The Scent of Water 

The Scent of Water 

They met in a church he was a spirit-filled, easy-going believer , She was taken in by his calm and gentle spirit,He was also very intelligent, one of the best minds she had ever met.

 He had a good job and came from a very good family, She was very much like him Spirit-filled, easygoing, and focused. She was working with a multinational company and making rapid progress in her career. They spend their weekends outdoors in Parks, cinemas, retreats, church, and events they were both in courtship and they were determined to do it by the rules of the church they were attending at the time.

 She started her part-time Masters at the University of Ibadan he encouraged her, the plan was for them to get married in two years by which time he would have completed his Ph.D.

 He was 29 and she was 24, she picked UI because her parents were professors and they insisted she should honour them by attending their alma mater. Her man agreed and he would often travel down with her from Lagos or drive down on Sundays so that he could drive her back to Lagos.

 One weekend, just after her lectures, he got a call from her father he asked her when she last heard from her man, and she told her father they prayed together the previous night his father kept quiet and cut the call She immediately suspected something had happened She started calling her man's phone number, It rang out each time she found her way to Lagos.

When she got home, she met the police at their house ,what happened? The police insisted they didn't know what happened but they found the dead body of her man dumped in a bush close to his flat at an estate in Lagos. It was as if she was sleep-walking Body... Dead... Who?... His car was also missing and they found his flat ransacked, Wow. She fainted, and they rushed her to the hospital, her parents and siblings had surrounded her bed by the time she came so they began to console her, some even told her to thank God that she had not married him before he died.

She wept a week's worth of tears per minute, he was her friend, her guy, her bestie, her heartbeat. He taught her how to study the scriptures, how to drive, how to whistle, how to cook Ewedu and Gbegiri, and how to take long prayer walks, he was her world and he had been snatched from her.

The police later arrested his murderer and another man in his car in Edo State, the murderer was the security man guiding the apartment where her man lived, the murderer said he was hungry that morning and decided to go and ask for financial support from the only tenant who greeted him, made small talk and was warm to him.

 The murderer said he was sure the man would give him some money so that he could buy something to eat, the murderer said when he knocked on the door, her man opened and asked him what he wanted, the murderer said he told her man he wanted some money to buy food, the murderer said her man told him that he didn't have any extra change to spare as he walked back into his flat leaving the door open.

 The murderer said he walked in after him and attacked him from behind. Her man never stood a chance he was bludgeoned to death by the man meant to protect him from predators.The murderer said he then searched the pocket and the entire flat for money but he didn't find much apart from some notes in the wallet of her man and her man's car keys. The murderer said he wrapped the body in a bed sheet and dumped his body in the boot of his car then he drove the car to a deserted road and dumped the body there before speeding off. He didn't know that once he had left Lagos, he could still be arrested the murderer intended to sell the car and raise some money with which he would flee the country that was how a dumb knife chopped her future into pieces.

It was a tough season friends and family members gathered around her, she was there for the burial of her man, she mourned him and felt like giving up on many occasions. She returned to work and her school routine helped to keep her mind from sliding into torment even though the gulf was there, she trusted in the Lord, asked questions, and told herself "it could have been worse" scenarios.

 She wept all night and cried all day for many days. One day, the Brother in Jeans and T-shirt came to her flat, he had been told about the incident and the unbearable pain she was swimming in. He sat with her and told her the scent of water was powerful enough to make a dead tree live again She heard him but it was too soon for her to process. Hope and despair are the bed of death and grief she went to church on Sundays, worked on Mondays to Thursdays, school from Friday till Sunday.

 She deleted her man's pictures and started training her mind not to see, imagine, talk about, or remember him. How could a blunt knife kill such a glorious destiny ,why is there so much evil in the world? Life was like a place between sleep and death for about a year, but she gradually shook it off and began to live again. She changed the church she was attending the memory and fragrance of her ex were everywhere she began to trust God for the fulfillment of that word of prophecy.

 She completed her Master and got a better job with another multinational company. She had come to accept the past, and she began to trust in the Lord for her future, Two years went by One Sunday morning, she dressed up for church only to discover that the wig she wanted to wear was tangled. Her first instinct was to stay at home because she had not bothered to make her hair that weekend She decided she would go with her natural hair as it was.

 The service began and ended .Someone came to tell her the Brother in Jeans and T-shirt had asked for an usher in his office. She got to the office, she found the brother in Jeans and T-shirt seated opposite a young man in a brown suit and coffee brown shirt.

 The Brother in Jeans and T-shirt told her to take the young man's number and reach out to the young man later. She took the number and left the office Later, the brother in Jeans and a T-shirt sent for her and told her she should take the young man seriously if the young man should ask her out.

 She reminded the Brother in Jeans and T-shirt that she had gained admission to a school in Canada for her Ph.D and had already bought her ticket for the journey. He told her to remember that all things work together for her good in Christ.

 Later that evening, she reached out to the Brother in Brown suit and Coffee Brown shirt they got talking about life and faith and family.He was a genius, full of the love of God and loaded with the vibrancy of the Holy Spirit, not a man of many words but a man of integrity and purpose. The more they talked, the more she felt at home in his space, she didn't know how but it was as if she had known him all her life she never imagined that a light could outshine the sun until she met him.

They got talking and bonded effortlessly she told him about her plans He told her about his plans he was a banker with plans to further his studies abroad too.They began to court Two weeks after the journey started, she travelled to Canada her programme was for just one year he told her he would be ready to propose to her when she returned.

 A year flew by she graduated with honours and also secured a job she jumped on a plane back home and flew into his loving arms when she landed in Nigeria. He proposed as promised She said "Yes" The wedding happened in Abeokuta, Nigeria The Brother in Jeans and T-shirt and GSWMI were there to celebrate the faithfulness of God with the two of them A few weeks later, the two of them departed to Canada, where they still reside to date Glory be to God.

 PS: I remember like yesterday the message the brother in Brown Suit and Coffee brown shirt sent to me I remember inviting him to church the following Sunday I remember introducing him to Sister O What I found most amazing was how the two of them bonded so quickly It was a match made in Christ.