When I first met my wife, I knew right away that the search was over. The only problem was that she didn’t know it at the time. And so it would take several months of diligent planning to somehow win her love.
Our situation was quite delicate. We were both in the army – she was an officer and I was enlisted. So that was the first major hurdle, because officers dating enlisted soldiers is strongly discouraged. It was considered taboo back then, and I’m guessing that it still is today.
What made it even more delicate was that she wasn’t just in my chain-of-command, she was my platoon leader. According to military regulations, that was strictly forbidden. And I’m sure that’s still the case today.
But the heart wants what the heart wants, and it will go to every length to get it. I just needed a window of opportunity.
One afternoon that opportunity came. “If anyone in the platoon would like to join me at the gym across the street after work, come on over,” she said. “Judging by our most recent physical fitness test scores, we could certainly stand to improve our levels of fitness.”
Over the next month or so, several of us would go over to join her at the gym after work. But as the weeks passed, fewer and fewer people kept coming. And eventually it was just her and me. I was in the best shape of my entire life during that summer! LOL… So we kept working out together every other day and eventually we started running together on the days in between.
I can’t tell you the rest of the story, because it’s classified information. Other than to say that we got to know each other well enough that we started hanging out with each other clandestinely on the weekends. I felt like I was in a James Bond movie… leaving the barracks under the cover of darkness, wearing coats and hats to disguise myself, meeting her at a designated spot where we knew she could pick me up without anyone noticing.
We fell in love in hardly no time at all. And I was the happiest man alive. And I still am today.
One evening as we were talking about how everything worked out for us to end up together, I said to her, “I fell in love with you the first day I saw you. And that day when you asked if anyone wanted to join you at the gym after work, I knew then and there that there was hope. I wasn’t that excited about getting in shape.. I was committed to winning you over.”
“Well, if I’m being honest, I was hoping you would be one of the guys who wanted to join me.” When she said that, I felt like the king of the world. For the first time in my life, I’d found someone who saw something in me worth holding onto.
That day in the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve had eaten the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, they realized they were naked and became ashamed. They sewed some fig leaves together to hide their nakedness.
Isn’t it interesting that when he had sinned, it wasn’t Adam who cried out, “Where are you, God?” No, it was the Lord crying out, “Adam, where are you?”
That’s what Love does. It cries out. It forgives. It chases down and pursues us.
What a joyous feeling it is to be pursued. To be wanted. To be loved. Some of us may seldom experience this joy from another human being. But each one of us has the opportunity to experience this incredible joy from a loving Father who cries out our names, pursues us to no end, accepts us for who we are, and loves us like we’re his bride.
He doesn’t need us, but what a joy it is to know that God wants us.
Former Blackout Artist 