A DINNER CONVO AT THE ABES’

“Izzie!” 

Isaac hearing his mother call his name so loudly jolted him out of his thoughts. He looked up from his bowl of lamb casserole, which he had barely touched.

“Let him be. Boy issues.” His father said with a mouthful of lamb and carrot. 

They continued eating but Isaac knew that his mother was not satisfied. He already imagined her creeping into his room later that night and bugging him till he told her what was going on with him. Before he could decide whether to cut to the chase or not, he burst out “Am I adopted?”

The room stood still for what seemed like forever till the sound of Sara’s spoon hitting the floor, broke the silence. 

“Sweetheart…how….I mean, why…”

“I got it, Sara”. Abe jumped in. He could see the tears forming at the corner of his wife’s eyes.  

“Izzie, first of all, you are not adopted and even if you were, we won’t love you any less than we do. Wait ,before I continue, does this have anything to do with our boys’ camping trip to Mor City last summer?” Abe asked.

“No dad. It’s just that the boys at school keep bullying me. They say you and mum are old enough to be my great-grandparents. They say mom lied that she was ever pregnant and must have worn a prosthetic belly for months.”

“Prosthetic! Wait, what?” Sara exclaimed. Her worry turning into anger.  

“Calm down, Honey. I said I got this. Continue, son.”

“Today in class, we learnt about menopause. Someone asked if it’s possible for a ninety year old woman to have a baby and my teacher replied no. She explained the science behind it and everybody started pointing fingers at me and giggling. I can’t take it anymore. It’s obvious you are old.  So I’ll understand if you just tell me….”.

Seeing his son’s lips beginning to quiver, Abe held him by his shoulders, gave a deep sigh and started to speak. “Son, even if we ignore that fact that you are a spitting image of your mom, we have more than enough evidence to show you that you were conceived by your mother. Yes, I know it sounds crazy. Your mother also gave the most sarcastic laugh when she first heard that she was going to get pregnant.”

“Son, you see, I don’t expect that everyone in this city will believe your mom naturally had a baby at the age of ninety. Actually, because it wasn’t natural.  It was supernatural! It took me 25 years of walking closely with God and learning to trust Him. When we tell you that Yahweh is our God, it’s not because we think we must be religious like many other people around us. We have had personal encounters with him. I call him God, just so that others will understand the concept of who I’m talking about. To your mom and me, He is Friend, Father, Provider, Master and much more. He has taught us that He is Almighty by disrupting our human logic. That is why we obey Yahweh, no matter what people say and that includes the decision to go to Mor City last summer, son.  Let’s just say, if Yahweh asks me to jump, my only question will be ‘How high?’”. Abe finished with a wink. 

“My food is getting cold and boy, you know I don’t joke with that”. Abe added with chuckled.  

“But I must also add that in many years to come, when our story is told for the sake of those who will have Yahweh as God, it will still sound crazy but they will read it from God’s and our perspectives. They won’t read the gossips and the bullying. We are the ones going through it now and one day the gossips will die down. I hope it will encourage those who will read our story to follow and obey God regardless of peer pressure, norms or the opinion of people who don’t know what we know. Alright, champ?”

“Alright, dad.” Isaac said with a slight smile.

Abe caught his wife’s admiring look just as she mouthed thank you. He reached out for her hand and gave her that ever so reassuring squeeze she had come to know. Turning back to Isaac, Abe said, “Now what do you say to a whopping in a game of chess right after dinner?”

“Uhn? That’s not how I remember our chess games, dad. Someone definitely gets whopped and errm, he’s not 8 years old”. Izzie said while dodging a jab from his dad.