As I sat next to her

The invitation was extended to me to follow along as the Scriptures were read from the platform. I was sitting next to her and our shoulders touched slightly, our legs more so, and I was stricken. As I slipped on my glasses to focus on the passage it occurred to me. Maybe for the first time, maybe for the thousandth I can't tell, but there it was. I realized that my eyes were dimmed, somewhat, but her love for me blazed. It still blazed.

I sought a love like this my whole life. As I looked, pondered, pretended, fretted I never could be certain I would ever find it. I wasn't even sure that it could be found. For me. As we continued our journey together after the promises that we made before God I saw the shadows of what I thought I found silently retreat from the light of her pursuit and promise. 

As my glasses scraped my temples hooking themselves over my ears my eyes grew wide. The love that He has for me was incarnate in her. It has soft flesh shaped by hard bone. It is the cold steel of her resolve and the warmth of her breath on my neck. It is in the stars that He has stolen from the sky and cast into her eyes and in the strength that I buy from her. Her strength that she gladly gives to me.

Removing my glasses I stared for a moment at the blurred lines and couldn't help but smile knowing that this is my forever.

Thanks be to God that she is my forever.