Unexpected Showers of Hope

Yesterday afternoon, I went to a Bridal shower of a dear friend.  The room was filled with women honoring one special soon to be married lady.  There were a lot of laughs, smiles, hugs and many heartfelt wishes of love and happiness. The room was filled with excitement as we celebrated the start of  a new journey for the Bride.

Over and over I heard words like happiness, joy, love, and  marriage. I heard phrases like "your new life together", "good thing" and "knight in shining armour".  As I sat and listened and watched women come to the front of the room to tell the honored guest what a blessing she has been to them and how they wished her her own "happily ever after", my heart was starting to melt.

I thought about my own marriage.  I thought about my own journey of craziness, highs and lows with the one I married.    The more talk I heard about love, the more I thought about  when I was first married and how everything was new, beautiful and exciting.  As  the guests expressed their happiness, I felt more hope for  my own covenant.

At one point, I wished that I could run home and turn back the big imaginary clock of time and do so many things over.  I wished that we could renew our vows and start all over again, without pain, without regret.  I knew in my heart, my feet would never get me home fast enough.  I knew in my heart that even if I made it home, there would be no clock whose hands I could turn back.

I used to wonder during the bad times why the *#$@ did I get married in the first place?  My answer to myself now is that entering into a covenant is committing to a process  of refining & transformation. Refining and transformation can sometimes be a hard and painful process. There are things beautiful and not so beautiful that only our partners can pull out of us.  Its the  not so beautiful things that God wants to work out of us and for whatever reason, He will use our partners to bring it to the surface...because He loves us and wants us to grow in love for Him and for each other.  That takes a life time.

After those who wanted to speak and express their feelings to the Bride were finished, the Bride then stood up and shared a little of her heart and her appreciation for her guests.  Listening to her voice, and story of where she was and  how she will soon  be walking down the aisle, my heart was  all the more excited for her and all the more hopeful for me.

Who goes to  a Bridal shower expecting to be filled with hope? Who goes expecting places in their heart to be melted toward their partner? Who goes to a shower,  expecting the Guest of Honor to say one thing and hear the Holy spirit whisper 10 other things, to  the hidden places of  your heart?  Is God so invested in our lives and so committed to our happiness, and process of change that He will quietly enter the room of women at a Bridal shower and bring unexpected showers of hope?

Today, I am holding on firmer to truth and hope as He says, "Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh, is there anything to hard for me?"