Paradise Remembered

Beautiful Breanna

In the past two weeks I’ve enjoyed as many weddings.  This evening my son and I drove only a few miles to a neighboring “homeplace” on the Brazos River.  It felt as though we had traveled far from home for great oaks astir with winged violinists towered above us, the hills rolled and horses ran for joy in the bordering pasture down to river’s edge.  Their streaming tails like banners proclaimed bliss!  The bride and groom married beneath a stately tree, their faces shimmering in sunset glow.  A warm breeze teased leaves into joining locust in the bridal chorus.  Declarations of the couple’s love for Jesus came first; His presence gloriously palpable in the night air.  Communion with Him in this open air chapel set the stage for an evening of enjoying divine romance!!

After the couple exchanged their vows we descended into yet another grove of trees encircling a fairytale reception.  God shared His pleasure in the wind as He carried scents of heaven, rearranged draped cloths into gorgeous folds, and blew on the strings of lights twinkling between the trees.  A grasshopper couldn’t resist the netting on the flower girl’s dress playing inside the layers until I exposed him.  Bridesmaids, barefoot in teal dresses, carried lacy hydrangeas and each wore a silk butterfly on her finger.  Every woman present bloomed.  There were age-old windows and a lacy metal screen framing engagement pictures.  Rocks served as tags with messages written on their surfaces, and empty frames left room for imagination to fill them depending on the angle of the viewer.  I thought to myself repeatedly, some experiences in life are simply delicious!!

A striking pair of chocolate blue cowboy boots on a brown sugared tray, in truth the groom’s cake, stood atop a table near a white terraced hillside blooming turquoise – in truth the bride’s cake.  Laughter, sway of trees, lemonade splashing inside my cup – these were some of the sounds contributing to my happiness this night.  Behind them all He stood splendid, my LOVE, my GROOM!!  I virtually surprised myself by how comfortable I felt, how at home and content.  Turning to my son I said, “I’m really a country girl, did you know it?”  He looked at me, head half-cocked, grinned, and drawled, “What do you mean, Mom?”  I couldn’t find words for the communion I was enjoying in that place with the Lover of my soul over a cup of lemonade.  There, under the trees, my Lord courted and found pleasure in me and the two of us together took in the simple beauty of all surrounding us.  Twenty years widowed, sometimes when alone with God in a crowd He draws me so close to make known how deeply in love He is with me.  It is this experience of Him that I’m endeavoring to breathe out onto the page for your enjoyment.

I’ve come to better appreciate that I’m indeed a country girl!  Paradise memory tells me so.   For in the country where I’m from there are cottage mansions with tin roofs and stone walls tucked back into groves of singing trees on milk and honey acres that slope verdant down to the River of Life.  In this place so reminiscent of home, God kept company with me for a few hours, and I felt more alive and more myself than can be told.  Night crept into the valley of love, and all the guests formed a living aisle filled with shimmering bubbles for the newlyweds to depart through.  They headed for their blue mustang where God waited to whisk them both off into the beautiful land of man and wife.

 

Charlcie, (Jaxon in utero), BJ, me, and Matt

 

Overshadowed by Him,

Terry




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