Aunt Sarah was right. Maybe she had an inkling of what was coming. Jennie couldn't be certain, and she didn't feel free to ask her. But shortly after Stephen's departure, a letter came from her father's sister, telling them that her son Alec might come and settle down nearby for a year or so. He knew their home was a place where he could come and go as he pleased. But he preferred something simple for himself.
Jennie had never met this cousin, so she spent some days wondering just what kind of an addition he would be to their lives and to the gathering. He was older-twenty-six, and a bachelor. At eighteen, that seemed awfully old to her. He probably wouldn't even act like a young person. Most of the fellows his age were already married and had a couple of children. Why hadn't he married? She pondered many questions over in her mind and looked for his arrival with mixed emotions.
Alec was to arrive in two weeks. It was decided that he would live in the countryside a few miles down the way, in a deserted barn. The owner had converted a portion of the barn into living quarters.
It stood in a field of yellowing grasses, square, stolid and empty. Jennie almost fell inside, the first time she pushed the heavy door open and found herself standing in an immense hallway. It seemed to suggest real possibilities as she and her father looked about the empty hallway and followed the creaking steps to the upper level. Shafts of sunlight filled the large central area with its two enormous rooms. Anything could be done with those rooms!
When they got to the small apartment it appeared rather hopeless-looking. But having been a young man once himself, Peter Benton felt assured that Alec could make a home out of the place. He and Jennie walked back and forth through the rooms. Jennie liked the view from the windows which formed a sort of fanlight over the large doors, looking out on the farms nearby. From the top of the stairs, she could see clearly through the high window. It would be a definite challenge to make this place comfortable.
Alec came driving up on the appointed day, his car piled high with his belongings. He could hardly see out the back window as he drove along and his trunk was completely full, too!
Seated at the Benton supper table that night on the screened-in porch, he was enjoying his hearty welcome to their home. "Hey, Cuz, pass me some more of that roast beef, would ya please?" He looked at Kara with a big grin, as Jennie studied her cousin.
He looked like pictures of his father, tall and lean with strength of character in his face, a long nose and a cleft in his chin. His mop of dark hair was combed down over his forehead, but kept trimmed neatly at the back. He was thin in a way, but had strong, muscular arms and an attitude of expectation that said he could meet whatever difficulties came his way.
But what Jennie appreciated most about Alec was his simplicity. He was just what he was. He didn't put on airs. She knew they were going to like him a lot!
As the summer days passed, Alec came often to the Benton home. Early one morning, Jennie was sitting in the wicker rocker, watching a few cars going by on their way to work and thinking about his visit the evening before. Muffin was stretching himself in the sun on the long porch. The rays of morning sunlight were casting shadows across the old boards, forming shadows from the trees as they swayed in the summer wind. Bouquets of flowers spilled out of the window boxes. It was such a treat to be free from school, to have all these summer days stretching before her. Before she knew it, her thoughts turned to Stephen. Where was he? What was he doing now? There had been no word from him. She missed him, yet someone had come along to fill the summer days, as Aunt Sarah had predicted. Alec certainly brought with him a definite blessing.
He was not only her cousin, but he was becoming her friend. Just as it had been with her cousin Mark up in New York, there was a freedom to talk and share, without any concern that the other party would take some romantic implication from it all. That was the great thing about cousins. In fact, it was almost like having a brother!
Alec's arrival was doing a lot for Kara, too. At fifteen, she was just beginning to grow into a young lady. She missed her friends back home. At times Kara felt that her sister was getting in on all the special friendships. Now Kara was taking a liking to Alec, and he enjoyed teasing her. The two of them shared a fondness for each other. He was the big brother Kara always wanted.
Alec hinted to Jennie that there once had been a special girl in his life. Breaking off the friendship had been a traumatic experience to him. Just the night before, sitting out on the porch sharing, he had said with solemnity as he remembered, "But you know, a few verses came to me in such a stabilizing way, I could picture the Lord taking me in His arms and saying, 'You're still special to Me."' Alec went on to say that it was one of those unique times in his life when he felt the Lord was beside him, showing Himself to His poor, wandering lamb.
Alec continued to explain by relating a story to Jennie. "A speaker once told the story of an experience he had with his small son. Like the other boys his age, the little fellow wanted a train set. They passed one in a store window and the youthful expectation of owning such a set started him begging. His father said, 'No!', not 'Maybe sometime in the future', and not 'Maybe another kind of set'—just 'No'. It was hard for the young boy to accept, but his elation knew no bounds when on his next birthday the gift he received was a train set far bigger and better than the one he so wanted! The speaker likened this to the Lord's ways with us in our lives."
Jennie could see that, having found it difficult to accept his heartache, Alec had taken the story as comfort for himself. He could be assured that in His own time the Lord would send the right girl.
Alec recalled one evening back home when he and a friend had been talking about this. The friend said to Alec, "'But what if the Lord sent someone into your path that you did not love enough to marry, yet circumstances were leading you to feel perhaps it was the Lord's will that you marry her?'
"I thought of how the Church was given to Christ. We were not something to be desired, yet He loved us and died for us and redeemed us." Alec suggested if such a predicament came into his life, he would just have to leave it with the Lord. "I'm willing to change," he said, "willing to wait and see—to follow where He leads. I'm in no hurry."
Jennie felt a bit ashamed. She knew that if she were in a similar situation, up until now at least, she would have said "no". How wonderful to be sensitive to the Lord's will like Alec, to be willing to change and not close one's heart against what might be the Lord's will!
Jennie pulled herself out of her own thoughts as Alec reached for his Bible. He turned to Gen. 24 where the servant chose a wife for Isaac. Starting with verse 63, he read: "And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide: and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, the camels were coming." He went on to verse 66, "And the servant told Isaac all things that he had done. And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her."
Alec reflected, "I take it that the servant was a type of the Holy Spirit leading. He continued, thoughtfully. "One day an older friend was talking with me about this and he said, 'Have you ever thought that you owe it to your wife to love her as she would desire to be loved? Not to marry someone you can't love?' How important it is to wait on the Lord until you are clear," Alec concluded.
Leaving the warmth of the Benton household and starting off into the night toward his lonely old barn, Alec called over his shoulder, "Love ya, Cuz!"
Jennie stood deep in thought as he disappeared in the darkness. Surely someday the Lord would send him the right one. And could she apply the lessons of tonight to herself? Could she learn to accept the Lord's will in her life-concerning Stephen?