It ended on Valentines’ Day.
For the past month I have shared excerpts from a long-ago journal to my husband. Now that the man-made holiday is over we can be done and move on. That in no way means our showing love should be over and done with.
Many years down the road though, it may look different.
A (kind of) humorous side note. When things, anything, doesn’t do what I intended; I have a habit of saying, “It has a mind of its own and will do as it pleases. It never consulted me about this matter.” Case in point-these candles.
© jb katke
When I brought them home, they looked like a normal candle. You can see the center candle is green with white ones on each side. Upon being lit, initially they performed as I expected. Melted a little with the wick recessing deeper in the candle. With time and usage though, the picture changed. They melted down into the most interesting configurations. Not at all what I had expected.
The candles changed in ways I could never have anticipated.
Dave and I changed as time went by too. Our marriage doesn’t look like it did when we were newlyweds. Personalities we had not seen began to emerge. Life became interesting. It can make or break a relationship. To our good fortune and an ever-loving God, our marriage was enhanced by the nuances.
Going into this relationship of ours, we were, and continue to be, clueless how the future will unfold. Whatever…it’s all good.
© jb katke
Check out these candles now that they are lit and burned down even more. They are the same ones. That green candle now looks red. How can that be? Your guess is as good as mine. Nonetheless, we enjoy them still. They are an unexpected surprise.
That is a good definition of life. An unexpected surprise. Things enter our lives that we could never have imagined. The only difference is life does not have a mind of its own.
It has a Lord of the Universe. While he created humans, we are not his puppets to be manipulated. Each individual has a mind of their own; to live however we wish. While we may not be in a desirable circumstance, everyone has the ability to shine, like these candles. One small flame of a candle can light up the darkest of places.
Person to person, one can make all the difference in the world to another. With Gods’ help, that is. His love doesn’t look like what we may expect, but it’s all good. An unexpected surprise.
One Day Wonders with JBK 