Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: GET COLD FEET (10/12/17)
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TITLE: Perfect Man, Perfect Plan | Previous Challenge Entry
By LINDA GERMAIN
10/19/17 -
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My mouth is dry as my nervous hands fold and refold the order of service bulletin. There should be a name for mindless paper twisting in the face of urgency. Maybe Origami anxiety relief?
The need to flee is about to trump lady-like decorum. My brain screams at my heart, or maybe it’s the other way around.
As I pray to be calm for the sake of my granddaughter’s friends and family, something more profound than clamoring arguments between the organs in my body breaks through. Foolish adherence to wedding etiquette makes me almost miss that still small voice in my spirit.
Each note of the beautiful wedding music resounds in the large sanctuary like a huge clock ticking away my last chance to obey.
Like pictures that flash before the eyes of some who face death, Gracie’s birth and growing-up years swirl through my thoughts with lightning speed. Suddenly, the memory of when she came to tell me about Sam slows down to a distinct crawl. Every detail of our conversation becomes exaggerated as if I were deaf, or spoke a foreign language.
“He’s wonderful, Nana!”
Her face glowed with excitement as she used that word to describe the new boyfriend again and again.
We spent hours at the kitchen table sipping hot tea until it turned cold while she convinced me that marrying this paragon of male virtue was what she wanted more than anything.
“He can recite poetry from memory,” she had gushed. “He brings me flowers and never gets upset.”
It sounded like she had ordered him out of some ideal spouse catalog none of the rest of us knew about.
She brought him along on one visit. He and I both knew it was an inspection-by-grandmother moment. Clearly, he was a handsome, mannerly fellow who seemed wholly smitten with my precious granddaughter. His handshake was strong, as were his straight pearly teeth and obvious muscles. I could see why she was swept away with this charming prince of a man. I was surprised he hadn’t arrived on a white horse.
“Does your father approve?”
My son’s endorsement was a big hurdle. Since her mother was gone, he was a protective papa bear.
“Oh, yes, Nana. Dad says he couldn’t have picked a more perfect mate for me. Even the boys call him a cool dude.”
I had to laugh. If her weight-lifting brothers were big fans, a mere grandmother’s opinion probably wouldn’t count so much.
The excitement of the perfect proposal, the perfect ring, and the perfect dress brought us to this moment.
More dramatic than a room full of elephants that no one else sees, push finally comes to shove as I leap out of my seat and scurry back up the aisle and through the closed double doors in search of the bride.
As I hurry around the corner at breakneck speed in shoes too high for my age, a vision of loveliness swathed in yards of white tulle meets me head on. She falls into my waiting arms. There are no tears as we stand for a while hugging, and knowing.
I lead her to an empty room. Any second, females in matching dresses, brothers in rented tuxedos, and her loving father might shift into search and rescue mode.
“He’s wonderful, Nana,” she repeats for the millionth time.
“I know, dear one. He’s a doll. He’s educated. He’s rich. Your children would be outstandingly handsome.”
She sighs. I sigh.
At nearly the same second, we both blurt out the defining word.
“But…”
We giggle a little at the needed confirmation.
I decide to be the one to verbalize this last minute discernment.
“You are well-matched in nearly every way, and the chemistry is what girls dream about, but you are not evenly yoked.”
More sighing.
“He believes in God,” she offers, hoping to convince us we’re wrong.
“I know, dear.”
“He reads his Bible and sings in the choir.”
“I’ve heard his angelic voice,” I say.
“But there’s no Holy Spirit connection.”
I nod.
“We have very different interpretations of Scripture.”
Now, we cry.
“I know what I have to do,” she whispers.
We both know.
It’s the perfect decision.
**
Luke 12:12 (NKJV)
“For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”
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