A Question About Tasha

Connie prepares to launch a wedding-planning service called Dreams by Constance and hopes Jason and Tasha will become her first customers. Tasha arrives in Odyssey expecting a short vacation, but she and Jason immediately announce that they want to marry the next day. Tasha has only a week away from work before she must return to train her replacements, and the hurried timing seems practical to them.

Tasha asks Connie to help find a dress and arrange a small reception. She wants the ceremony held at Whit’s End rather than a church because she and Jason love the building and she knows no one at First Church. She also prefers a justice of the peace to a pastor. Connie accepts every request and is thrilled when Tasha asks her to serve as maid of honor.

Jason asks Jack to stand as his best man and give Tasha away because neither Whit nor Tasha’s parents can be present. Jack is deeply honored, but the unconventional arrangements and sudden wedding have raised an important question: is Tasha a Christian? Jason says she attends church with him, respects Christianity, and gives every indication of believing, yet he cannot say with certainty that she has placed her faith in Christ.

Jack warns that sympathy toward Christianity is not the shared faith a Christian marriage requires. Jason becomes angry at the timing and insists everything will work out. When Jack refuses to participate unless Jason is certain, Jason announces that the wedding will proceed without him. He takes Judge Abernathy’s address, asks Tasha to come with him, and changes the plan from marrying tomorrow to marrying immediately.

Connie demands an explanation from Jack. He admits that his concern comes from painful experience. Jack became a Christian in his late teens, then drifted from his faith and married Emily, a kind woman who did not believe. After recommitting his life to God, he repeatedly urged her toward Christ, once almost damaging their marriage with the pressure. Emily attended church and had Christian friends for the rest of her life but never openly accepted Jesus.

Three years earlier, a stroke had taken Emily’s speech and movement. On the night before she died, Jack told her Jesus’ parable of workers hired at different times who all received the same wage. He held her hand, explained that it was never too late to come to Christ, and begged her to believe. Emily could respond only by looking at him while a tear rolled down her cheek. Jack will not know until heaven what that tear meant, and he cannot bear the thought of Jason living with the same uncertainty.

Outside Judge Abernathy’s house, Tasha refuses to continue until Jason explains his unhappiness. She has noticed the place Christianity holds among his friends and has wondered why they never discussed it directly. Tasha has not thought seriously about God for some time and assumes that she and Jason can simply tolerate their differences.

Forced to speak honestly, Jason recognizes the weakness of his own answer to Jack. “My faith should be the center of my life,” he tells her. Tolerance from the person he loves cannot replace sharing what should shape everything he is. If Tasha does not believe, he must either live out the deepest part of himself alone or allow it to become less important.

Tasha wonders what will happen if she never becomes a Christian. Jason loves her and believes faith in Christ would be the best decision she could make, but he cannot answer that question for her. When Judge Abernathy comes outside to invite the anxious couple in, Jason says they are not ready after all.

Jason returns to Whit’s End alone after taking Tasha to her hotel. They have postponed the wedding while they sort through their priorities and faith. He apologizes to Jack and thanks him for having the courage to stand firm. Jack is grateful that Jason and Tasha now have a chance to begin rightly. After asking God to draw Tasha to Christ, Jack remains in prayer with Emily still close to his heart.