Perpetual Smile

There she was- an angel. An angel in my house? She stood there casually and comfortably, as if she were ordinary.

I won't lie and say it was at-first-sight, as though people have only the depths of a painting to their character. As though anything seeming ordinary or even slightly unique from every other wonder like it is deemed to forever be ordinary. In fact, precious diamonds are found from the coal and beneath the coal.

It was a short time before I knew her name, and we talked as all "soon-to-be's" tend to talk, with a glimmer of hope in every word and an underlying attraction to tie it all up.

Twas only a week I got to see her beautiful face on regular occasion, and while it wasn't yet the growth of something extravagant, it was the birth of something potential-loaded, like a pistol waiting to be aimed and fired. We went from sketchy Mexican restaurants to famously acronymed chicken wings, and even the the presence of God Himself. While we weren't yet sure, He was looking not from above to where we were, but from our future to our present, from the simply starting to the graciously going.

Via wild lines and symbolic signs I've yet to comprehend, we typed and wrote and dreamt. We spoke not yet as lathered significance, but as friends who could one day be more. We saw it and yearned for it, and our horses were ahead of our cart. And she didn't tell me the depths of her heart, nor did I tell her what lies in the deepest cave of my being, but we became more than acquainted, like a flower knows the wind.

2 months went by, and we had "the talk." You know, that talk in which you lay things out on the line in hopes that the other party will lay things out on it too, and that your puzzle pieces might fit together. Is it by chance? All newlyweds would say certainly not, while singles might say it's quite plausible. I'm not yet sure, but philosophy and speculation don't in themselves change what is happening and what has happened. For now I choose not to know or care.

She exclaimed her standards and I, embarrassingly compared, told her mine. A couple hours and a few lines later, we had openly discovered there was something to this, and that there could be more. So, for another 3 months we were, what you strange younger people might call, "talking." It had everything from the moments of doubt when you think to yourself "is this really what I want?" to "I'm going to marry this girl."

Through much prayer and helpful friendly guidance, and a wee bit of human introspection, I discovered that my earlier question had been meaningless and void, and my second question was all the more favorable (and hopefully probable.)

And here we are, the day after our special day, loaded with early text messages and facebook overload, daunting that perpetual smile I could not hide if I tried. Am I happy? Of course I am! But not simply because I'm closer to having her and she's closer to having me, but because I look back and see that we've done it right thus far. We weren't hasty nor foolish, nor forceful nor arrogant, but through much prayer and guidance and a heart that waits (and a parent that permits), we've arrived at a new level, a new commitment.

So here's to you, my darling, for finding me and being found, for a new story to call our own, and may each day of your wonderful and precious life be evermore righteously and lovingly intertwined with mine.