A Wife for Stephen by Valcine Brown

into
the
office
on
Monday,
everyone
had
remarked that there was something different about her.
Although they couldn’t quite put their finger on it, they
knew there was a change. A few people asked if she had
done something different with her hair while others asked if
she were wearing a new outfit. Celeste just replied, ‘No,’
while smiling at them with her head tilted to the side
waiting for them to pin point the change in her life.
Finally, when they weren’t able to figure it out, “I found
Jesus!” she blurted out.
Taken aback and not knowing what to say, James said
sarcastically, “Really! I didn’t know that He was missing.”
And just like that he walked away.
That
comment
had taken quite a bit
of wind from
Celeste’s proverbial sails but had not taken her newfound
joy in the Lord. She just turned away with her head held
high, from others who had been eyeing their exchange with
quite a bit of interest, and continued on into her office.
After closing her office door behind her, Celeste set her
briefcase on her desk and proceeded to remove her blazer
while pushing thoughts of the exchange from her mind.
Glancing briefly through the itinerary that Jayla, her faithful
secretary, had placed on her desk every morning without
fail, she made a mental note that on her lunch break, she
would go out and buy herself a Bible. And on Sunday she
would attend church.
Since she hadn’t been to church since being a little girl
and didn’t know where to begin, she decided she would
look in the yellow pages. She would start with the closest
church to her home and go to a different one each week
until she found one she wanted to join.
That settled, she felt an excitement come over her, the
excitement of an adventure that she was very much looking
forward to embarking on. Settling in at her desk, Celeste
began to focus on her work.
That was a little over a year ago. Celeste had been
blessed in finding a church home in the second church that
she had visited. Upon walking in the doors of the old
steeple sanctuary, she was greeted by a most wonderfully
pleasant older woman who handed her a program and said
how happy she was that Celeste was visiting with them.
Finding an empty seat on a pew towards the middle of
the sanctuary, Celeste had placed her newly purchased
bible on the seat next to her and surveyed her surroundings.
The pews were covered in a burgundy colored fabric,
which accented the burgundy flecks in the tan carpeting.
The church sanctuary was
large enough to hold three
hundred people and as Celeste looked around her, she
noticed that there must be at least two hundred people
present that morning.
The service had begun with the pastor standing behind
the
pulpit
and greeting the
congregation.
He
thanked
everyone for coming out that morning and made a few
announcements from the bulletin that he was holding which
was the same that had been handed to her upon her arrival.
Celeste followed the minister along in her own bulletin and
noticed a few activities that she thought might be fun to
participate in.
A few members of the congregation went upon the
platform and began picking up instruments as the Pastor
finished
the
announcements.
The
Pastor
encouraged
everyone to join in that morning’s worship to “Lift the
Name of Jesus.”
The music began at a medium tempo as a projector was
turned on,
illuminating lyrics
upon
a
wall
behind the
platform. Celeste found herself clapping her hands and
rocking along to the beat of the music. She even tried her
voice out on the song that was being sung.
With each song, the tempo grew slower until the final
song was sung. It was a song that sung of Christ’s
Crucifixion and how it demonstrated how much Christ
loved us. It proclaimed that forever, we would give our
lives to Him. Celeste began to cry as the realization hit
home what a great sacrifice Jesus, The Christ, had made for
His people.
Weeping, Celeste bowed her head. She had asked Christ
to
save her, but it wasn’t until that