HOW MANY?

This short story's about the world of the young a few years ago. I don't know if it is still relevent.

HOW MANY?

They sat in the minister's office, the young couple. This was their only premarital marriage counselling. This was it. (there were time constraints. Plus, the wedding was soon. What could they think of changing this close to the wedding.) The minister was pleasant, serious and fatherly. He was asking them questions which were to reveal if they were indeed ready for marriage, if they had thought through the difficulties which were ahead -difficulties that are the lot of all.

Unfortunately, she thought of the session and questions as obstacles to be negotiated/squared away. Even the minister she thought of as an enemy almost, to be outsmarted(?) instead of a flesh and blood human being who had her and her fiance's best interests at heart, and who represented God's life-giving principles. Her instinct to hide was so strong!

Many of the questions were routine, about the ceremony, and the families and religious upbringing.

Then there was the question "How many . . .?"
The pastor paused for SO long. She sensed that this was the moment of truth-literally. The pastor was giving them the opportunity to come clean with him, to face the truth of their fornicating state, which they had tried to be discreet about, thinking that discretion was the same as morality. (The pastor did not know. They had been discreet. They didn't want to bring shame on their parents.)

She felt like she had been here once before, standing at the precipice of decision. It would be so easy to smooth this over, to pretend that the minister was asking "How many bridesmaids?" or "How many songs?" or prayers, or limosenes. She felt that at some past time, she HAD run for cover, taken the easy way out , taken the coward's way out. (I'm sad to say that she and her fiance did not even talk about their lifestyle and that it was not on the approved list of the Bible.)

Where on earth did she find the strength and wisdom to bring things to a screeching halt? to catch that tiny moment and refuse to go forward before digesting it and respond out of the conviction that she didn't even have yet?

Nonetheless, saints almighty, she did timidly respond, "Pastor, are you asking if we are living together?"

When she made that decision, she did so blindly. She was not the kind of person who could imagine scenes out of real life future or gossamer. She had seen nothing ahead, other than recriminations of this authority figure. Some undefined unpleasantness. She didn't think about her fiance, either. He, too, was just a cardboard cutout, like everyone else in her life.

But, guess what!
That decision was a melting!
Life started. The pastor was not some jarring tape recorder or a Salem judge, but someone who could tell her why. Why God, in love, ruled that women and men not come together before marriage.
He was not perfect by any means, this pastor, but he saw her, and her fiance who was a stranger to him, as sheep of his pasture, for him to care for gently. He had grown up in another day, but he knew more about the imperfections of life, of the secret, soiled underbelly kept out of view, than most of his church realized. He haltingly walked (talked to them) between gentle quietness and firm morality. (Morality is really such an insufficient word for the loving life-giving guidelines that he knew God's laws to be.)

Do you want to know what came next?

"I'm so glad you were able to share that with me. I know it was hard."
"Let's go from here..."

The pastor said his Christian conviction barred him from marrying couples who were living together. He asked what obstacles there were to the two living separately and remain celebate until the ceremony. He encouraged them to agree to his condition (God's condition) by telling them that it would help their marriage so very much down the road for them to start out on this good first step. They would have more respect for each other and themselves by making this fresh start.

She was shocked a few minutes later to realize how relaxed she was, happy with this turn of events. How did the fiance' feel?