so she started shuffling behind Peter.

“Now don’t you feel better?” he said back to her.

“No, I don’t,” she said. She felt miserable, but she was afraid to tell Peter that. “And what happened to Mr. One Verse?”

“He had to go proclaim that verse to other couples. He told me that is his special calling.”

“I don’t think that is right.” Celeste had not yet lost her spirit. “The guidebook is very big, and it’s wrong to focus on one part and ignore the rest. It reminds me of Pigeon Hole.”

“Yes, well, that’s what you would say. When you don’t like what it says, you simply pretend it’s not there.”

They were almost back at the great fallen tree. “When we get to the tree,” Celeste said, “can we rest for a moment?”

“No. I’m in charge and I don’t want to.”

But as they approached the tree, a flood of travelers came down the path, and Peter and Celeste had to stand to one side to let the group pass. They watched in amazement as the couples went on without stopping to discuss which way to take. Clearly most were in agreement about which way to go. Some went down one side and some went down the other, and though Peter tried to predict which couples would go where, he couldn’t. At the end of the group, an old guide trailed behind.

“Dear friends,” Sacrificial Love said to Peter and Celeste. “I’m sorry for your wait. You can go now. Take your course.”

“All right,” Peter said. “We’re going down the side marked ‘headship.’ I know it is the right way to go.”

“Are you so sure?” the guide asked.

“Yes.”

“And Celeste, what do you think?”

“Her opinion doesn’t matter. I’ve just met Mr. One Verse, who read from the guidebook. It’s clear what Celeste has to do. She is going to follow me. We were only waiting for everyone else to go by.”

“She doesn’t look very happy,” Sacrificial Love said.

“She’s being obstinate. She just needs to follow the King’s law and she’ll recover her joy.”

“Yes, joy,” Sacrificial Love said. “Dear sister, you look tired. Why don’t you sit here on the bench and drink this.” The guide handed Celeste a warm mug of sympathy, then took his sheepskin of
humility and put it around her shoulders.

Grateful for his care, Celeste gladly sat down and started sipping from the mug.

“Now, my dear brother.” Sacrificial Love put his hand on Peter’s shoulder. “While your partner is recovering from spending a night alone in these woods, you and I should take a little stroll.”

“Oh, I can’t leave her,” Peter said.

“You did last night.”

“She went off herself.”

“Did you go after her?”

“She was the one who left.”

“Yes, just like the one-hundredth sheep.”

“What do you mean?”

“How does the King deal with us when we stray? He searches us out, like the shepherd seeking the one lost sheep. Now I’m not saying you are the King. In fact, anyone who drags his partner down the way of headship needs to be reminded of that.”

“But lots of couples went down that side,” Peter said.

“Yes, I’ll get to that. But first I’d like to read you something.” Sacrificial Love took out his guidebook, which was covered with stains from tears and blood. Then he read the passage Mr. One Verse had read.

“Exactly!” Peter said.

“Oh, I’m not finished.” The guide continued reading. “Husbands, love your wives as the Servant loved you and gave Himself for you, to make you pure and clean as a radiant crown, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish. In this same way, a husband ought to love his wife as he loves his own body. He who
loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as the Servant does for us, for we belong to Him.” He slowly closed the book. “So which path should you take?”

Peter looked at Sacrificial Love and wondered if the guide was trying to trick him. “The path of headship,” he said.

“Could you tell me just on this verse alone—which is addressed to you, not the earlier one that was addressed to Celeste—what it says husbands are to do?”

Peter reread the section and said, “To love his wife as his own body.”

“Very good. And could you tell me what the Servant did when He walked on this earth? How did He show His love for the travelers?”

Peter thought for a moment and then spoke slowly, because it was a little painful for him to say. “The Servant washed His followers’ feet, He healed, He gave His life.”

“And what did the Servant demand before He gave His life in love?”

“Nothing,” Peter said.

“Nothing, that’s right.” Sacrificial Love put his hand on Peter’s shoulder, and they started walking back to the bench where Celeste was waiting. “I have gone down both sides, and I can tell you they both lead to the King’s City. Before the Tree of Oneness fell, there was a single path and it was never the King’s design to split it in two. In some places the tree trunk has sunk so low in the ground that you can barely make out any distinction in the two sides. But in other places the trunk is quite thick and tall, and
you can’t even see the other side.

“Travelers struggle down both of these ways,” the guide said, “but it is not which side they take that causes their difficulties; it’s their stubbornness. I have seen people go down the co-heirs side and take off their cords, that is true. And I have also seen people go down the headship side, and by the time they get to the end their cords are also cut. But I have also seen travelers come out of both sides more willing to love their partner.

“Here is another passage I would like you to learn by heart,” he said to Peter. “You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. For even the Servant came not to be served but to serve others and to give His life as a ransom for many.”

Sacrificial Love looked at Peter. “Put this into practice with your dear wife and you will begin to understand the burden and challenge that will be yours. Can you bear the Servant’s cross as you love Celeste?”

“Yes,” Peter said, “but—”

“Yes, but what about her? That is what the men who are so keen on being heads always want to know. All I will say is that you are called to do your part, and your part alone. You know that the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. And you know that when the Servant was asked what this meant, He told a story of mercy and compassion and then said the questioner should go and do the same. Love Celeste as you love
yourself, and then you will be ready to take the way of headship.” Sacrificial Love gave Peter a little push. “Now, go to her and make amends.”

Peter returned to the Tree of Oneness. The color had returned to Celeste’s cheeks, and she looked much stronger. As he approached, Celeste said nothing, but she bowed her head a little.

He extended his hand to hers and pulled her up from where she was sitting. “Will you walk with me?” His voice barely a whisper, for he feared her answer. He had been pompous, and he wouldn’t have blamed her if she didn’t want to go on with him.

“Of course. You are my husband whom I love.”

“I thought that we might try the side marked ‘co-heirs.’”

“As you wish,” Celeste said.

To Peter’s surprise, the way of co-heirs was not as treacherous as he thought. For a stretch it passed through a delightful meadow, much like the one where they had first drunk from the chalice. As Sacrificial Love had said, some couples they met were very happy while others were squabbling back and forth, saying, “My rights,” “No, my rights.”

After some distance they passed the end of the fallen Tree of Oneness, and the two sides joined once more. Peter could see that the couples coming out of the headship side seemed to argue less. But some were very quiet and the women were so burdened, carrying both their bags and their partner’s, they looked like slaves. He could hear them muttering, “He’s the head, he’s the head,” while the men walked on, paying no attention to their partners except to turn occasionally and bark, “Do as I say, do as I say.” Peter understood then that what Sacrificial Love had said was true.

Now in my dream, I pondered the lesson of the split path, for it seemed the struggle had been hard only for Peter. But I suspected that later on Celeste might have to face her own choice on the way to the King’s City, one equally difficult.

P
eter and Celeste walked in harmony for many days after the split path, and they often enjoyed the company of other travelers. But eventually the trail through the Low Country brought them to the vast Swamp of Selfishness. The swamp had been formed after the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil—a tree even more majestic than the Tree of Oneness—had been uprooted in the Great Garden. When it had crashed to the ground, the whole world had been shaken, creating havoc and destruction throughout the King’s country. The fallen branches had dammed many streams. With the flow of water blocked, the lowlands soon became a swamp. Treacherous quagmires were created, filled with all kinds of evil: envy, pride, greed, self-indulgence, ingratitude, slander, jealousy, and fits of rage.

Peter and Celeste considered finding a path around the swamp,
but it reached as far as they could see. The only other way was to head west, where the Mountains of Maturity towered over the swamp, looking even steeper and more forbidding.

Peter sighed. “I wish we had gone up the first mountain we came to. It looked like such a difficult climb. But compared to the ones we see now, I think it would have been easy. I don’t think we can scale these mountains; we’ll have to take a longer route across the swamp.”

“Do you really think it will be hard to go through the swamp?” Celeste said. “You are always so careful about picking the best way to go.”