On the Side| Brad Hicks

The follow-ing is column written by a fellow named Bob Thompson, a teacher and coach in my hometown. I share it each Christmas.

Here’s the story about a young man who was engaged to be married. He was in love and his life was infected with that special pride and that vibrant joy that is peculiar to lovers.

He was a young working man, a man of very ordinary means. His lover was common and not particularly well educated. She was pretty enough, but far from glamorous. She was his, however, and in his mind there was no one more beautiful.

Then things fell apart. She was pregnant and he was not the father.

The first wave of emotion was pure fury, culminating in a blind passion to kill whoever had been responsible for this outrage. Then came humiliation. In a small town, he had been made the cuckold. Finally came despair. His life, which only a few days earlier had been full of joy and promise, now seemed to lie in shambles. 

If you or I had been there to console him, we might have told him that things weren’t so bad. We might have told him to look on the bright side. We might have told him that suffering sometimes has a purpose – a purpose not always immediately clear. We might have told him that for each of our lives there are plans laid which we do not always comprehend.

I don’t know how much consolation that would have been.

In the end, he did a strange thing. He put aside his fury, his humiliation, his despair. He married her anyway. A few months later, the child was born. He was born away from home. His parents had to sign up for a government program. And to do so, they had gone to Bethlehem.

You just never know...

Brad Hicks is publisher of The Express. Contact him at publisher@redoakexpress.com.