My Love Story

This morning I am thinking about my love story.  It’s the one I imagine I’ll write someday soon and share with my grandchildren as they grow older.  I know that my love story won’t begin with the traditional “once upon a time.”  Instead, it might start with “more than once” or “quite a few times.”  Then I’ll get right to the good part where I will recount being a young woman who possessed a strong yearning to fall in love.  I’ll tell how much I wanted to experience what I had observed and remembered of my parents’ marriage relationship—laughing, talking, cuddling, and doing thoughtful little things for each other.  I’ll share how my desire to find that kind of love was, as the old saying goes, like money burning a hole in my pocket.  Except the burning wasn’t exactly in my pocket, and it wasn’t exactly money that I too quickly gave away.  (This is one part I’ll have to wait until my grandchildren are older to share.)  After the good part of the story, I’ll get to a better part.  This is when I came to understand that the kind of love God had imparted to me was a special gift.  Since I didn’t have a word adequate to capture its tenacity, sincerity, depth, and purity, I started calling it “big love.”  I got the revelation that this love was a priceless treasure, which was to be preserved and reserved for a wonderful man with the capacity to both receive and reciprocate.  And this wonderful man would find me in God’s timing.  Here is where I’ll tell about a blissful—though lengthy—season of peace and contentment in waiting and trust.  But then, that’s when I’ll get to the sad part of the story.  That’s where I’ll express the heartbreak I felt after I prematurely unleashed “big love” on a special friend because I so hoped (and believed) that he might be my wonderful man.  A blissful season of waiting abruptly turned to one of worrying and wondering if, maybe, I’d missed my chance.  However, this leads to the best part of the story.  This is when I’ll describe my wonderful man and how God helped him to find me.  I’ll tell about how we grew in respect, friendship, and affection for one another.  I’ll convey how our “big love” for each other continually produces joy, peace, wholeness, strength, and countless other blessings in our lives, as well as in the lives of our family and friends.  Without a doubt, a bold declaration of God’s mercy, faithfulness, and goodness will be the recurring themes throughout my love story.