Letters to Tom — Divorce

Dear Tom:

 Soon we will be walking on that beach together. I can’t wait to pursue our anticipated conversations about the similarities in our separate faiths. This weekend I had several random thoughts that I thought might write to you about to cause some thought, meditation, and discussion. The first being —  back when I practiced law, on a rare occasion I used to find myself having to represent one side or another in a divorce case. I was not very good at this practice because I was always trying to reconcile the parties, and felt guilty about charging people I knew well exorbitant fees when I wasn’t making them money, but in fact dividing up their assets. One time, I represented a woman who clearly had doubts about going through the process, and even though we did have a very amicable resolution of their property, I could tell she still had doubts. I knew things might reconcile when on the night the divorce was final, I saw them having dinner together at a romantic restaurant. Sure enough, within a week, they were both in my office trying to figure out how to undo the divorce. ( I came up with a solution) and they are still together. I thought about them this morning when I read in my local paper that a couple had recently remarried. I remember the words of my  friend back in Arkansas. She said, “ The separation convinced me that I couldn’t live without my husband. I missed him too much to not forgive him, take him back, and work harder at what pulled us apart.”

   I have had a similar experience with God. I have gone in and out in my relationship with God. Sometimes I talk to God daily, sometimes I go for a long time without communicating with him. When I do, the separation teaches me that I can’t live without his presence in my life. When I ask myself, “ can I live without him.” The answer is clearly – No. So like my friend need to work harder at what was causing the separation. I need to annul the divorce, like I was able to do for my client. The best thing, unlike some marriages, God never separates himself from us.

 Your friend, Webb

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About the author

Webb Hubbell is the former Associate Attorney General of The United States. His novels, When Men Betray, Ginger Snaps, A Game of Inches, The Eighteenth Green, and The East End are published by Beaufort Books and are available online or at your local bookstore. When Men Betray won one of the IndieFab awards for best novel in 2014. Ginger Snaps and The Eighteenth Green won the IPPY Awards Gold Medal for best suspense/thriller. His latest, “Light of Day” will be on the bookstands soon.