For four years, he waited
He waited in pain and agony
He waited in hope and trepidation
He waited in silence
Everybody told him it was the right thing to do in order to make heaven
His church pastor told him he cannot move on
His parents told him to have faith
They told him there is a God who restores
They told him to hold on
He had to
His wife eloped with a South African Pilot in 2015
She had been cheating on him with some other men on and off before then
He had no idea what was going on
Apparently, the reason the marriage dragged on for four years was because his wife hadn’t found the right person to jump ship for
She was a chartered accountant
He was a chartered accountant too
They met at a firm they were both hopeful of working at
He got the job, she didn’t
But they had become friends as they moved from one stage of the interview to the other
They both knew either of them would get the job but they couldn’t resist being friends
She was the gregarious type
He was the quiet and taciturn type
His social life was almost zero
Before he met his wife, he had only dated two other women
The first was a medical doctor who left him because he was too boring
The other was a music minister who loved him but couldn’t wait for him to finish his ICAN before moving on with another guy who loved her and was ready to get married
His wife practically fell on his lap
After he got the job, the friendship became serious
She told him she couldn’t do without him and he believed
Three months after he got the job, she moved in with him
He would later learn that she had accommodation issues and desperately needed somewhere to move to as her landlord had ejected her
She told him nothing like that
He came home from work one day and found her standing by the gate of his house
She said she wanted to pay him a surprise visit and also wanted to make sure he was a bachelor like he claimed
It was the second statement that made him conclude that she wanted a serious relationship with him
She stayed over that day
She cooked him dinner, drew his bath and did home engineering duties perfectly
He was very impressed
By the time she moved in, he was convinced without a doubt that she was the one
All the signs pointed to that fact
Nine months after he met her, he proposed and she said yes
They got married
The marriage was in his opinion very good until she got a job
She was employed by an airline where she had the opportunity of meeting many rich and influential people
She was a social wrung climber (Someone who attaches herself to people of a particular class in order to move up the social ladder into that class)
Before they met, she had dated her way upward
The reality of dating socially upward was not bad in itself until it becomes a serial habit
Sometime during their second year of marriage, his wife began to travel to South Africa frequently
She told him it was for work and he believed her
One day she left and she didn’t return home
When he contacted her office, he was told she had resigned
He later learned she was living with a pilot in South Africa
He didn’t see any sign
He didn’t suspect anything
He ran to her parents
They told him they had no hands in it
He ran to the church, his pastor said
He should keep praying
He ran to his parents, his parents said he should trust to hope
So he waited
They told him it was a trying time
They told him it was a perilous time
They told him it was a price he had to pay for his faith to be stronger
A year after she left, he traveled to South Africa
He wanted to see for himself what was going on
He had gotten her address from one of her close cousins
He wanted to know how to move on
He got to South Africa and booked a hotel close to her house
He planned to called her when he got there but he chickened out at the last minute
He really missed her but what would be the point of disrupting her life and causing trouble in a strange land
He didn’t know the kind of guy the pilot was
He didn’t think he should risk his life or getting physical injury over a woman even if she was his wife
He eventually summoned courage
He wrote a letter and went to her house
His plan was to drop the letter and wait for response
He had written his contact address (The hotel he was lodged in and phone numbers) in the letter
She was living in a very expensive apartment
The type that uses a doorman
Each flat had a pigeonhole downstairs where letters could be dropped
He explained to the doorman that he had a letter to deliver to the apartment
The doorman took the letter from him
He turned around to leave and saw her walking up the entrance stairs towards him
He called her name
She turned towards him, he saw the baby carrier on her shoulders and a baby in it
She looked at him, paused for a brief second to be sure she was not looking at an apparition and shook her head
Then she walked steadily into the apartment building
He just stood there…
After about three minutes, he left
He had all the answers he needed
She had moved on
Later that evening as he was waiting for the night to pass so that he can catch his flight back to Nigeria the next morning, his phone rang
He picked it
It was her
She said “What are you doing here?”
It was at that very moment that he remembered she told him she wanted to wait at least until she was thirty before she started trying to conceive
He agreed with her that they both had more than enough time to wait and sort things out before having children
His family was not the type to meddle into such details of his life
She was twenty-six years and seven days old when they got married
She was twenty-eight when he saw her again and she already had a baby
It means she just didn’t want to have children with him
He wasn’t the one
That was his conclusion
She just used him
He told her he was catching the first flight back to Nigeria the next day
He came for closure and he had gotten closure
She didn’t say anything else
There was a long silence and a click as she dropped the clock
He returned to Nigeria
He went to discuss with the pastor of his church
He just wanted to move on with his life
The pastor said he should pray that
God will judge his wife by killing her so that he can be set free to remarry
He said “Yes sir”
He stopped going to church the following week
He lied to the pastor that he was traveling to buy some time
As soon as his rent was due, he moved to another part of the city
He needed to restart his life
He read a story on gbengawemimo.com and reached out to the brother in Jeans and T-shirt
He wanted to be sure God will still love him if he met someone else and remarried
They had a long and fruitful discussion
They discussed religion and Jesus
The Bible stated categorically by the coming of Jesus that a people living in darkness has seen a great light!
The Bible was talking about the Jews
The JEWS were the people living in darkness
The Jews that had all the laws of Moses and all the prophets were described as living in darkness
Jesus was the great light
The law was sin and death and it saved nobody
If the law could save, Jesus wouldn’t have to come
Moses brought the law and categorically stated that the children of Israel must not marry foreigners
Then Moses himself married an Ethiopian woman
When his sister and brother protested,
God took Moses’s side
Nobody can lose his or her salvation over domestic issues
Nowhere was such written or stated
Truth is, if you know the gospel and walk in its light, you will be able to see clearly why there is no marriage in heaven as Jesus stated We are spirit beings
Marriage is for mortals
Do the maths!
He was shocked to see the gospel explained so simply
If marriage can not give you eternal life, marriage cannot take eternal life from you
Eternal life is a gift from God to the whole world through Jesus Christ
Whosoever believes in the Lord
Jesus and confesses him shall be saved. Amen
Brother Godfrey met sister Roselyn on Christmas Day of 2019
He said he walked into a shop at the mall to pick some gifts for his parents, nephews and nieces when he saw her
She was the manager of the store (Not the owner)
He told her what he had in mind and while he sat down nursing a bottle of wine, she used her discretion to pick the gifts for him
He said it was as if she saw into his heart
The gifts were all perfect
They exchange numbers and started talking
He introduced her to the gospel
They both met with the Brother in Jeans and T-shirt and were baptized in the Holy Ghost
Sister Roselyn was an orphan who was raised by the church since the age of five
She had never seen or heard from the Holy Spirit before that encounter Things changed rapidly after as they both grew in the faith
On the 19th of June, 2020
Brother Godfrey proposed to Sister Roselyn
Sister Roselyn said “Yes”
On the 26th day of December 2020, Brother Godfrey and Sister Roselyn got married somewhere in Nigeria
Brother Godfrey said “Brother Gbenga, Thank you, sir. Please write my story!
Sister Roselyn said “Please write the story as our wedding present”
The joy bursting forth from the two of them cannot be contained Glory be to God
PS: Fear has failed as the reason to stay married. Fear can only bring torment
When I hear couples say “I am staying in this marriage because I want to make heaven” I just shake my head
Those who teach such rubbish are misrepresenting the word of God. We stay in our marriages because that is the right thing to do and we have been enabled to do that by the power of the Holy Spirit!
If we all exhibit the fruits of the spirit our homes would be heaven on earth. I recently spoke with a cheating
husband who said “My wife is a Christian, she is always praying and reading the Bible.
By the tenet of her religion she should forgive me such indiscretions. If she can’t forgive me and move on it means she is a hypocrite!” That is what a carnal interpretation of a spiritual reality does It perverts the truth and exchanges the eternal for the temporal.
Religion binds people to darkness. Christ translate people from darkness to light. You have the right to walk in bondage or liberty.
You have the right to use your liberty as led by the Holy Spirit to frame your aeons and live out His plan for you. You can also abuse your liberty by living the wrong way and you will reap the consequence in this world Your reality in Christ is up to you. Amen!
Happy Married life to Brother G and Sister R!
May your Home be a tree of righteousness planted by the river of life.
Popping Cherries was written by Gbenga Samuel-Wemimo
