Across the Shores: Four Women, Bound by Generations, Find Love Where They Least Expect by Angela K Couch

Author:Angela K Couch [Couch, Angela K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781636095202
Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2023-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Caroline stared at the wedding band in her palm, one side worn thin from a lifetime of love. Her shoulders shook as tears streamed unbidden from her eyes. What had she done?

Franz strode down the stairs, the sound fading as he neared the kitchen door. Should she stop him? Did she have anything different to say? Why couldn’t she let the past remain there and embrace the plan God was unfolding for her life right now?

She plopped down on the steamer trunk and revisited the events of her afternoon with Franz—the tingling sensation of his thumb caressing her hand, his earnest pledge to love her, scars and all, and the disappointment in his eyes when she insisted on waiting until after they married to remove her veil.

More than an hour passed while Caroline sat in the dimming attic light rehashing their conversation but not finding any different conclusions. Only God could help Franz understand why this meant so much to her. Grant me Your wisdom, Lord.

The steps groaned under the weight of someone’s shoes. Was it Franz? Had he come back? Had he reconsidered his opinion?

She swiped at the tears on her cheeks. “Franz,” she called, her breath quivering.

“Nein. It … is me, Opa. The stairs have stolen the wind from my lungs.”

Caroline sniffled and patted the space beside her. “I’m afraid I’m not much company.”

“Ja, I hear your weeping, and my heart aches.” Bible in hand, he lowered himself onto the trunk. “I come to check on you.”

“Dankeschön.” She kissed his cheek. “I’ve made a mess of everything, Opa.”

“That is life. We make a mess, and we clean it up. None of us escapes this life without a few scars, but you cannot hide from my grandson any more than you can hide from Gott.”

She bristled at the suggestion she hid from anyone, let alone the God she loved. “What makes you think I avoid God?”

“Ja, you talk to Him and go to the service with us each week, but I suspect, in here”—he tapped her temple—“you think because your earthly Vater rejects you, because he fails to see your unique value, that your heavenly Vater will do the same.”

She opened her mouth to protest, but Opa continued, determined to make his point. “But He knows you, Caroline. You hide yourself behind the veil because you are afraid that you’ll never be good enough. I suspect you shroud yourself in lace because you don’t want others to see you, not even Gott.”

Was that true? Had the veil meant to protect her from the deceitful heart of men kept her from embracing her true identity as a child of God?

He flipped his Bible to the Gospel of Matthew and read from the twenty-seventh chapter. “And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom …”

Caroline remembered this passage from her years in Sunday school, but what she didn’t understand was how it related to her current predicament with Franz.

“Before our Lord sacrificed Himself on the cross, the veil in the temple separated the people from Gott.

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