This essay was written in January 1999 and was originally titled, "Caroline My Valentine." It was written in the dialectical manner of Socrates, in quasi-poetical verse and is basically a short narrative of how the Lord used me to lead my sister-in-law (Caroline) to become a Christian.
During this period, Caroline had planned on doing two terrible deeds just as soon as she saw her relatives one last time. First, she planned on buying a gun to murder her then husband who was mercilessly abusing her. Next, she planned to turn the gun on herself and commit suicide. …
Fortunately, God had other plans.
Part I – Caroline My Valentine
On the eve before Valentine's Day, the night was transfixed. The celestial audience is in their place. Caroline My Valentine and I conversed on the green couch as we had many, many times before, but something was wrong. Something was dreadfully amiss.
You must understand dear reader that Caroline My Valentine had come for a week-long visit. This night, her heart was very heavy – exceedingly burdensome. Life was crushing her to death!
Caroline My Valentine wanted to die this night. She tried to die – she really did. She only made one mistake that would have completed her journey to hell. … She picked the wrong house to die in.
God to Caroline:
And as for thy nativity, in the day thou was born thy navel was not cut, neither was thou washed in water to supple thee; thou was not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee; but thou was cast out in the open field, to the loathing of thy person, in the day thou wast born and when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou was in thy blood, LIVE!; yea I said unto thee when thou was in thy blood, LIVE!
– Ezekiel 16:4-6
I gently picked thee off the ground (You must understand dear reader that she is my sister, and I love her so). I carried thee up, up, up to your bed. I took thy shoes off – one at a time. I tucked thee into bed as a child, as a little stone.
Oh my valentine, my lovely, lovely valentine … and softly brushed thy brow. Rest, rest, Caroline My Valentine, for tomorrow will be the first day of your life.
Part II – the apotheosis
It is Valentine's Day night. The celestial audience is in their place. Caroline My Valentine and I sit on the green couch.
I read the verse,
We said the Prayer,
The Cord is cut,
Life is There …
Caroline My Valentine … Caroline My Valentine ...
Epilogue – the message
Dear reader, during this holiday season, let us take pause to remember that before we allowed the self-appointed experts, the ACLU, the activist judges and the craven politicians to secularize the culture, "holiday" meant "holyday" – a nationwide commemoration of God's goodness to mankind. Before "Christmas" and "Santa Claus," there was "Christ Mass" and "Saint Nicolas." Before Thomas Jefferson's words written in a personal letter in 1802 to the Danbury Baptist Association were perverted to imply a "separation of church and state," there were Jefferson's immortal words written in the Declaration of Independence in 1776 which emphatically stated that America was founded on "The Law of Nature and of Nature's God."
I wrote extensively on America's legal/moral foundations in my book "The Inseparability of Law and Morality: The Constitution, Natural Law, and the Rule of Law."
Finally, let us remember God's greatest and most precious valentine given to all humanity – His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. I heard brother Isaiah remember that blessed day in this wise:
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6
"The Sistine Madonna" by Raphael, circa 1512-1514
Adopted from Essay No. 5: "Caroline My Valentine" from Washington's book, Beyond the Veil: Essays in the Dialectical Style of Socrates" (2000, 2004).
Original Source