Free From – EPILOGUE – July 31st

FREE FROM
July 31, 2021

1 Corinthians 13:12-13, ‘We don’t see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing Him directly just as He knows us! But, for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.’ (MSG)

EPILOGUE

“Love never gives up.” His voice had never been so deep but his heart had never gone this deep before either. He had never vowed anything to anyone before nor trusted anyone to vow anything to him either that he counted on.

“Love cares more for others than for self.” The day was picture perfect; its breeze playing with her hair like a beautician. The crowd was spell-bound; love could be smelled, seen, touched. It was in the air.

He looked out at the group of people seated before him. Every single face had something invested in their lives. It was humbling to watch their faces, their smiles; hear affirmation, even though they needed none. They, Legend and Annie, raised the bar, set the standard, the perfect couple. He looked deep in her eyes, “Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.” She was everything to him.

Her voice sounded like a crystalline glass, her laughter like the tinkle of a bell. “Love doesn’t strut. Doesn’t have a swelled head, doesn’t force itself on others, isn’t always about, ‘Me first.’” Annie winked at him. They had joked about this; she’d always be ‘first’. No. Matter. What.

“Love doesn’t fly off the handle, doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, doesn’t revel when others grovel.” They’d teased one another about that too but likely because of their childhoods, they agreed. They both had come from broken and abusive homes. They knew what it was like to scamper into hiding and snivel at the hand of someone else. They would never—never ever—birth an environment where cowering gestated.

She cleared her throat and swiped at her eyes. Annie never showed emotion in public. He felt honored. His eyes teared also. They were building something beyond their pasts; they were building the future! “Love takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, puts up with anything. Trusts God always.” Annie didn’t trust anyone. Except she trusted God. He was learning. Legend was learning from her example.

“Love always looks for the best; never looks back but keeps going to the end.” He could hardly speak; the emotion was so thick it had wrapped itself around his tongue. He appreciated all the faces before him but he couldn’t wait for it to be just he and Annie. “Annie, I do! I do! I do!” he shouted. It had always just been the two of them. Against the world.

Annie whispered, “Love never dies.” Cheers went up like balloons; a seagull levied on a wave in front of the crowd, dipping itself in the ocean foam as if it came to deliver a message just for them. “Legend, I do too! Forever.”

The minister spoke with a smile in his voice, “You may kiss your bride.” She held her breath, he held his, and the guests began to clap. This was the beginning of…Forever!

The End