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With growth came a certain awareness within Tovina. The robins had nested in flocks; the deer bounded past the vineyard together. The butterflies flitted, the conies scurried, the foxes played, all, it seemed, by twos or threes.
Tovina wished hard for a twin, someone to understand her loves, someone to share delight, and disappointment, too, someone like herself, someone she could love. "Oh, why," cried she, "must I alone be left without a blessed twin?"
Replied the Sun, "I ride of old alone across the deep blue skies; alone I die amidst blazing gold; and then again, alone I rise."
"But who are you? The Sun of many rays is made. Each has his friend. As twins they dance through glen and glade."
"That's true, my dear Tovina. I use these rays to bless each branch. Alone? I'm never lonely. Alone, yet close to all creation."
"Really, thought Tovina, "the way of the Sun is somewhat like that of the Vine. The vine stands alone, loved by the Husbandman, and ever giving of itself through the connection of each branch."
Soon after this lesson, Tovina found she had many friends among the branches, nowhere a twin, but everywhere acceptance with a smile, because she had created this motto:
"Now helping each
Within my reach."
Then the Husbandman lovingly laid her beside a wilting branch.
"A Song of My Well-Beloved Touching His Vineyard" (Isaiah 5:1). To the Vine, Tovina: A Story that Is an Allegory of One Young Adult's Spiritual and Faith Crises
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