So i was home alone and bored with nothing to do, when i stumbled on a storybook owned by my younger sibling titled "THE KNOTTY ISSUE".
It was a story about a family known as "The Agada family".
Now the first thing that caught my attention was how the writer portrayed churches and mosques as a place people believe their problems would be solved. Also, the writer wrote with the assumption that the male child was best suited to be the heir to the father or parents' legacy or in the writer's words "hold the fort after the father had lived and gone".
The synopsis of "the knotty issue" is that the agada family, after coming to know God, realised they had an unconfessed sin that made them really worried because the result of the secret getting out will be dismal for them, whichever way the scenario plays out. Now what sin are we talking about? The couple discovered after a series of tests during their marriage that they couldn't have children due to some accident that affected the husband before marriage and he sought for help from his childhood friend to help him cover his 'shame' the result being 3 girls and a boy. The 3girls are all grown up and married but the boy is still young and stays with the parents. Also the friend, who helped out in the past, is now married but with no children.
Now this is the problem:
The couple sought counsel from their pastor who asked for some time to pray about it. Unfortunately he was then transfered and so couldn't offer them any help.
The friend who is the biologic father of the children ran into his son at a party where the son was part of the musical band performing and after a brief discussion with the boy felt he needed someone to call him daddy. He sought the advice of an elder who asked to see him on a later date but the elder died before the proposed date, and he decided to go on with his plan of reclaiming his children.
The daughter of the Agadas fell ill and the parents donated blood for her. Upon recovery she stumbled upon a test result which showed both her father and mother were of genotype AA while she was AS and she began to question if they were really her parents or if the test results were fake?
The boy finished his exams and observed his parents were lean, and he wanted to know the reason why.
The newly transfered pastor after settling in came upon the Agada family case and was in a dilemma on what advice to render.
Now this raises some question(s);
- What is the best way to resolve this issue without anyone being hurt or cheated?
- Is church or mosque really a place for problems to be solved or to render worship to God?
- Is it compulsory for the male child to be the heir? Why? What if there is no male child, won't the female take that place?
4.if you were the pastor, what advice will you give to the couple - Were the couple right or wrong to seek for the friend's help in getting children? Why?