wedding scramble

It was a busy morning as everyone hustled around getting ready for the wedding. BJ seemed untouched by the nerves that were in the house. He had dated Allison for years, been engaged for 23 months, and finally the day was here. His mother hurried about the house gathering her makeup to put on the faces of the bridesmaids once we got to the church. Her daughter Shannon could be heard trying to coral her 2 daughters, Grace 5 and Faith 2. Her husband Steve was trying to calm the crying baby, Noah, who desperately just wanted to be fed by his mother. Ah yes, the sounds of a wedding morning.

I could be found in the borrowed bedroom trying to catch a moment of silence. Everything seemed hurried, but then i heard little Faith in the hallway trying to ask her father something. "Daddy! Daddy!" Faith said. "Yes Faith?" Steve replied still thinking about Noah. "Why do you love me?". Faith had no idea what a profound question that was, nor was Steve ready for it. He replied staling, "Why do i love you?" "yeah" "well...because." Steve thought that answer would be good enough, but he was wrong, the silence stated so. So he continued to tell her, "Because, you are beautiful." Again, I was stealing a moment that was not meant for me. God allows me for some reason to do this at times. I was there, in the midst of them hearing intimate things. After that answer, everything started up again, the crying, hustling, the confusion. But for one moment, Faith was heard, Faith was restored.

"Because you are beautiful" wasn't really the answer I was looking for. At first I wasn't sure I liked it, I thought, couldn't he have said, "Because you are God's child, or because you are my daughter" I thought, what happens when her beauty fades? But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that is the perfect answer. What other words could he have possibly used to answer the perfect creation of Faith?
Beauty is more than outside adornment. It runs deep. It shows the character of the Father.

Amazing to me how God can bring Himself so close to my face in the middle of a morning. I thought of the times i have felt so alone. Times when I believed no one loves me, feelings of not being accepted by anyone. I thought of little Faith and how one day someone is going to tell her she is not beautiful and she will believe them. God created each of us so uniquely. In the midst of the wedding, with beauty all around us, roses, white dresses, candles lit, there were dozens of children longing to ask that question of their maker. "Father, why do you love me?" I must admit I fear the question at times, because i fear the answer at times. I don't want to ask a question that will not be answered, or answered with 'I don't' , or with 'just because'. But I don't think that will be the answer. I think God sees us a bit differently than we see ourselves. And I praise Him for that.

When we commune with the Lord, he doesn't want us to just eat the bread, and drink the wine. Commune means talk to, relate with, remember, understand. So every time we commune with Him, the maker, I pray we will come boldly to Him and ask "why O Lord, do you love ME?" and we will sit and hear him say back to us, "I DO love you, because child, you are mine, you are chosen, you are...beautiful."