June 29, 2023
Fifteen years ago last week, I was nervously waiting for our wedding to begin. We wanted a sunset wedding and so we (naturally) chose June 21, the longest day of the year! Which is why our wedding did not begin until 8:00 PM.
We were getting married outside and it threatened to rain the entire day. It was also humid and muggy. We almost had to re-think our plans and move the ceremony elsewhere. But at the moment that Jess and her Dad crested the hill towards where we were having the ceremony, a cool wind began to blow and (at the same time) the clouds parted and surrounded my beautiful fiancé in golden light. My cousin, who is not at all religious, said to me, “Well, Someone upstairs put on a show!”
Last week, Jess and I celebrated our anniversary by spending a few days in Asheville. While we’ve passed through the city many times, we had never really explored it. We spent our days eating extremely well, walking around downtown, and just enjoying life with each other.
Like our wedding, weather threatened to derail our plans. But, unlike our wedding, the skies really did downpour on us. We had ambitious plans for our Asheville trip. We had booked an elaborate tour of Smoky Mountain waterfalls. I was so excited for this. But on the morning of our planned hike, as we were eating breakfast at our hotel, a local news story issued a warning that so much rain had fallen in Asheville that the National Weather Service issued a “Ground Saturation Warning” and advised people to not hike for at least a week.
I was tempted to sulk. I had made all of these plans and now they were ruined. But Jess looked at me and said, “As long as we’re together, that’s the only thing that matters.” So, we pivoted our plans and had a wonderful time. We visited the Folk-Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway (thanks for the suggestion, Steve Bissette!), we ate at amazing local restaurants (please go to Baked Pie Company next time you’re in Asheville), and we had an amazing experience at the Western North Carolina Nature Center where we heard wolves eerily howling all around us.
My point is this: When our plans change, we have a choice on how to respond. We can sulk and put on our woe-is-me attitude (this is my temptation). Or we can, like Jess, my wonderful wife of fifteen years, embrace the change and find ways to be thankful for the time God has given to us.
