“This God--his way is perfect; the word of the Lord proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in Him.” 2 Samuel 22:31
Today I celebrate my wedding anniversary--Five wonderful years (and counting!) with my husband, Jerry. When we decided to get married there were those who perhaps thought we were crazy, hasty, or just plain mistaken. After all, I had enjoyed a wonderful life of 34 years with my late husband, and Jerry had likewise had 46 happy years with his late wife. Was it even conceivable that we could expect to marry again with good results? We were both thankful for well meaning friends and family who were watching out for us since all of us need someone in our life to tell us we are crazy. But in the final analysis, only we could make the choice to accept God’s gift of another chapter in our life, or stand immobilized on the brink of the next step and choose to just live on the memories of the past chapter.
How does one make that kind of decision? That kind of choice isn’t like getting up in the morning and deciding what to wear today. I mean, if I messed up on this, my life could have been ruined. This was one of those pivotal moments where we both turned to God with reckless abandon and said, “Lord, if you don’t show up, we are goners!” As we yielded control of our life to HIM, in so many ways, big and small, God affirmed and reaffirmed the path He wanted us to take.
Today we spent time sightseeing and shopping at quaint little “out of the way” places, just enjoying being together and cherishing time away from the busy-ness of life. In one of those shops we found a painted plaque that expressed something profound that really explains the “how” of holding on to the past while turning hopeful hearts to the future. It says, “Don’t cry because it’s over...Smile because it happened.”
Taking the next step doesn’t mean pretending the last chapter didn’t happen.It doesn’t mean (in our case) that was good and this is better. What it does mean is its okay to cherish the memories, thank God “it happened” and embrace the future.
