Tonight, I thought to myself, will be a quiet and relaxing evening especially after a long and tedious workday at Travel Specialists, the travel agency where I have worked for the past several years. I wanted to forget about all the delayed flights, stranded clients, and canceled vacations that were a result of icy conditions originating somewhere up East. I just wanted to lock myself away in my cozy one bedroom loft apartment with nothing but a book, a cup of hot cider, and a chosen menu of silence. One of the advantages of being a confirmed bachelor was the freedom to come and go as I pleased and to decide how much or how little social interaction I would involve myself in at any given time. Tonight, I decided there would be zero interaction as I pulled the shades and turned the ringing volume on my cordless phone to off!

As I lazily stretched out upon my futon/couch, I could already feel a calm and therapeutic newness that was slowly beginning to take over my frazzled mind and tired body. “Ah this is just what the doctor ordered,” I whispered. As I drifted into a pretentious state of relaxation on a deserted white sandy beach, the silence of an otherwise perfect evening was suddenly broken by a familiar, but unexpected, knock at my front door.

Rachel was my best friend and the love of my life. I had met her a couple of years earlier while having lunch at a local deli around the corner from Travel Specialists where she worked. Rachel is about five feet, six inches tall, has long auburn hair that is sometimes pulled back into a ponytail, and hazel, green eyes. Although she is very pretty, it is her energetic personality that first attracted me to her. Rachel’s mind was filled to overflowing with dreams, goals, and a seemingly endless amount of energy. Though our age difference was pretty significant, we seemed to have several things in common and enjoyed each other’s company. I would generally wait to come into the deli for lunch around 1:30pm-2:00pm. That way, most of the noonday crowd was already heading back to work, and Rachel and I could talk while she cleaned up for the day. We both love music, exercising, and we also share a common faith and belief in God. Rachel’s parents were missionaries who traveled throughout the world until she was about sixteen years of age. I, on the other hand, had been raised in church as a child but never took my faith seriously until I was a freshman in college. I loved to hear Rachel talk of her childhood experiences in Thailand, Australia, and some of the other places where she and her family had lived. It all sounded so exotic to me, but according to Rachel, it was pretty difficult when you are one of nine children and sleeping in the same bed with three other sisters for months on end.

I also loved to travel and see distant lands. That was one reason why I became a travel agent right out of college. The pay was not great and the advancement opportunities were limited, but since I was the only mouth to feed, I figured I would have fun and explore this great big world as long as I could. One parallel between Rachel and me was that Rachel had pretty much traveled to most of the areas in the Orient and South Pacific, while I had concentrated on the Caribbean and Europe. Thus, our travel adventures had covered almost the entire earth.

As Rachel sat down next to me, I asked her whether she was all right. She nodded in a casual, but unconvincing manner, hoping that she would momentarily deflect any straight to the point questions she knew I might ask. Because we spent so much time together, I knew that something of importance was churning up within her that she did not want to talk about just yet. Finally, I asked, “How was your day?” “Okay,” she replied, as her eyes continued to drift and focus on everything else in my dimly lit apartment except me. “I didn’t think I would see you tonight,” I commented. “I thought you were going to spend some time with Rhonda (who was Rachel’s twin sister).” Rachel still seemed distant, but started to return to normal as she replied, “Rhonda didn’t feel like going out so I thought I would see what you were up to.” I replied, “I’m glad you did Rachel, but I know something is on your mind.” I knew enough from past experience to let her answer me on her own terms. It may take a couple of minutes, but slowly I knew that Rachel would come around. “So much for my solo evening on the beach,” I muttered under my breath.

Without a word Rachel cautiously pulled a small, white box from her purse, which looked more like an unwrapped gift to me. My first thought was, “I sure hope that I didn’t forget an important date with regards to our relationship.” As she looked up at me her demeanor suddenly took on an air of seriousness as she removed a long, pen shaped object from the box and carefully laid it down in front of me upon the futon. What is going on, I thought. Still clueless of what Rachel was doing or thinking, I looked at her and bluntly asked, “What is this?” With a bewildered look of utter amazement, she just stared at me, trying to fathom why I had not yet figured out the obvious. Okay maybe I didn’t catch on as quickly as most guys would have in a similar circumstance, but I had never been in a situation like this before. About 30 seconds later, lets just say, the anvil of stark reality pummeled my head. As I held the pregnancy indicator in my right hand, I looked up at Rachel and boisterously expressed, “I’m going to be a daddy!” “I’m going to be a daddy”; I repeated even more loudly! Pulling her to me, I immediately enveloped Rachel and again shouted, “We are going to have a baby!”

On one hand I am sure that Rachel was now somewhat relieved by my excitement and that I would not disappear and bear no responsibility for our unborn child. But, part of her must have been almost frozen with fear as she contemplated the prospect of having a child, especially out of wedlock with the expected backlash of judgmental feelings from certain family members and friends. I, on the other hand, could have cared less about what others would think about me at that point. I was going to be a daddy with the woman I loved. And God was the only one that I had to answer to.

My excitement transcended all those lonely years that I had spent alone, never married, with very few serious relationships, and childless. I had made a vow to God as a college freshman to remain a virgin until I was one day married. For the past two decades I had fulfilled that promise and was serious about staying sexually pure. Don’t get me wrong, I had just as many sexual and carnal desires in me as the next person, but only through God’s grace did I manage to remain abstinent this long. My relationship with Rachel was different from other women I had dated in the past. I was sure Rachel was the girl that I would marry, and as a result, I totally allowed my heart and body to become unusually vulnerable to any fantasies or wishes that Rachel and I shared or wanted to indulge in.

Rachel left my apartment that night around 10:00pm, and although my planned evening of solitude was somewhat disrupted, I was happier now than I had been in years. Just the thought of me being a father was totally awe-inspiring! Though I knew that having a child out of wedlock was not God’s perfect will for a professing Christian, I somehow knew that HE would forgive me of my willful disobedience towards premarital sex and help Rachel and me bring one of HIS most precious gifts into this world.