WEDDING BELLS

The Bride

The Bride

“Have you seen McKenzie?” My wife asked.

“No – She looks good, huh? I answered.

Within a few minutes there she was… I already knew she looked good, it’s hard for her not to, God made her look a lot like her mother. All three girls actually.

“You look great,” I offered the oldest.

“Thanks,” she said.

I asked her about the cartoon sized ring necklace she was wearing.

“Ali got it for me,” she informed me. That would be McKenzie’s maid of honor and daughter number two.

“That’s pretty cool,” I chuckled.

My study was instantly on the back burner as I reached instinctively for my phone.

“Let me get a picture,” I asked her. It’s the one you see here in the post.

It was a special day for the soon to be bride. The entire bridal shower started the day with a two mile race for charity. The race included a paint storm as the runners crossed the finish line. When they all came back to the house for brunch the whole lot of them looked like victims of a Disney channel episode.

After brunch, they got cleaned off and up to go out for a late lunch and celebration of McKenzie’s upcoming wedding. Once they’d all left I pulled my phone back out… “My, how time has flown by,” I thought to myself as I studied the picture.

I’ve come to consider nothing in this life as coincidence. If I hadn’t planned a full blown stroll down memory lane, the picture of Kenz sealed my fate.

“Man, her hair has gotten long,” I mused in silence. I’ve always admired her beautiful smile… as well as the determination written all over her face at times when she’s not smiling. I soon spotted the pictures inside my newest one, my shelves are loaded with all the lacrosse pictures in the background.

I smiled inside when I think about her and all those pretty girls that no one would suspect are tougher than nails. In the middle shelf, the highest one, is the a picture of McKenzie’s grandparents, my wife’s parents. She only knows them from stories and pictures… She never got to meet them before God called them home.

The next shelf down I spotted the framed newspaper article of my little league baseball team. I was a whopping nine or ten then. The pictures remind me that we don’t have any idea for sure about what the future holds… They also remind me of my blessings from God. I couldn’t have scripted a better life than the one He gave me.

That picture that looks like it’s sitting on Kenz’s shoulder is a newspaper article about her, she’s taking a shot on goal in the picture inside of my picture. One shelf up from that one, eye level with Kenz and the second one from her, is she and I. Her mom took that one of us after her team won a state championship… I love that picture…

The curtain has closed on the days of me protecting and providing for her… the prayers never will…

May God bless the union of Dean and McKenzie. 12/12/14