"They're very playful, aren't they?" said Kryztina.

Stan laughed. "Yes, I used to have hours and hours fun as a child playing with the kittens, though I remember getting scratched sometimes and running off to mother crying for a plaster (bandaid)!"

Jenny was by now smiling, the indolent comparison with the virtues of a dog momentarily forgotten.

"Our founder told me an interesting story once," said Stan as he tried to recollect the details. "He was in vision one day and saw what looked like deep outer space. Floating in the middle of nowhere was a small glasshouse or greenhouse, the kind you find in a tiny back garden with little space. He was taken inside the glasshouse where an old woman was watering her plants and being constantly followed by her cats."

"What did the vision mean, father?" asked Władysław interested.

"It was the spirit world, son," answered Stan, "the world of the dead, and in this particular case, the world of this woman who had been so absorbed with plants and cats that she cared for nothing else. When she died she found herself in a world that corresponded to her own inner selfish world which excluded people. Her world in that space of time before the Judgment consisted of the things which had mattered to her on earth. That was her inner prison translated into outer reality."

There was a stunned silence in the room for a while. Salme broke the silence:

"You mean, that what we love in this life we get in the next?"

"I don't know," replied Stan, "all I know is that's what our founder told me. He's seen other visions like that one. But the point, I think, is that we can get too absorbed with things and creatures and in so doing forget that we are primarily to serve and give to people. That woman hadn't even had time for her husband. Our founder never told me the woman's circumstances in life ... perhaps he didn't know ... but it was clear she had more love for animals than for people. And that is a sin against not only the creation mandate but the dominant theme of the Gospels and Johannine Epistles which is to multiply the love of Christ amongst God's highest creation. Animals are poor substitutes for human beings."

Stan looked at Suszana. "Do you remember Jana, dear?"

"Yes, the man in Białystok with the two labrador dogs," answered Suszana. "He absolutely adored them. They were his life," and went on to explain that Jana had been their gardener at one time.

"He lived for those animals and they no doubt were companionable when his wife died. And yet he was such a lonely man. There is no substitute for human company, and definitely not for the companionship of marriage."

------------

Jenny stared up and scanned her living room which was like a botanical garden. It was beautifully arranged. Ferns hung from the ceiling, two rubber trees filled corners, and plants of every variety lined the windowsills. Jenny had arranged her room tastefully and with care. She loved her plants and she loved Fritz and she didn't much want to part with either.

Stan's words haunted her. She knew that she had an idolatry problem, in spite of the fact that she was not like that woman in the glasshouse. She was not one to lock herself away but genuinely enjoyed being around people and helping them. Yet she knew in her heart of hearts that Fritz and her little Eden were substitutes for marriage which she had learned to accept and live with. But was it right? And were these things clouding her judgment? She got the impression that Stan would think so.

Her eye caught the bundle of letters on the table. Fritz was ejected from his royal cushion and went away, his tail swishing in annoyance and indignation. "They are selfish animals," she admitted to herself, and wondered if perhaps she hadn't blasphemed the holy name of cats. Fritz disappeared under the table to nurse his wounded pride but was soon rubbing himself on her legs again, purring loudly and unashamedly hoping for some morsel to eat. The sardines had gone down well earlier and he hoped another tin might be coming his way. He knew he was sassy and could wrap his mistress around his paw with a few snuggles and purrs.

Jenny's eye fell on a letter postmarked Borlänge. She knew it was from Kadesh-Naphtali but didn't recognise the handwriting and knew it wasn't Stan's. And there was no forwarding address. It had only been a week since she had returned home and wondered what might have prompted a letter so soon after her visit. She had left the community in buoyant mood, confident that the Lord would show her what it was she was now to do with her life, and how. She wondered if the letter was from Kryztina.

It was from Salme, Stan's most recent and youngest wife, whose wedding she had attended at Kadesh-Naphtali. She hadn't spoken much with Salme during her visit so her curiosity was peaked. The letter-opener did its work and she was soon reading.

Dearest Jenny

As you know my English is not too good, and I don't know any Swedish yet, so I hope you don't mind that my writing is not so good. Kasia is helping me with spelling and grammar.

I just wanted to write and tell you how happy I was meeting you and I know that all the family agrees with me. Stan misses you and so do we. We hope you will come again very, very soon.

Yahweh bless you and keep you in His love,

Your sister in Yah'shua,

Salme

The letter was short and simple, without any sort of pretentiousness, and to the point. Jenny was touched and felt an inner glow. Suddenly she wanted to be at Kadesh-Napthali and as her mind drifted into recent memories she was there. And then, like a bolt out of the blue, she saw the face of Marcel Cohen, and once again she was in deep inner anguish.

------------

Marcel Cohen - how she had tried to blot that name out of her mind and all the painful associations. Months had passed by since their relationship had broken up - a secret relationship that no one but she and some of Marcel's closest friends had known about. It was a careless mistake that she had thought herself incapable of making.

Marcel was a young, dashing financier from Stockholm, only a year her senior and from a respectable Jewish family of no small means. He was handsome, rich, and well bred ... but they were of different religions and, as she was later to find out to her cost, of different mental and emotional maturities.

Jenny had been bowled over. Swept off her feet by outward appearance, though not without being attracted by his warmth and other virtues, Jenny had believed she had found her Prince Charming and naïvely assumed that their religious differences could be bridged by romantic love. Though nominally Reformed Jews, Marcel's parents were very secular and liberal and were not too concerned about their son marrying a goy (gentile, non-Jew), if that is how the relationship would end up. The fact that Jenny was an aristocrat who as a daughter-in-law would enhance their presige in the high circles they walked in, seemed to interest them more than matters of religion, or even romance, for that matter. Yet in truth they looked down upon her with not a little disdain for she was still an "outsider" and one who would not easily be accepted by the wider fellowhip of Jewry in Stockholm.

The relationship had been a disaster from the start. In spite of many similarities of personality and circumstance, Marcel seemed more interested in turning Jenny into a "business acquisition" than a wife. He was unhurried about marriage though most certainly had leaned in that direction, which Jenny, accutely aware of her shortening lifespan, wished to hasten at nearly all costs. But she was willing to be patient and give Marcel the space, she supposed, that he needed.

The subtle decline in her relationship with the Lord caused by her romantic doting at first escaped her attention. She would, she convinced herself, convert him later and must for now concentrate on getting the marriage certificate signed, sealed and delivered. Jenny was not one who liked disturbances in her life, and certainly not major upheavals. She knew marriage was one of those "necessary" upheavals and so, she had thought to herself, the sooner she got settled down with Marcel into her new way of life, so much the better for her.

Things began to go wrong when Marcel started making overtly sexual advances and seemed none too keen on waiting for the marriage day in order to consummate their relationship. They had already crossed the acceptable boundary and violated scriptural standards by kissing and light petting and this had created within Jenny a deep sense of guilt and self-disgust. Having kept herself pure and chaste all these years she did not want to betray her own standards or the very clear commandments of scripture.

As time wore on and as marriage became less and less discussed, she realised finally that Marcel was not the man for her. She was emotionally attached to him and passionately wished to settle down and start a family, but his lack of commitment, unchastity (of which she was now a reluctant partaker), and religious differences (which showed no signs of being bridged), at length impressed clearly upon her that the relationship was certainly doomed to failure. She would attend the Lutheran Church on Sundays and always without him, but Marcel rarely ever set foot in a synagogue. Once he had taken Jenny along to a Shabbat service but he had evidently been so embarrassed in doing so that she never pressed him again. She never saw him in the service anyhow since they sat on opposite sides of the building as Jewish custom dictated. And though the service was beautiful, Jenny was too preoccupied with her disappointment at Marcel's obvious lack of spirituality. No, the relationship had to stop, both to end the agony of her own heart as well as to unburden her spiritual conscience.

Determined a lady though she was, cutting strong emotional ties was not as simple as changing a career or moving house. There had, in the early days following the breakup of their relationship, been daily struggles and not a few instances of tear-shedding. She had crossed the boundaries of acceptable behaviour and was paying the price for it. She had nearly broken the commandment not to be unequally yoked to an unbeliever (2 Corinthians 6:14) but had definitely broken God's commandments on sexual purity. But perhaps, worst of all, she had neglected her high and holy calling as a Christian witness and allowed her spiritual life to decline in order to find happiness with Marcel.

The final humiliation had come when she had announced to Marcel that the relationship was off. Instead of showing grief and remorse, as she had hoped, Marcel had simply smiled and said casually, "O.K." It was then she had realised the unequal emotional commitment. It was then she had felt betrayed most of all. She was shattered by his shallowness and angry at her own stupidity and gullibility.

Stan had known nothing of this until he had proposed to Jenny. It was something she had desperately wanted to talk out with someone else apart from a closest girlfriend, and had hoped Stan and his family might be able to advise her get over the spiritual hiatus. She had gotten over the worst of it but was still occasionally haunted, as in that moment when Marcel's face had flashed before her in the daydream. And then, quite soon after, Stan's proposal of marriage had come, which had caught her completely unawares and which, from her point-of-view, was badly timed. She believed above all that she needed more time to get Marcel completely out of her hair before thinking about another relationship.

------------

Stan's letter followed Salme's a few days later. His proposal of marriage had sent Jenny into deep shock, not because she hadn't expected a proposal, but because it had come so quickly. And it had not come in the way that she had expected.

It was a long letter, not at all what she had expected, and certainly not in the tradition of worldly romance. It had torn her up inside, one part drawing her like a powerful magnet and the other repelling her because of the unsolved battle within.

Dearest Jenny,

I am not at all good at this sort of thing so I hope you will excuse my clumsiness. I am not one for flowery eulogies, flattery, or that sort of thing, and would prefer to let what you know of me through my letters and writings be the witness of what is in my mind and heart. But in view of what I am about to propose I know I must dig down and share some of my innermost secrets. I have not the slightest doubt you will respect them.

Plural marriage is a strange creature and almost impossible to describe to someone who has never actually been a part of it. Because of our intense mystical belief in eternal marriage it has a dimension that is wholly indescribable. For many years now I have known that a wife would come from Sweden, and although I wasn't absolutely sure that she would be the "next in line", as it were, yet I wondered. Once you get into God's heart, and especially that part which deals with plural marriage, you begin to sense urges hard to describe ... like missing parts of yourself calling from deep within a forest. I believe, as you know by now, that before this world was made that we existed as spirits in a pre-mortal world, and that in a previous process of creation we were made as Adams and our Eves were created out of us. This was our original "marriage", although strictly speaking that isn't even the correct word. There was, for instance, no courtship between our first parents because in a way they were never separated from each other. When Eve was created they simply "were" bone-of-bone and flesh-of-flesh. I believe that those predestined to salvation by God's foreknowledge were created polygamously, and that is what the multiple ribs in man signify. The Books of Abraham have much to say about this. I have vague recollections of a large family, though it is very blurred - I have only ever seen my first wife in vision in the premortal worlds but have sensed the others. Understandably, Yahweh keeps these things hidden from us so that we can walk by faith.

People of the monogamy-only camp often ask, "Isn't one [wife] enough?" having no comprehension of the process of division that occurred in the premortal worlds. There is, within the man, an emptiness caused by absent wives, whose return he longs for. And whilst all my current wives do indeed fill me with great joy, and are a wonderful blessing, yet there are others who I know are missing.

In my article, "The Gentle Furnace", I tried, albeit clumsily, to explain what I experienced when you walked into my life. From the very first moment that we met a light went on and grew steadily brighter. It has reached the point, in so relatively a short time, where it has already become a "gentle furnace", and it grows brighter each day. I sense such a close affinity with you that at times it can be painful owing to our separation! And when I look at your picture, and read your words, and sense your spirit whilst looking at my extant family, I feel an intense oneness. I just can't escape it. There is a presence of eternity.

I am not one of those people, as you know from reading my articles, who believes in the worldly views of romance, and whilst I know - for I have experienced it so many times - that there can be explosive growths of love, for the most part the love that grows in the Spirit of Christ just simply increases and increases in an exponential fashion. And that which is a part of the marriage bond has its own unique characteristics that distinguishes it from that Fellowship-Love which we share with all the Redeemed. That love I deeply feel for you. It embraces so many things. And to attempt to dissect it would only cheapen if not actually destroy it.

It has been many years now since I first entered plural marriage and it has been a time of great inner change as the Lord has continued to polish off my rough edges. I know there is still a long way to go. In your more that generous letters you have painted me almost as a Catholic might desribe one of their saints - not to flatter, for I believe utterly in your honesty, but out of the shere goodness of your heart. I am not a St.George in shining armour or a Sir Gallahad - I can only claim to be a slave of the Lord Yah'shua, who is daily trying to die to sin, and who desires to bring Him glory through his life. And a big part of that life happens to be plural marriage.

I cannot offer you wealth or anything that the world deems important, but I can give you my whole soul. Our life is a simple one. I realise that if you accept my proposal it would mean uprooting yourself from your present way of life, your friends, habits and acquaintances. It would mean nothing short of a total revolution in your whole way of life on the physical plane, not to mention major adjustments mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. It would mean a great sacrifice on your part, disturbing a way of life you have grown familiar and comfortable with. There would be a cost to count. And yet I believe that if this is in the Lord's will, as is my personal conviction, that the losses will be compensated for seven-fold and more, and the difficulties caused by change will be smoothed by the loving grace of our Father. I myself have been uprooted from home and country so I have acquired, somewhat reluctantly I must admit, a portion of the gypsy spirit, so I will be able to empathise.

There are many challenges that face us, as is true of all those on the cutting edge of change in the Kingdom of God. We are in every sense pioneers treading on ground never before walked on. This family is the spearhead of an entirely new Reformation in Christendom. It is not as grand as it sounds, mind you, as for the most part it consists of patiently building and sacrificing on a daily basis. But others are coming to us - hesitantly at first, but now with increasing confidence.

I have been so surprised and delighted to find at almost every turn things about you with which I seem to dovetail. For me you are made in heaven. And I don't exaggerate. We are bound to find our differences, disagreements will almost certainly arise. Marriage is not without its struggles. But with a determination to love unconditionally and to sacrifice, and knowing that you will have the full backing of my wives here who are as taken with you as I am, I have not the slightest doubt that every obstacle can be surmounted.

I need you very badly, not just for myself, but as a builder of the Zionic Kingdom which is burning so strongly in our hearts. You have so many gifts and talents with which to bless so many people, not just my own family, but our international circle of friends and fellowshippers, and those who are yet to come. Yes, you are needed very much by all of us.

And it would be wrong of me not to add that your fluffy mog Fritz would be welcome as well! Absolutely! There are many, like Władysław, who have been pressing me for cats.

Enough said. I just want you to know that I love you very deeply and would, if you accept my proposal, be the best husband in Christ that I can possibly be. The Lord is my life as I know He is yours. And with such a backer, how could we fail?

With that, I now ask you, WILL YOU MARRY ME?

And from my wives, WILL YOU BE OUR SISTER-WIFE?

"In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession - to the praise of his glory. For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come" (Ephesians 1:11-21, NIV)

May He who is our life and our love be yours in overflowing abundance, to comfort, lift and enlighten, both today and in the days to come. May you have peace as you consider my proposal, not feeling under any heavy burden, but free in the Spirit of the Lord, to lead you wherever He will. And may you be enveloped in His love, and through that love, our love, which in turn reaches out to you to join in its pulsating current.

Your servant and His,

Stan

Jenny was stunned. With Marcel still "lurking" in her subconscious, the arrival of Stan's proposal had created a major dilemma for her. She had wanted, above all, to be able to approach a new marriage situation with her house "fully swept", as it were, in order to avoid emotional complications. Part of the problem was that she kept on accidentally bumping into Marcel every time she travelled up to Stockholm on social occasions. Because the Cohens moved in high circles with all the aristocrats and nouveau riche it was inevitable that their paths should cross. She half hoped to see Marcel with another woman in tow to make breaking the old ties easier but each time he was alone and she wondered if maybe - just maybe - there might still be a chance for them together again. Marcel was his usual affable self but acted as though there had never been any sort of emotional bond between the two of them before - which from his side, there hadn't been really ... at least not a deep one. He had accepted the breaking off of the relationship with the same sort of indifference as saying goodbye to a casual acquaintance knowing they would never meet again. Passing ships in the night, it had seemed to be. And that had deeply wounded her ego.

Men do not always appreciate the emotional make-up of women, especially the unspiritual ones. The carnal man operates more on the sexual level, and the carnal woman on the emotional. Jenny knew that Stan began on the spiritual -- yet there was still that emotional baggage which she felt would spoil everything.

Kryztina had had that problem only she had been loyal to the impossible dream of reuniting with the lover she had lost years before. But what Jenny had not realised was that the blood of Christ is capable of washing away all unredeemed feelings and replacing them with holy feelings for another man. Though her motives were honourable and very "natural", they were misguided because of a lack of understanding of spiritual processes.

------------

One Sabbath meeting Stan gave the Kadesh-Naphtali saints a discourse on one of the wives of David called Abigail which I will never forget.

"Today I want to talk to you about Abigail (1 Samuel 25)," he said, "who was the wife of a very mean and unspiritual man called Nabal. Now you may remember that Nabal refused to help David and his friends when he was an outlaw fleeing from King Saul in spite of the fact that David had treated Nabal's house well and with consideration, protecting him against bandits. Abigail was of a very different temperament and nature to her surly husband and went out of her way to help David with food and provisions. In spite of her husband's wickedness, she did what was right in the eyes of Yahweh and supplied David with his needs. Ten days later Yahweh struck Nabal dead.

"Now I have often preached to you that when God punishes wicked men He frequently gives their wives to others who are good and honourable. Abigail bore with her wicked and drunken husband as a good wife until he died. And then, in humility before God, said:

"Here is your maidservant, ready to serve you and wash the feet of my master's servants." (1 Samuel 25:41, NIV )

"As soon as she had prayed she "quickly got on a donkey and, attended by her five maids, went with David's messengers and became his wife" (v.25), joining David's polygamous household as the sister-wife of Ahinoam of Jezreel (v.26) and the absent Michal.

"Now you may be a little shocked that she married David so soon afterwards. The very clear impression we get from the text is that she married him the same day her husband died. But what you must remember is that this was no "worldly romance" but a direct response to revelation. She knew what was right and she obeyed immediately. And she pospered, later bearing him a son called Kileab.

"Brethren and sisters, patriarchal marriage isn't the same as marriage in the world. As sons and daughters of God, we don't court like the world, but live in the light and will of Yahweh, our Heavenly Father. He knows what is right for us and what is best. Don't you imagine that Abigail had inner struggles? Don't you think she suffered after years of being married to that foul man Nabal? Don't you think she was emotionally wounded inside? Of course she was! But what distinguishes noble Abigail from your modern woman is that she walked in the light of Yahweh. When she knew that it was right to marry David she simply placed herself in the hands of God to take care of all her needs - physical, emotional and mental - and He did.

"People have got to get this wordly idea out of their heads that before we are ready to live plural marriage that we have got to be completely "healed" inside. I'm not saying that marriage heals problems as you know, for I have always taught you that marriage was not designed by God to be psychotherapeutic. What I most definitely am saying, though, is that if you walk in faith and obedience to Yahweh's commandments, you can be healed whilst you are being married by Him.

"I have always been struck by the nobility of Abigail. She was a very, very special lady. I would consider it an honour to be married to a woman like her. Praise the Lord that such women do exist though they are very, very rare."

Jenny had not read this sermon of Stan's because it was not on his website or the flashdrive which she had studied so carefully otherwise things might have turned out a little differently. As it was, Stan's proposal sent her into turmoil.

Jenny's problems were many to be sure. Not only was she still carrying all the emotional baggage that Marcel had dumped on her, but she was also carrying a lot of spiritual baggage from the Lutheranism she had grown up in and with which she had become too comfortable. In spite of being shown biblical truths by Stan she clung on to her Sunday observance and treated the Sabbath like an ordinary working day. She knew the truth but chose to reject it. And not only the Sabbath question, but many other biblical truths as well.

When Stan received Jenny's reply and refusal, he was stunned. Always cautious in making proposals, he had acted in obedience to a word from Yahweh - one as clear as that received by Abigail to go and marry David. This was the first and only time that anyone had refused Stan and he was deeply shocked. And though he knew and understood many of the reasons for Jenny's refusal, yet he was knocked flat for a few days.

On the first day Stan was utterly stunned and unable to work. He had not realised how much he loved her until that painful "no" had come in the post. Jenny had withdrawn after that letter, making contact or discussion impossible for while. Though in his heart he wished to talk it out with her, his honour forbade him from taking advantage of her whilst she was undoubtedly vulnerable. Indeed, the whole household was stunned too for everyone of us had received the same witness as Stan.

Contact was resumed a few months later but it was as though a slice of cake had been stolen from what they had known and shared before, and the spiritual intimacy that they had shared seemed to have gone. Stan knew only too well the mental and emotional make-up of women and the mechanisms they employed to deal with problems, amongst which was denial. He knew that often they, like men, would simply pretend that a part of their life had never existed if it meant not having to endure the wearniness and pain of spiritual struggle and wilderness wandering. He knew all of these things. And yet he was frustrated because he knew that he was powerless to do anything.

He had a choice to imitate the way of the world and put pressure on her (and so drive her even further away) or to simply accept the situation and leave it in the hands of Yahweh. The first choice was no option at all. Resigning to the will of Yahweh and fellowshipping with Jenny on the level she was willing to fellowship on was the only righteous choice he really had.

After her refusal, Jenny withdrew back into her old world and things pretty well continued as before. She also found another Patriarch in the plural marriage movement with two wives whom she looked up to and was attracted to even though he had told her that he had no intentions of marrying again. She also had Fritz, her friends and her former habits to shelter and cocoon her. Stan, shocked at how vulnerable he had been, also picked up the pieces and continued. But he was never the same after that. It was as though something had died in him, or was at least deeply wounded. And it was then that I began to see something of the burden that a polygamous husband must carry. I hadn't expected it. Moreover, this wounding became our wounding too. I had never realised just how much it hurts when you want to love in a special way and it is turned down, nor how much our Lord suffers when we reject His love towards us.

For a while, Jenny disappeared out of our lives, save for the occasional email, and life continued onwards.