My oldest son, Bo, got engaged Friday night, August 19th. The image flashed across my cell phone, Bo on one knee, his soon-to-be bride standing before him shocked and excited all at the same time. And all I could see was his 8-year-old face, standing in my hospital room, waiting for me to go back to surgery to have his baby sister, Dory.
“What if something happens, Mom?” he asked me.
I remember I considered carefully how to answer him. I could promise him all would be great, but then, if it didn’t turn out the way it should, I promised him something I had no power to promise. I could reassure him that God wouldn’t let anything bad ever happen, but then I know rain falls on the just and the unjust. And so I simply smiled at him and told him, “God has me and He has you. That’s the best place for both of us to be.”
Sunday, we all met for lunch. This whirlwind romance has given us little opportunity to know the young lady who will become my daughter in ‘law. The nostalgia flowed coupled with the fear that every parent experiences – because we know. You only need to visit an elementary classroom and utter the word “divorce” and the statistics speak for themselves. And our family comes from a long line of divorce and brokenness.
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas is one of my all time favorite books. Romance, tragedy, adventure, revenge, victory all flow through the pages with twists and turns the reader cannot anticipate. But the wisdom in Dumas’ words leaves us to believe, the author saw quite a bit of rain in his life. It is a story of a young couple in ‘love who tragically got separated by the cruelty of others. One ends up in a horrific prison, the other marries someone she doesn’t love. His passion for her drives him back full force and the two are reunited almost 20 years later.
My point?
Life can only be experienced when we actively participate in it. The wisdom of those before us can make the journey less painful at times and at others more fulfilling. Rain will fall and at times storms will appear which have the potential to blow our ship apart; but the sun always returns. Maybe not as bright, maybe even brighter, but it will return. Rainbows appear in unexpected places. Happiness can be found in the smallest of ways, we simply need to learn to find it.
“Often we pass beside happiness without seeing it, without looking at it, or even if we’ve seen it and looked at it, without recognizing it.” – Alexandre Dumas
What if something happens, Mom?
And it will – at different times.
But the very thing which tries to break you becomes the very thing which will make you stronger. The sadness which tears your heart apart becomes the very thing which makes you learn to enjoy laughter. The storms which will howl and attempt to shatter your boat against jagged rocks bring the most beautiful rainbows. And the moments when you don’t believe you can love anymore fill your heart with reasons to love even more. When we allow God to hold our future in His hand, even when we doubt Him, He continues to believe in us.
There will be days when the darkness appears to have overcome the light but the promises of God are real and true, The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. – John 1:5.
To all of you starting a new journey, grab hold, embrace every moment with confidence, and keep looking up. God has made you for great purposes. Don’t take your eyes off the reason we started this life in the first place – HIM.
