A Second Chance at True Love

Yesterday we had the opportunity to attend a very special wedding. The bride is dear to us- she has been our children's first start to education - their 3 year old pre-school teacher. The words that come to mind when I describe her are as follows: gentle, kind, supportive, soft-spoken, tender, loving, a living demonstration of Christ's love - exactly the sort of person you'd dream to have guide your little ones into the brave world away from home. I am very grateful for her and therefore honored to have attended her wedding.

As I watched her walk down the aisle to meet her groom, I admit, I had tears in my eyes. Because, this wasn't any ordinary love story - awaiting at the end of the aisle also stood her six year old son. And, I can only imagine how proud he must have been of his mom.

From the little I know, the man that is her son's father didn't come close to deserving the love of this woman. It ended out of her control and I bet, her wildest dreams must have felt dashed. Which made the scene we witnessed that much more miraculous to me.

There's something incredibly romantic about finding love that's truer and more meaningful than you ever thought it possibly could be. I know so little about their relationship, but the little I've heard about the way they look at one another and how he cherishes and adores her in public provides evidence enough for me that this love is meant to last. I just wonder how many other stories are yet to be completed of men or women who have been seriously short-changed in life, that have yet to discover what real love is supposed to be. And, on the other hand, how glorious are the stories of those lives that have found that secret revealed.

Then, there are those like me, who had I had the chance, would have chosen that lesser love beccause I never knew there could be better. When I was engaged to Lance, prior to my relationship with John, we started out with such a tender love. He was full of praise and prose and poetry - ready on his lips to declare all of my virtues. However, after our time together in Africa - when it was decided to indefinitely postpone our wedding, everything changed. I no longer knew why he loved me, and he no longer provided answers (yet, he insisted, he DID love me). It got to the point that I longed for our wedding day so that finally I would hear him tell me what he saw in me as he said his vows. I was that desperate for affirmation. And yet, the day he wanted to break up, I tried so hard to hold on.

Now, I'm married to a man that I never wonder why loves me. He shows me in a million ways every day. He never ceases to say the words, and never tires of new ways to tell me why he treasures me in his life. When I walked down the aisle, the giddy grin that overtook my entire countenance was because there could be no greater love I would ever have - God had surpassed my wildest, most romantic "this will never happen to me" dreams. What would it have been like if I had walked down the aisle to Lance instead - eager only for a few words that would affirm that he really did care for me? God had interceded, beyond my own will to bless me so much more.

I'm so excited to watch that happen in some of the people I know in my life. I've watched it transpire already in the lives of a few close to me - and what a thing to behold. I can't wait.

And by the way, thank you, John, for making my wildest dreams come true by proposing to me on this night ten years ago. I will say yes again every day of our lives!