The Greatest of These is Love Pt. 01

"Thank you for your hospitality this weekend, Josh."

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"Bye! Drive safely! Call us when you get to your dorm room!"

John and Dawn waved to everyone who had come outside to see them off. Even Danny and Junior came out and hugged Dawn goodbye. Jenny, Ginny, and Emily all gave John a big hug and their inhalations were rewarded with the scent of the cologne that Dawn had asked him to wear. Even Gypsy Rose Lee gave a collie bark as the car rolled down the long driveway.

John was driving due to some additional cramping Dawn was experiencing, and her left hand was wrapped in his right on top of the gear shift.

"How are you feeling, Dawn?" John inquired.

"Still cramping, John. But I've learned to expect this. There are only two ways to keep this from happening, and neither of them is good for me now. One, I could become pregnant; and two, I could run out of eggs and go through menopause. So, this is just something we women must endure. You make this so much more tolerable for me, especially this morning. Thank you." She squeezed his hand once more.

They drove on a little further, the only sounds being the wind and the music from the radio. After a few miles, Dawn decided to poke the bear.

"John, a couple of times this weekend you've said we needed to talk about us and you were waiting until we were headed back to school. I think this is as good a time as any. Let's talk."

John gripped the steering wheel a little tighter and his knuckles paled slightly. He nodded.

"I suppose this is an appropriate time and place." He paused, collecting his thoughts. "I've wanted to talk about us, then I let the cat out of the bag when you came back to bed early this morning. I don't know if this is too soon, but I hate the game of 'who's going to say it first?'. I love you, Dawn. My happiness is becoming entirely dependent upon your happiness. In short, 'if Dawn ain't happy, I ain't happy.'"

She interjected, forestalling him. "Oh, Big John, you make me so happy!" Dawn turned down the radio and started to sing, "You Are My Sunshine."

"I love you, too, John. No, I don't think it's too soon to say that. Don't get me wrong; the sex is great! But there's more to us than just the sex. I think something shifted in the universe this morning when you held me after I came back to bed. I knew my period would start soon although I'd hoped Aunt Ruby would have delayed her visit until we got back to school. I really wanted a 'good morning wakeup fuck' with you. Ah, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, isn't it?"

John smiled as she continued.

"But that's not the only thing you wanted to talk about, is it?"

"No, it isn't. It's the seeming disparity between our lives, Dawn. You whip out that credit card so easily without any concern about how to pay the bill when it comes due. Mamma and Daddy take care of the bill. That worries me. It especially bothers me when you do it for things for me. I should be able to provide at least for myself. But I can't because I'm still in school and scraping by on my Work/Study money plus my scholarships and the savings from my summer jobs. My basic needs are met and I've learned to put off my wants. Delayed gratification, if you will.

"I haven't seen you having those restrictions or a similar perspective. You aren't Daddy's spoiled little girl; I will grant you that. But you don't seem to have a plan, a budget if you will. 'Failing to plan is planning to fail,' I've been taught. It all has me worried that it will all come crashing down around your ears one day. I couldn't stand to see that happen to you."

"Okay, John. I understand your point of view," Dawn responded. "I haven't fully shared my family's financial picture with you. Doing so may address some of your concerns. Grandma Taggart, the Millie Taggart who Daddy called out today, passed on early last January. That left everything that Granddaddy Taggart had accumulated to my family. Because I was over 18 years of age, I received my own little chunk of the family fortune. Mamma uses my money to pay off my credit card every month. My parents manage the money for us kids. You saw that Junior has to work at Taco Bell, right? And Danny's doin' stuff at the Peterson farm because he's not legally old enough for a real job. I also have to get a job over the summers.

"Mamma and Daddy are making us learn the value of real work. None of us are spoiled little rich kids. But having that safety net allows me to become something I want to be, a foreign languages teacher. Surely you know that teachers aren't well compensated, even with their 'paid summer vacations'. That's a common misnomer. Most teachers simply defer some of their paychecks to be year-round."

John swallowed and nodded, his eyes getting a little wider.

"I also have some ideas how my parents think. Daddy's usually planning things three to five years ahead; very strategic. Mamma's the tactician and the Field Marshal. They work really well together and they are great examples for me. Which is one reason I'm never letting go of you. I can't say yet that you complete me, but you are strong in areas where I am weaker. I believe you and I could make as good a team as Mamma and Daddy."

John's eyes misted for a couple of seconds at her words "never letting go of you." He had never been anybody's all-in-all the way Dawn seemed to be thinking of him. He still had moments of wondering how and why she was attracted to him, but he was beginning to see some of her rationale, beyond the sex. He pulled into the next gas station and put the car into Park.

"John, is anything wrong?"

Saying nothing, he unbuckled first his seatbelt then hers. Twisting his body, he pulled her to him and they met at the lips. She succumbed quickly to him, and soon their tongues were exploring each other's mouth. After a minute or two, Dawn pulled back and gently pressed him back into the seat.

"Whooeee! Big John, where did that come from?"

John simply repeated words from church that had stuck in his mind: "Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, doesn't have a swelled head, doesn't force itself on others, isn't always 'me first.'

"I love you, Dawn Taggart, with everything that I am. I am yours, and I am never, ever letting go of you!"

They returned to the campus without any further delays. As John entered his dorm, he encountered Tom Harrison. Shocking Tom, John grabbed him in a hug of gratitude.

"What was that for, John?" Tom asked.

"We just got back from a wonderful weekend with Dawn's family."

"And ...?"

"And I told her this morning that I loved her."

Tom broke into a huge smile. He knew that it was difficult for John to express that sort of emotion, but the joy on John's face was unmistakable.

"I'm very glad for you, John. We can talk more later if you like, but right now I'm meeting Julie for supper."

"Thank her for us, please. Thank you, Tom, for caring and for getting Dawn and me together." With another hug, John was climbing the stairs to his floor.

The scene was somewhat similar in Dawn and Julie's room. Dawn entered and Julie was at her desk working on something.

"Hey, you're back!" Julie exclaimed. "How was Phelps Bluff?"

"It's still standing, Jules. Everyone was asking about you."

"Okay, so how was your weekend? Did the family like John?"

"Both Mamma and Daddy liked him a lot. They invited him to come back for Thanksgiving. Ginny wants John to wait for her if I ever let him go, which will never happen." That got a big smile out of Julie. "There was a little friction with my brothers, but that was to be expected. But the very best thing of the whole weekend happened this morning. 'Aunt Ruby' came a‑visitin' and when I got back in bed, John spooned me and told me he loved me." Julie squealed with delight.

"And did you say it back to him?"

"Not right away because I was so surprised, and then he quickly fell back asleep holdin' me. When we woke later, he said it again and then I said it back to him. And Jules, I meant every word."

Julie gave her best friend a hug and joyfully congratulated her. "I'm so happy for you, Dawnie. Hold on to him tightly."

"I'm never letting go of him, Jules."

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The Message by Eugene Peterson

1 Corinthians 13:4-13

Love never gives up.

Love cares more for others than for self.

Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.

Love doesn't strut,

Doesn't have a swelled head,

Doesn't force itself on others,

Isn't always "me first,"

Doesn't fly off the handle,

Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,

Doesn't revel when others grovel,

Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,

Puts up with anything,

Trusts God always,

Always looks for the best,

Never looks back,

But keeps going to the end.

Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.

We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us.

But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward the consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

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1 Corinthians 13:4-13 (RSV, 1952)

Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.