She’s The One!
Recently
I saw a picture of my grandson holding hands with a little girl at church. Their parents are church friends; and,
everybody thinks it is “cute”! But, it
reminds me of crushes and girlfriends in my life. I was a bashful child who was a “secret
admirer” who would skip one box in the mandatory, elementary school,
“no-child-left-behind” valentine card distribution. “…she might see me…” was my nonsensical, but
very sincere, fear?! I walked home from
school a different route and slipped her card into her mom’s mailbox. (wonder if her mother smiled when she checked
the mail?! and, what did her daughter
think?) And, before my parents moved us
out of state, we went to our church, one more time; and, there she was! two rows in front of us! I had never seen her there before. And, I never saw her again. But, I was obsessed. I even thought I might see her at the
Christian college I attended years
later. But, Heaven said, “…she is
not the one…”
There
were two others before this fifth-grade infatuation. Lisa, who looked like Snow White, let me steal a
kiss in the first grade! (She was not
asleep; but, maybe I was charming?!) In
the third grade, Cynthia, who looked like Cinderella, stole my heart and
inspired the cupid-heart on my three-ring binder. She never saw it; but, my teacher did,
once. She just smiled and I blushed. God alone knows where these two ended up and
how life has treated them. But, he whispered,
“…she is not the one…”
There
was a serious high school flame and even a college friend. God slammed the door on one and gently eased shut the door on the other. One is
still a friend, and the other (who came back my junior year married that summer!)
is in Tennessee, somewhere. God said,
“…she is not the one…”
Towards
the end of my junior year in Bible college, I signed up for a spring-break
campaign. (Spring-breaks at this college
were not beaches, bikinis, and booze – but, rather, Bibles and banging doors
for Jesus!) Off to NC we went to help a
small church share Jesus with its town for a week.
Saturday,
at daylight, we were two hours down the road toward NC, at a breakfast
restaurant. I looked around at the
others on the campaign, eating at several booths, and thought, “…she’s the
one…” Mahogany locks down past her
shoulders; laughing with her table-mates; “…shapely and spiritual?!” I wondered?
I
informed one of her carpoolers that he was swapping cars with me for the rest
of the trip! Then the courtship
began. When we paired up on Monday
morning for our door-knocking efforts, the leader asked for us all to pair-up,
to volunteer teams. From the back row of
the church auditorium, I quickly announced, pointing to her, up front, “…I am walking
with her!” (much to her surprise.) We
recently walked around together on Mackinac Island for our 35th anniversary.
A still
small voice whispers to me, often, “she is the one…” – singing beside her at
church listening to her alto praise; listening to the grandkids laugh at her
bedtime stories; driving to work with the lunch box she has packed for me;
quietly admiring her face on a sleepless night – I hear Him say “she is the
one.” And, I fully expect to look around
in heaven and, taking her hand, whisper to myself, “she’s the one…”
Proverbs 18:22 (NIV)
22 He who finds a wife finds what is good
and receives favor
from the Lord.
Proverbs 31:10-11 (NIV)
10 A wife of noble character who can find?
She is worth far
more than rubies.
11 Her husband has full confidence in her
and lacks nothing
of value.
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